MS The Azur
The Royal Iris (right) docked at Haifa.
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| History | |
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| Name: |
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| Owner: | 2017 onwards: Black Sea Cruises |
| Operator: |
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| Port of registry: |
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| Builder: | Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France |
| Yard number: | 123 |
| Launched: | October 16, 1970 |
| Completed: | May 16, 1971 |
| Identification: |
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| Status: | out of service |
| General characteristics (per shipparade.com) | |
| Tonnage: | 14,717 gross tonnage (GT) |
| Length: | 142.12 m (466 ft) |
| Beam: | 21.90 m (72 ft) |
| Speed: | 18 knots |
| Capacity: | 770 |
| Crew: | 325 |
| Notes: | |
| General characteristics (after reclassification) | |
| Tonnage: | 9,159 GT, 2,085 DWT |
MS Royal Iris is a 1971 built car ferry/cruise ferry which was later rebuilt into a cruise ship in 1981. She is the last surviving ship ever owned by the Chandris Lines. She is the last surviving ship out of three near identical sisters, the others being the ill-fated Scandinavian Star and the Fred. Olsen & Co. ferry Bolero. In late 2014, Mano Cruise stopped the ship's service.
In 1971, the British company Southern Ferries, a subsidiary of P&O Ferries, launched the MV Eagle for a new car/cruise ferry service, a six-day-long Southampton-Lisbon-Tangier itinerary. She did not stay in service with her original owners for very long, as the route she was designed for proved unsuccessful, and in 1975 she was sold to the Paquet Cruises subsidiary Nouvelle Cie. de Paquebots. Her new owners had her repainted white and renamed Azur, carrying out cruise and ferry voyages in the Mediterranean. This continued on uneventfully until 1981 when Paquet decided to drop ferry services completely and rebuild Azur into a full-time cruise ship, with many extra cabins being built into her car decks, and an extra swimming pool installed on her stern. In 1987 Paquet sold Azur to the Greek cruise company Chandris Lines.
Upon entering service with Chandris's subsidiary Chandris Fantasy Cruises, she was renamed The Azur, and her funnels were painted the traditional Chandris blue with a white chi. By 1994 Chandris was "phasing out" their Fantasy Cruises brand, doing so by selling The Azur to Festival Cruises. Festival had The Azur cruise on voyages out of Venice and Genoa until they declared bankruptcy in 2004. When this happened The Azur was placed under arrest by harbor authorities Gibraltar. At Festival Cruises bankruptcy sale, The Azur was sold to the Israel-based Mano Maritime for over USD $10 million.
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Wikipedia