Sagafjord

[shipstamps]

SAGAFJORD
Builder: Societe des Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee, Le Seyne, France.
Completed : September 1965.
Gross tonnage: 24002.
Dimensions: 620ft x 80ft. Depth 55ft.
Engines: Two nine-cylinder, two-cycle, single-acting Sulzer diesel.
Screws: Twin.
Decks: Five.
Normal speed: 20 knots. (Attained a speed of over 22.50 knots during her trials.)
Passenger accommodation: 70 first and 719 tourist class. (Accommodations are limited to 450 when pleasure-cruising.)
Maiden voyage: Oslo–Kristiansand–Copenhagen–New York on October 2, 1965
The Sagafjord's superstructure is constructed of aluminium. She is furnished with two electrically operated bow thrusters athwartship, plus six Bergen diesel locomotive-type auxiliary engines, which latter are the first to be used on a ship.
Equipped with Denny-Brown motion stabilisers and fully air-conditioned.
The Sagafjord is the Norwegian-America Line's flagship. Employed in the Oslo–Copenhagen–Kristiansand–New York service with a call at Stavanger instead of Kristiansand during the summer months.
She has since her entry into service been used mostly as cruise ship all-year-round with only a few transatlantic voyages. On January 5, 1971, she made 93 day cruise from New York calling at 29 ports it the Pacific and makes this same cruise every year Presently in service.
Antigua and Barbuda SG1283, Pitcairn Is SG398.
North Atlantic Passenger Liners since 1900 by N T Cairis

[aukepalmhof]

Built under yard no 1366 by Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée, in La Seyne for the P/R Sagafjord, managed by the Den Norske Amerikalinje A/S, Oslo.
16 June 1964 launched under the name SAGAFJORD.
Tonnage 24.002 gross, 13.340 net, dim. 188.9 x 24.5m.
Powered by two 9 cyl. Sulzer oil engines, manufactured by Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée, Le Havre. 27.000 bhp. (20.150 kW), twin screws, speed 20 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 85 first, 704 tourist class.
01 April 1965 due for delivery, but heavy losses forced builders into liquidation before delivery of the vessel.

Built for the transatlantic liner service, but due to airline competition, she could easily be transferred in a cruise ship for the American market with 462 passengers in one class.
Fitted out with a bow-thruster.
May 1965 first trials.
18 Sept. delivered.
02 October sailed for her maiden voyage from Oslo via Copenhagen and Christiansand to New York.
1972 Passenger accommodation altered to 509 in one class, crew 350.
1976 The owner announced that they withdrawn the vessel from the liner service across the North Atlantic, and would only use for cruising.
May 1980 transferred to K/S Norwegian America Cruises A/S, (managed by Leif Høegh & Co. A/S.)
October 1980 extensively refitted by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg. She got a new deck but passenger accommodation not increased. Tonnage increased 24.109 gross tons.
1983 Company restyled K/S Norwegian America Line Cruises A/S, with the same managers.
1983 Sold to the British Cunard Group with delivery October. Not renamed, only later that year she carried the funnel colors and logo of the Cunard. Registered in the Bahamas.
1993 Transferred to The Cunard Steam-Ship Co. p.l.c. (Cunard Line Ltd. managers.)
1989 Her tonnage given as 25.147 gross, 9.091 net, 6.353 dwt.
26 Feb.1996 she suffered a fire in her generator room when she was in a position 12 20N 177 44E off Palawa whilst she was on a passage from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu, she arrived under tow on 01 March at Subic Bay. Arrived Singapore for repairs on 16 April.
1996 Chartered to Trans Ocean Cruises, Germany and was renamed GRIPSHOLM.
Arrived Bremerhaven under the name SAGAFJORD on 12 July 1996, and sailed under the name GRIPSHOLM on 16 July 1996 from that port.
04 August 1996, while on a passage from Copenhagen to Kiel she went aground about two miles off Landskrona. Refloated on 07 August and sailed for Bremerhaven for examination and repair, returned to service on 18 August.
1997 At the end of her charter sold to Saga Shipping Co. Ltd., Bahamas and renamed SAGA ROSE.
She was sent for a £15 million refit to A&P yard at Southampton but on 14 December when in the King George V dry-dock she suffered a serious electric fire. At that time there were on board about 350 crew and 300 shipyard workers, all were evacuated safely; more as 100 firefighters extinguished the fire.
Her Christmas cruise was canceled.
29 July 1999 she collided off Bremanger island, Norway with the fishing boat HAVBAS which sank, the crew was rescued. The SAGA ROSA did not have any damage in the collision.

2007 http://www.equasis.org gives IMO No 6416043. Call sign C6ZU. Same name and registry.
Registered owners/managers Saga Shipping , Folkestone, U.K.

2009 Her owners and managers given as Acromas Shipping, Sandgate, Folkestone U.K.

Source. Blauwe Wimpel. Marine News. Norwegian America Line 1910-1995 by Bjørn Pedersen and F.W.Hawks.





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[aukepalmhof]

October 2009 laid up at Gibraltar.
April 2010 sailed Gibraltar for China
2010 Sold by Acromas Shipping Ltd., Bahamas to Chinese breakers and she arrived 29 May 2010 in Jiangyin, China.

Barbuda Mail 1989 50c sg 1128, scott?
Pitcairn Island 2001 $1.50 sg?, scott 534

Source: Marine News 2011/119.