MS ''Black Watch'' was a ''Royal Viking Star''-class

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 tours known as ...

. She was built by

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technolo ...

Helsinki Shipyard,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

for Royal Viking Line as ''Royal Viking Star'', entering service in 1972 as the lines first ship. She has also sailed for

Norwegian Cruise Lines Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

as ''Westward'' and Royal Cruise Line as ''Star Odyssey''. As of June 18, 2022 she has been beached for scrapping at Alang, India.

History

''Royal Viking Star''

Royal Viking Line was established in 1970 as a joint project between the American businessman Warren Titus and three

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

shipping companies (including Kloster Cruises, the owner of Norwegian Cruise Line). The aim of the new company was to offer luxury cruises to destinations around the world as an alternative to Caribbean cruising. For this end the company ordered three purpose-built luxury cruise ships from

Helsinki New Shipyard Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, fi, Helsingin uusi telakka) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard. History The shipyard, f ...

. The first of the new ships, named ''Royal Viking Star'', was launched on 12 May 1971 and entered service on 26 June 1972. Her sisters, and , followed in 1973. The Royal Viking Line brand was clearly a success and the elegantly furnished ships were considered to be amongst the five most luxurious cruise ships in the world at the time, alongside

Norwegian America Line The Norwegian America Line ( no, Den Norske Amerikalinje), was a shipping line, originally an operator of ocean liners and cargo ships. Founded in 1910, the company ran a regular transatlantic service between Norway and the United States, and lat ...

's and . In 1981 ''Royal Viking Star'' was lengthened by at Seebeckwerft,

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

As the 1980s progressed it became clear that the luxury cruise lines such as Royal Viking could not survive without the support of a larger company, with the operating costs of a handful of luxury ships being too high to be truly profitable. Royal Viking Line was acquired by Kloster Cruises in 1984, but its operations were initially kept separate from those of Norwegian Cruise Line.

''Westward''

Black Watch cruise ship, Liverpool Cruise Terminal (geograph 4545674)

In April 1991 ''Royal Viking Star'' was transferred from the Royal Viking Line to the Norwegian Cruise Line and renamed ''Westward''. With NCL the ship was used for cruising from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

and on to the Caribbean.

''Star Odyssey''

In April 1994, the ship was transferred to the fleet of NCL's subsidiary Royal Cruise Line, renamed ''Star Odyssey'' and used for cruising around the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

. Here the ship joined her sister ''Royal Viking Sea'' that had sailed as ''Royal Odyssey'' since 1991. The career of ''Star Odyssey'' was to prove short however, as Norwegian Cruise Line was facing financial difficulties in the mid-1990s and were forced to sell off various assets. In October 1996 the ship was sold to Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

''Black Watch''

The ship was renamed ''Black Watch'' (a traditional name in Fred. Olsen fleet) and entered service for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines on 15 November 1996. In February 1997 the ship suffered engine problems while outside

Marmaris Marmaris () is a port city and tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in Muğla Province, southwest Turkey, along the shoreline of the Turkish Riviera. Although Marmaris is known for its honey, its main source of income is internationa ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, and had to be docked for two weeks at

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for repairs. From April 2005 onwards, the ship was docked for two months at Blohm & Voss,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany. During this time her engines were upgraded and interiors refurbished. In July 2007, the ship was the subject of a Legionnaires' disease outbreak which affected a number of passengers in their seventies and eighties. A

norovirus Norovirus, sometimes referred to as the winter vomiting disease, is the most common cause of gastroenteritis. Infection is characterized by non-bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Fever or headaches may also occur. Symptoms usually devel ...

outbreak infected 130 passengers and crew during a cruise to Scandinavia in September 2013.

COVID-19

On 13 April 2020, when the cruise ship moored up in the Firth of Forth, eight crew members tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

Sale

On 21 August 2020, Fred. Olsen announced that the ''Black Watch'' and her sister ship ''Boudicca'' were sold as accommodation ships for workers. Both of the Black Watch's original sister ships were scrapped, making it the last surviving ship of the original Royal Viking Line trio.

Scrapping

In May 2022, lawyers for Fred Olsen Cruise Lines went after the buyers of a former cruise ship to block its imminent beaching in India. Such a move would violate a sales contract clause calling for green scrapping of the vessel once its end-of-life job as an accommodation vessel is over. In June 2022, Fred Olsen secured a last-minute stay of execution for its former vessel seeking its return to Turkey to be properly recycled per it's agreement of sale. The beaching was stopped by court but the arrest can be cenceled by a caution of $4.16 Million , the value of the ship. The ship, based on

AIS AIS may refer to: Medicine * Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries * Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke * Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...

data, was beached at

Alang Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard. Demographics As of the 2001 Indian census, Al ...

, India Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 13:25 UTC. The scrapping process should begin soon due to the beaching of the ship.

References

External links

''Black Watch'' cruise ship - Fred Olsen Cruise Lines

Video clips of an Amazon river cruise aboard ''Black Watch''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Watch (1971) Fred. Olsen & Co. Cruise ships Ships built in Helsinki 1971 ships