MS Marco Polo
The Marco Polo in Istanbul
- Aleksandr Pushkin
8
IMO no. 6417097
The Marco Polo is a cruise ship that has been launched in 1965 under the name of Aleksandr Pushkin on the then Mathias -Thesen -Werft in Wismar yard number 126.
History
The ship belonged to Ivan Franko class project 301/SeeFa750, a series of five sister ships for the Soviet Union, and was placed in Leningrad in the Baltic Shipping Co in service. The sister ships, of which three were scrapped and now has fallen one, were almost identical, bearing the names of famous Georgian, Ukrainian and Russian writer Ivan Franko, Shota Rustaveli, Taras Shevchenko and Mikhail Lermontov.
The ship is 176.28 meters long and has a width of 23.55 meters. It has eight decks and has a draft of 8.20 meters.
After the collapse of the USSR, the ship was sold and learned in the years 1991 and 1992 at a Greek shipyard a profound conversion. In addition to the entire interior and the technology of the ship was completely renewed. Since this rebuild the ship with 22,080 GT is measured and has an engine output of 15,477 kW; it can reach a maximum cruising speed of 20 knots. With the renovation, the maximum passenger number of 650 was raised to 850 passengers. After the dry-dock period, the ship received its current name Marco Polo and drove for the first Orient Lines, established in Nassau in the Bahamas. Since 1998 it is also registered for Orient Lines Europe Ltd, based in the Bahamas.
In early 2008, the ship was to a Greek company, the Global Cruise Lines, sold, and chartered to the German cruise operator Transocean Tours. It then went mainly for the German, but mainly for the British cruise market. The sale of the Marco Polo meant the end of the " Orient Lines ' era.
On the morning of February 15, 2014 the ship was hit in the English Channel due to a violent storm of a wave. It died an 85 year old man.
The ship is used in the winter months, mainly in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and in the Antarctic, in the summer months in Norway and in the Baltic Sea.