MV Artania

MV Artania (previously Royal Princess and Artemis) is a cruise ship chartered since 2011 by Phoenix Reisen, a German-based travel agency and cruise ship operator. She was built for Princess Cruises by Wärtsilä at the Helsinki Shipyard, Finland, and was launched on 18 February 1984.

MV Artania in 2012
History
Name:
  • Royal Princess (1984–2005)
  • Artemis (2005–2011)
  • Artania (2011–present)
Owner:
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: Wärtsilä Helsinki Shipyard, Finland
Cost: $165 million (1984)[1]
Yard number: 464[2]
Launched: 18 February 1984[2]
Christened:
Acquired: 30 October 1984[2]
Maiden voyage: 19 November 1984[2]
In service: 19 November 1984[2]
Identification:
Status: In service
General characteristics [2]
Type: Cruise ship
Tonnage:
Length: 230.61 m (756 ft 7 in)
Beam:
  • 29.60 m (97 ft 1 in)[2] or
  • 32.2 m (105 ft 8 in)[3]
Draught: 7.80 m (25 ft 7 in)
Decks: 8 (passenger accessible)[3]
Installed power:
Speed: 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Capacity:
  • 1188 (normal)
  • 1260 (maximum)[3]
Crew: 537[3]

At a ceremony in Southampton, England, on 15 November 1984, the ship was named Royal Princess by Diana, Princess of Wales. After entering service on 19 November 1984, she cruised as Royal Princess until April 2005, when she was transferred to the control of P&O Cruises, and was renamed Artemis. In 2011, she moved to Phoenix Reisen's fleet and was renamed Artania.

In 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak on the ship led to four deaths as of 24 April.[4]

History
MV Artania at Trondheim in 2011.

Royal Princess
For other ships with the same name, see List of ships named Royal Princess.
Royal Princess about to embark on her 1984 maiden voyage

Royal Princess was named by Diana, Princess of Wales at a ceremony in Southampton, Hampshire on 15 November 1984. The ceremony was attended by members of the public, employees of the P&O Princess Group and local and international dignitaries including Mauno Koivisto, President of Finland. The Bishop of Southampton performed a blessing prior to the naming.[5][6]

The ship was the most expensive passenger ship when built.[7] She does not have any inside cabins,[8][9] which makes her the first cruise ship to have all outside cabins.[7]

Artemis
Artemis at Trondheim in August 2009

She was transferred to the P&O fleet in April 2005 and renamed Artemis by Prunella Scales. Artemis was the smallest and oldest ship in the P&O cruises fleet. P&O and Princess Cruises are under the same parent company P&O Princess since 2000 and were acquired by Carnival Corporation & plc in 2003.

In 2010 British captain Sarah Breton took charge of Artemis, becoming only the second female in the world to command a major cruise ship and the first for P&O, after Karin Stahre-Janson from Sweden, who took charge of Monarch of the Seas of Royal Caribbean Cruises in 2007.[10][11]

On 22 September 2009, after numerous rumours, it was announced by P&O Cruises that the ship has been sold to a company "MS Artania Shipping" for an undisclosed sum of money.[12] She continued to sail for P&O Cruises until 22 April 2011, when she was chartered to Phoenix Reisen as MV Artania.[13][14]

Artania

As of November 2019, the vessel has undergone four overhauls at Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven.[15] The ship has been fitted with new Wärtsilä engines, and 96 additional balconies have been added.

Artania sailed under the flag of Bermuda until October 2016, her port of registry having been Hamilton. From 26 October 2016 Artania, as all other ships of Phoenix Reisen, has sailed under the flag of the Bahamas.

Artania sailed the South Pacific, New Zealand and Oceania for the first part of 2017, docking at Wellington Harbour on 27 February. On 26 October 2017, Artania docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, sailing north from New York as part of the autumn New England cruising schedule, departing 27 October to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, which was its last North American port of call before making a transatlantic crossing to Europe. Cork in Ireland was be her first port of call on her way to Hamburg, Germany to commence the remaining 2017 cruise season with ports of call in Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean.

COVID-19 pandemic
Main article: COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships
Message of the ship's crew to the city of Fremantle during COVID-19 pandemic

As of 26 March 2020, Artania was anchored off the coast of Western Australia. Health authorities reported seven confirmed coronavirus cases on board. Due to measures taken by the Government of Western Australia to contain the outbreak and, as there were no Australian passengers or crew on board, Artania was required to anchor offshore as Commonwealth forces were organised to refuel and resupply the ship before it departed. The vessel is registered in the Bahamas, and therefore was considered as a foreign vessel.[16]

Artania docked at Fremantle Harbour, Fremantle, on 27 March, and on 28 March 46 people were reported as displaying COVID-19 symptoms.[17] Most of the 850 passengers flew home from Perth Airport to Germany on 28–29 March. 41 passengers and crew tested positive for COVID-19 and were treated in Perth private hospitals such as in Joondalup Health Campus.[18][19] On 1 April, the ship had 450 crew and about a dozen passengers on board. The Australian Government had directed it to leave port, but the ship demanded to stay another 14 days, presumably so that they could be treated if COVID-19 symptoms developed.[20] According to the Australian Attorney-General, Christian Porter, "there are still 12 passengers on board some of whom are very unwell. And their level of either illness or frailty is such that they cannot get in a plane."[21]

An update on 3 April 2020 by CNN stated that the cruise line indicated that "16 passengers, plus hundreds of crew members" remained aboard Artania.[22] As of 7 April, two passengers aboard Artania had died from COVID-19, both in Joondalup private hospital.[23][24] On 17 April, a Filipino crewman of the ship died in the Royal Perth Hospital, the youngest to date fatality in Australia due to COVID-19.[25] On 23 April, it was reported that another passenger of the ship had died from the disease in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, another public hospital of Perth.[4]

The outbreak from the ship was responsible for 4 deaths in Western Australia and at least 81 confirmed cases were linked to the ship.[26]

The ship departed Fremantle on 18 April.[27] The ship planned to stop at Indonesia and the Philippines[28] to disembark crew members and then return to Bremerhaven, Germany[25] with the 8 passengers and a skeleton crew of 75 crew members.[29][30]

The ship arrived the Port of Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Indonesia on 24 April. 56 crew members were disembarked from the ship and sent to quarantine in a hospital.[31] A day later, it was reported that one more member of the crew had disembarked from the ship.[32] Indonesian authorities tested all 57 disembarked Indonesian crew from the ship and 8 of them proved positive.[33]

On 26 April 2020, it was considered that 8 passengers and 346 crew members were still on board when Artania left Indonesian waters.[29][34] The ship disembarked 236 Filipino crewmen in Manila on 1 May.[35][36] The ship then headed to Bremerhaven via Singapore.[36]

On 8 June 2020, after approximately six months at sea, the MV Artania docked in the port of Bremerhaven in Germany. All 8 passengers on board were able to disembark by midday local time. [37]

References
  1. Frank O Braynard & William H. Miller, Fifty Famous Liners 3, (W W Norton & Co Inc 1985), 219
  2. Micke Asklander. "M/S Royal Princess (1984)". Fakta om Fartyg (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
  3. "About Artemis: Ship statistics". P&O Cruises official website. Archived from the original on 5 May 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
  4. "Coronavirus: Fourth person from Artania cruise ship dies in WA". 9 News. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  5. Hamilton, Alan (16 November 1984). "Two royal princesses share a day in the limelight". The Times. London. p. 36.
  6. Tisdall, Simon (31 October 1984). "Royal Princess a day early". The Guardian. London.
  7. The Unofficial Guide to Cruises By Kay Showker, Bob Sehlinger, p. 501
  8. "Artemis - P&O Cruises". cruise-ships.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  9. "Royal Princess (I)". castlesofthesea.nl. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  10. "Q&A: World's first female captain of a major cruise ship". USA Today. 5 November 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  11. "Sarah Breton:The first female cruise ship captain". Daily Express. 22 April 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  12. Archer, Jane (23 September 2009). "P&O sells Artemis to Artania Shipping". Travel Weekly. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  13. "P&O Artemis Press Statement". Archived from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
  14. "Artemis to Leave P&O Fleet". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
  15. "Lloyd Werft set to tackle Artania overhaul". Seatrade Cruise News. 13 November 2019. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  16. Kagi, Jacob; Trigger, Rebecca; Manfield, Evelyn & Kaur, Herlyn (26 March 2020). "Passengers test positive for COVID-19 on Artania cruise ship off WA coast, Premier asks Navy to get ship to leave". ABC. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  17. Mundy, Garrett; Al Jrood, Tabarak (28 March 2020). "Coronavirus cruise ship passengers bound for Perth hospitals after Artania COVID-19 outbreak". ABC. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  18. "Australia prepares to fly cruise passengers to Germany". AP. 27 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  19. "Coronavirus patients from Artania cruise ship sent to Joondalup hospital after 29 new COVID-19 positive tests". ABC News (Australia). 30 March 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  20. "Coronavirus cruise ship Artania refuses to leave WA port of Fremantle in letter to Australian Border Force". ABC News (Australia). 1 April 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  21. "Unwell on COVID-infected cruise ship in WA". The Young Witness. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  22. "Cruise ships are still scrambling for safe harbor". CNN. 3 April 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  23. "Coronavirus patient from Artania cruise ship dies in Perth hospital, taking national COVID-19 toll to 28". ABC News (Australia). 3 April 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  24. Kagi, Jacob & Menagh, Joanna (7 April 2020). "WA coronavirus deaths rise to six as Artania patient and overseas traveller die in Perth hospitals". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  25. Steger, Sarah (17 April 2020). "Coronavirus crisis: Captain of virus-riddled Artania confident of leaving WA waters". The West Australian. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  26. "WA records just one new coronavirus case as more Artania passengers and crew depart". Australian Broadcasting Corporation News. 19 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  27. Perpitch, Nicolas (18 April 2020). "Artania cruise ship leaves Fremantle after fatal coronavirus outbreak, stand-off with authorities". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  28. "Stranded Filipinos in Australia Returns to PH". Department of Foreign Affairs (the Philippines). 20 April 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  29. "Last ship belonging to a major cruise line finally reaches port". CBS58.
  30. "Artania Returns Via Southeast Asia". Cruise Industry News. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  31. "56 ABK MV Artania Dibawa ke Wisma Atlet". medcom.id (in Indonesian). 24 April 2020. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  32. "57 WNI ABK Kapal MV Artania akan Dikarantina di Wisma Atlet". pusinfomar-tni.mil.id (in Indonesian). 25 April 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  33. "8 ABK Kapal Pesiar MV Artania Positif Covid-19, Kemungkinan Ada yang Akan Bersandar di Batam". batampos.co.id (in Indonesian). 25 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  34. "8 dari 57 WNI ABK MV Artania Positif Corona dari Hasil Rapid Test". Tribun Jakarta.
  35. https://www.schiffe-und-kreuzfahrten.de/news/ms-artania-ausschiffung-236-crewmitgliedern-in-manila-via-singapur-nach-bremerhaven/203199/
  36. "Hier befindet sich MS Artania heute". www.phoenixreisen.com.
  37. "After months at sea, the final cruise ship carrying passengers makes it home". www.cnn.com. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.

Bibliography
  • Sassoli-Walker, Andrew; Poole, Sharon (2010). Artemis: The Original Royal Princess. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445600949.
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