Funchal in Helsinki, 2 August 2014

Today we look at a true classic, a 53-year old ship lovingly preserved in pristine condition and one that - despite numerous changes of ownership - has retained her original name through-out those years: the Funchal.

Funchal

IMO 5124162
Built 1961, Helsingør Skibsværft og Maskinbyggeri, Denmark
Tonnage 9 563 GT
Length 154,60 m
Width 19,05 m
Draught 6,50 m
481 passengers (lower berths)
610 passengers (maximum)
2 Stork-Werkspoor diesels, combined 7 356 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Service speed 17 knots

The Funchal was built in 1961 at Helsingør Skibsværft og Maskinbyggeri in Helsingør (or Elsinore, if you want to use the English name) in Denmark for the Portugal-based Empresa Insulana de Navegacao for intra-Portugese traffic from Lisbon to Madeira and the Azores. Naturally the name Funchal comes from Madeira's capital (and largest) city. Although today the Funchal is powered by diesel engines, her original power plant consisted of two steam turbines.

For the next eleven years after her delivery the Funchal remained in service to Madeira, despite dropping passenger numbers. An airport had been opened in Madeira in 1964, and unsurprisingly passengers who had previously gone to the island over sea now chose to travel faster by air. In 1972, following problems with the ship's steam engines, she was withdrawn from service. However, this did not mean her demise. Instead, the ship was rebuilt into a diesel-powered cruise ship over the change of year from 1972 to 1973 in Amsterdam.

In 1973 the Funchal re-entered service, now as a cruise ship. The following year her ownership was transferred to Cia. Portuguesa des Transportes Maritimos. Presumably at this point she was repainted with new, orange-dominated funnel colours and a white cruise-style hull colour. The Funchal continued cruising for Cia. Portuguesa des Transportes Maritimos until 1985, when she was laid up and placed for sale. The lay-up was short, as already during the same year she was sold to Arcalia Shipping. Under Arcalia ownership she continued in cruise service, now repainted in Arcalia's yellow-blue funnel colours.

In the 1990s, Arcalia Shipping morphed into Classic International Cruises and the Funchal recieved CIC's white funnel colours. She continued to be popular, but at the end of the first decade of the new millenium a threat loomed over her that many classic ships faced at the time: new SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations, which required for the ship to be rebuilt in order to continue in service. Many owners would have simply sent the ship for scrap at this juncture. Bu not CIC's Georgios Potamianos. The Funchal was withdrawn from service in Autumn 2010 for a refit that would bring her up to SOLAS 2010 standards.

However, it turned out that CIC did not have enough funds to complete the refit. Georgios Potamianos passed away in spring 2012, and soon afterwards his heirs Alexandros and Emilios got into difficulty with CIC's main funders Banco Montepio Geral. In Autumn 2012 all CIC ships were arrested. Things now looked very bleak for the Funchal - I will freely admit I expected her next destination to be the scrapyard.

But then something wonderful happened again. The Portugese businessman Rui Alegre purchased the CIC ships taken over by Banco Montepio Geral - including the Funchal, of course - and started a new company, Portuscale Cruises. The Funchal's refit was completed, and she was repainted in colours similar (but not entirely identical) to her original Empresa Insulana de Navegacao livery.

The Funchal was due to re-enter service in August 2013, but a delay in the finishing of her refit and then a missing passenger certificate meant that two cruises had to be cancelled, before the ship finally re-initiated her career in September 2013 on a cruise from Gothenburg. Despite the un-auspicious start the Funchal seems to have gained popularity, making rather fantastic cruises under the Portuscale flag. In October 2014 she will briefly be chartered to Cruise & Maritime Voyages for two cruises from Bristol, before returning to the "normal" Portuscale itineraries.

The photographs below show the Funchal departing Helsinki on the afternoon of 2 August 2014, on her first visit as a Portuscale Cruises ship to my home city. Photographed from Lonna. Click on the individual images to see them in larger size.

Way markers and buyous, very nautical. The Hanasaari B coal-powered power plant in operation in the background does somewhat diminish the effect...

I'm afraid there is a less foreground crap from the usual in these images, as Lonna isn't quite as good for those as my normal haunts. Plus I wanted to document the ship properly, this being the first time I see her in real life.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

Love the shape of the stern - it's actually been rebuilt sometime during the ship's CIC career, but personally I think the added section actually improves the ship's looks.

Okay, a bit of foreground crap too (the some barnacle geese, which are very numerous in Lonna). When taking the photo I did not notice the thick plume of black smoke eminating from behind the Funchal's stern... and I still have no idea what it was.

Azores in Helsinki, 22 May 2014

Azores

IMO 5383304
Name history: Stockholm, Völkerfreundschaft, Volker, Fridtjof Nansen, Italia I, Italia Prima, Valtur Prima, Caribe, Athena, Azores
Built 1948, Götaverken Gothenburg,Sweden
Tonnage 16 144 GT
Length 160,08 m
Width 21,04 m
Draught 7,90 m
650 passengers
2 Wärtsilä diesels, combined 10 664 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

Today saw two firsts, one for me and one of a more general note. On the latter, today saw the first visit of Portuscale Cruises' 1948-built Azores in Helsinki under her current name. To photograph her, I headed for the first time to the fortification island Lonna outside Helsinki. The island was opened to the public only this week, so these are literally very new.

Since the Azores was featured in this blog the last time while she was still the Athena of Classic International Cruises, this is a good time to update her history. Most of this is just an update of her previous history, with the new bits added to the end.

The Azores was built way back in 1948 for Svenska Amerika Linjen (Swedish American Line, SAL) for their Gothenburg-New York -service as the Stockholm. The ship took her name from a previous Stockholm, completed in 1941 by an Italian shipyard but never entered service for SAL due to the war. Whereas the 1941 Stockholm was luxurious to the extreme, the post-war Stockholm was originally a rather austere people-carrier not at all in keeping with SAL's pre-war luxury image. It was not the SAL's intention to turn into a second-rate operator however, as during the same year the Stockholm entered service, plans for a new ship, larger and more luxurious than the Stockholm were being put in motion.

After the new, more luxurious Kungsholm entered service in 1953, the Stockholm was given a large-scale refit in order to get her to match the quality of her newer fleetmate. In 1956 she was given another refit, when Dennt Brown -type stabilisers were installed to help the combat the ship's pronounced rolling. Soon afterwards the ship was involved in an collision that would make her famous forever. Due to a navigational error, the Stockholm rammed the Italian Line liner Andrea Doria in fog outside of Nantucket. The Stockholm's bow was demolished but the ship stayed afloat. The Andrea Doria was not so lucky, and sunk 11 hours later. Fortunately, only 46 people onboard the Andrea Doria and five people onboard the Stockholm perished in the accident.

The Stockholm's bow was subsequently repaired and she resumed sailings. Her SAL career was already coming to an end, as the company's new flagship Gripsholm, an improved version of the Kungsholm, was already under construction in Italy. SAL wanted to sell the Stockholm immediately on the Gripsholm's delivery in 1957, but could not find a buyer. A buyer was eventually found in 1959, in the form of the state-owned East German operator VEB Deutsche Seereederei, who took delivery of the ship in 1960.

Under the East German flag the ship was renamed Völkerfreundschaft for further cruising. From 1966 onwards the Völkerfreundschaft spent several winters under chater to Stena Line, who used on cruises out of Gothenburg extending as far as the Caribbean. She remained in service for the East Germans until 1985, when she was sold to Neptunus Rex Enterprises, Panama, following the delivery of the newer Arkona (today the Saga Pearl II). The Völkerfreundschaft was renamed Volker and laid up. In 1986 she was renamed Fridtjof Nansen for use as an accommodation ship in Oslo.

Three years later the aged Fridtjof Nansen got a new lease of life when sold to StarLauro (the future MSC Cruises) to be radically rebuilt into a cruise ship in Genoa, potentially to be renamed Surriento after a previous Lauro liner. However, it was not until 1992 that the rebuilding actually started. A year later the ship was renamed Italia I, later amended into Italia Prima. In 1994 the ship was delivered to Nina Cia. di Navigazione (StarLauro having resold her) and entered service on Mediterranean cruises. In 1995 the Italia Prima was chartered for five years to Neckermann Seereisen of Germany and used for Caribbean cruising. Neckermann got into financial difficulties in early 1998 and the ship was laid up.

In late 1998 the Italia Prima was chartered to another German tour operator, Valtur Tourist, as the Valtur Prima for further Caribbean cruising. In 2001 the Valtur Prima war laid up in Havana, Cuba. The next year the ship was sold to Festival Cruises and renamed Caribe for planned Caribbean cruising out of Havana, but this never took place and the ship remained laid up for three more years.

In 2005 the Caribe was finally reactivated. She was sold to the Portugal-based Classic International Cruises, specilising in the operation of older tonnage. CIC renamed the ship Athena and used her for around-the-world cruising. Interestingly, she cruised winter seasons for the Australian market. In 2009 the ship was briefly chartered to Phoenix Reisen after they had trouble taking the delivery of their new Alexander von Humboldt.

In September 2012 the Athena was arrested in Marseille alongside her fleetmate Princess Danae, due to alledged unpaid crew wages and fuel bills. Classic International Cruises was declared bankrupt in December of the same year. In February 2013 the Athena, alongside the bulk of the CIC fleet, was sold to Portugese entrepreneur Rui Alegre, who established Portuscale Cruises (named after Portus Cale, a Roman-era port in present-day Portugal) to operate his acquisitions. The former CIC ships were at the same time given names related to Portugese geography, with the Athena becoming the Azores. The Azores spent all of 2013 either laid up or being refitted, until in spring 2014 she was reactivated for cruising with Germany's Ambiente Kreutzfahrten. Despite the charter to Ambiente, the ship sails painted in full Portuscale colours.

The photoraphs below show the Azores on Kruunuvuorenselkä shortly after departing Helsinki South Harbour, on the afternoon of 22 May 2014. Photographed from Lonna. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

The Azores shortly after departing the Katajanokka cruise quay. Unfortunately the ship took the more northernly shipping lane through Kruunuvuorenselkä, which means these photos don't show the Lonna vantage point at its best (though these are still the best possible photos that could have been taken at such an early departure time).

Today the Gods of Weather smiled on me, providing a nice amount of photogenic background clouds on an otherwise clear sky.

The Portuscale Cruises livery looks fantastically classic - although I would maybe have chosen a shade of yellow closer to buff for that extra traditional effect.

Leaving the clouds behind.

Just a ten minutes' ferry ride from central Helsinki you have this landscape, which could be from anywhere in the Finnish countryside (as long as there would be water, which there usually is). Of course, few other places have cruise ships as a part of their daily routine.