''Silver Endeavour'' (formerly ''Crystal Endeavor'') is a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

operated by

Silversea Cruises Silversea is an luxury cruise line and expedition travel brand headquartered in Monaco. Founded in 1994 by the Vlasov Group of Monaco and the Lefebvre family of Rome, it pioneered all-inclusive cruising with its first ship, ''Silver Cloud''. Si ...

. Originally built for

Crystal Cruises Crystal Cruises is an American cruise line owned by A&K Travel Group. It was founded in 1988 by Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and sold to Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate Genting Hong Kong in 2015. Following insolvency in 2 ...

MV Werften MV Werften was a Hong Kong–Germany, German shipbuilding company that operated three facilities in eastern Germany to construct cruise ships for parent company Genting Hong Kong. In January 2022, MV Werften filed for bankruptcy, and an admi ...

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, she was laid down in 2018 and completed in June 2021. She is the world's largest

ice class Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have ...

expedition yacht, bearing a Polar Class rating of PC6.

Concept and construction

Following the success of

Crystal Esprit ''National Geographic Islander II'' is a cruise ship currently operated by Lindblad Expeditions. Built by Flender Werft in Lübeck, Germany, she was laid down in 1988 and floated out as ''Lady Diana'' in 1989. She was completed in December 1991 ...

, the Crystal Cruises built the world's first purpose-built Polar Class megayacht for the luxury cruise market. Her namesake is

HMS Endeavour HMS ''Endeavour'' was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia on his First voyage of James Cook, first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as t ...

, Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

s' research ship, which discovered Australia and New Zealand; and the new vessel was designed for global expeditions in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

and

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

as well as in tropical conditions. The ship included first-of-its-kind features for a cruise line including a

U-Boat Worx U-Boat Worx is recognized as the foremost manufacturer of private submersibles globally with over 60 submarines in operation. U-Boat Worx produces a range of versatile subs for all underwater activities, including the flagship model that can dive t ...

Cruise Sub 7-300, and a remote-operated vehicle with an underwater camera to feed images back to screens in suites. While also being the world's largest ice-class cruiseship gaining a PC6 rating. On June 26, 2021, she was christened at

shipyard, by

Manuela Schwesig Manuela Schwesig (; ' Frenzel, born 23 May 1974) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party serving as List of Ministers-President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpomm ...

prime minister of

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

Crystal Cruises

The ship's maiden voyage began July 17, 2021, with a 10-night circumnavigation of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. ''Crystal Endeavor''s focus was on Arctic voyages to

, calling at

Westfjords The Westfjords or West Fjords (, ) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative region, the least populous in the country. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast of Greenland. It is connected to the rest of I ...

Patreksfjörður Patreksfjörður (, ) is a fishing village in the Westfjords of Iceland. It was an important fishing and trading post until the Icelandic government's introduction of a fishing quota in 1990. Administratively, it is part of the municipality of Ve ...

, the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

on Grímsey Island, and Zodiac cruising in

Djúpivogur Djúpivogur () is a small town and former municipality (Djúpavogshreppur ) located on a peninsula in the Eastern Region (Iceland), Austurland region in eastern Iceland, near the island of Papey and on the fjord Berufjörður. The municipality was ...

, along with Antarctic voyages within the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martin in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica. ...

. During her first year she also visited the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

as well as the

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

and

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

and

Fair Isle Fair Isle ( ; ), sometimes Fairisle, is the southernmost Shetland island, situated roughly from the Shetland Mainland and about from North Ronaldsay (the most northerly island of Orkney). The entire archipelago lies off the northernmost coa ...

in Scotland; then a

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

season before heading for Antarctica. Following the collapse of parent company

Genting Hong Kong Genting Hong Kong Limited ( zh, 雲頂香港有限公司) was a holding company that operated cruise and resort businesses. It was headquartered in (海洋中心), Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (). It was p ...

in January 2022, ''Crystal Endeavor'' completed her last Antarctic cruise in February, at

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...

, Argentina and was then laid up at

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay under arrest. In March she was moved to

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

for judicial auction. On June 14, 2022, it was first announced that ''Crystal Endeavor'' had been apparently sold to

. In the weeks prior, Silversea had trademarked the names "Silver Endeavor" and "Silver Endeavour". However, it was further reported on June 28, that both The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and the former owners of Silversea, Heritage Cruise Holding (which recently purchased Crystal's two ocean-going cruise ships and the entire brand) were still interested in purchasing the vessel as well, with the former submitting the highest bid. Royal Caribbean had yet to confirm or deny if they had made the purchase at that time.

Silversea Cruises

On Monday July 18, 2022,

Royal Caribbean Group Royal Caribbean Group, formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., is a cruise holding company based in Miami, Florida, United States and incorporated in Liberia. It is the world's second-largest cruise line operator, after Carnival Corp ...

announced they received court approval to buy the "ultra-luxury" expedition cruiseship ''Crystal Endeavor'' for $275 million. The company said the purchase was being made "significantly below" the cost of construction, with the purchase fully financed through a 15-year term loan. The megayacht would be renamed ''Silver Endeavour'' when it officially joined the fleet of Royal Caribbean's

. Prior to her maiden voyage it was intended to refit the ship, but due to scheduling and supply chain issues, only minor modifications were made with venue names and signage. Following the Antarctic season several substantial changes were made to the ''Silver Endeavour'' including: converting the casino into crew cabins and an infirmary, removing the current infirmary and converting into four balcony suites, and removing the helicopter bay on Deck 8, and remodeling it into six suites, since Silversea has no plans to utilize the two helicopters that Crystal had on order for the ship. The ''Silver Endeavour'' was christened in Antartica on November 19, 2022 by godmother

Felicity Aston Felicity Ann Dawn Aston is a British explorer, author and climate scientist. Early life and career Originally from Kent, Aston went to Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls and was educated at University College London (BSc) and Reading Unive ...

MBE, a polar explorer and climate scientist. This was the first ship ever to be named in the

Lemaire Channel Lemaire Channel is a strait off Antarctica, between Kyiv Peninsula in the mainland's Graham Land and Booth Island. Nicknamed "Kodak Gap" by some, it is one of the top tourism, tourist destinations in Antarctica; steep cliffs hem in the iceberg-fi ...

, with an ice-sculpted magnum bottle smashed against the hull. The maiden voyage under Silversea was scheduled for November 28, 2022.

References

External links

{{Crystal ships, state=collapsed 2021 ships Cruise ships Ships built in Germany