MV Azores
As Athena in November 2005 in Nice
Friendship of Nations (1960-1985) Volker (1985-1986) Fridtjof Nansen (1986-1989) Surriento (1989-1992) Italia I ( 1993) Italia Prima (1993-2000) Valtur Prima (2000-2003) Caribe (2003-2005) Athena (2003-2012) Azores (since 2013)
IMO no. 5383304
Madeira
CQRV
16 144 GT
The passenger ship Stockholm was built in 1946 in the shipyard Götaverken in Gothenburg (Sweden) and first used on transatlantic trips. Later it was rebuilt several times and renamed. It is still in use today and thus the longest in the service located transatlantic ship in the world.
Later name for this ship were: Peoples' Friendship, Fridtjof Nansen, Italia Prima, Prima Valtur and Athena. Currently it says Azores.
History
The maiden voyage of the ship completed on 21 February 1948 at the route from Gothenburg to New York. In 1952 it was rebuilt and then had 12,644 GRT and capacity for 86 passengers in 1st class and 584 for economy class. 1955/56, the hatch III was built over by the cinema hall and the luggage compartment III is supplied in respective liner other use of space.
On July 25, 1956, the Stockholm ran out from New York and collided shortly before midnight in a fog bank near Nantucket with the twice as large Italian liner Andrea Doria, whom she met amidships on the starboard side. The Andrea Doria sank 11 hours later, 46 people (of 1706) died; on the Stockholm there were five deaths. She took on a portion of the rescued passengers (545) of the Andrea Doria and drove back to New York, where she received until November 5, a completely new bow (bow).
On January 3, 1960, the ship of the GDR was purchased, renamed the Peoples' Friendship and the fdgb passed. It was converted into a Einklassenschiff with 568 passengers and 12,442 GRT and so used for your own vacation trips, but also chartered to foreign companies. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 occupied with vacationers boat sailing through the U.S. blockade line, reaching intact Cuba.
In 1985, the GDR sold the Peoples' Friendship at the Neptunus Rex Enterprise, which was renamed the ship in Volker and in August moored in the Oslo fjord. In September 1985, it was moved to Southampton.
On 20 December 1986, the now forty years old ship was renamed Fridtjof Nansen and stationed in Oslo as accommodation for asylum seekers. After selling in May 1989 it was sold to the Star Lauro SpA, towed to Genoa. As of 1992, it was rebuilt under the direction of Italian architect Beppe de Iorio in a modern cruise ship, where the old ship remained only a part of the most stable hull. As of 1995, the ship of the company NINA Spa. for several charterers in service, including Neckermann sea voyages. As of 1999, it came as Valtur Prima for round trips from Cuba to use. 2004 bought the shipowner George P. Potamianos the ship for his shipping company CIC and named it after a peripheral renovation 2005 in Athena to. As of 2007, the ship was for the German organizers Vivamare holidays in use, which went bankrupt in the meantime. 2009 gave Athena a short stint with Phoenix Reisen as a substitute for the Alexander von Humboldt. Because of outstanding claims of creditors of the shipping company, the ship was arrested in September 2012 in Marseille.
In May 2013, the ship of the newly established shipping company Portuscale Cruises was bought, the renamed it in Azores. As of March 2014, it will be cruising in European waters in use for ambience.