MS Zuiderdam

Zuiderdam in Vancouver, Canada on August 3, 2013
Career
Name:	Zuiderdam
Namesake:	Named for the southern compass point
Operator:	Holland America Line
Port of registry:	Netherlands
Builder:	Fincantieri
Yard number:	Marghera 6075[1]
Launched:	14 December 2001[1]
Acquired:	15 November 2002[1]
Maiden voyage:	14 December 2002[1]
In service:	14 December 2002[1]
Identification:	Call sign PBIG IMO number: 9221279 MMSI number: 245304000[2][2]
Status:	In service
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	Vista class cruise ship
Tonnage:	81,769 GT 10,965 DWT[2]
Length:	291 m (954.7 ft)[2]
Beam:	32 m (105.0 ft)[2]
Height:	57.83 m (189.73 ft) keel to funnel top[citation needed]
Draught:	7.80 m (25.59 ft) max
Decks:	11 passenger decks, 15 total
Installed power:	1 × GE LM 2500 gas turbine,[3] Sulzer (now Wärtsilä) ZAV40S 3 × 16-cylinder diesels, 2 × 12-cylinder diesels combined 51840 kW[4][5]
Propulsion:	Azipod
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) (maximum) 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) (service)
Capacity:	1,916 passengers[6] 2,272 passengers (maximum)[7]
Crew:	842[7]

MS Zuiderdam /ˈzaɪdərdæm/^[8] is a Vista class cruise ship owned and operated by Holland America Line. It is the first of the Vista class ships, so named for the extensive use of glass in their superstructure. It is sister to Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Noordam. The names of the four ships translate to the four directions of the compass in Dutch.

The ship shares similar exterior dimensions with Carnival Cruise Lines' and Costa Cruises' Spirit Class. Cunard Line's Queen Victoria is an enlarged version of the same design, as is HAL's Signature Class.

As with all Vista-class ships, Zuiderdam is equipped with a diesel-electric power plant and an Azipod propulsion system, and eighty-five percent of her staterooms have ocean views and sixty-seven percent have verandahs. Her art collection carries a Venetian theme throughout the ship; the most dazzling features figures in the time of Carnival in Venice, created by Daniel Ogier.^[6]

Technical information

The machinery spaces of Zuiderdam are vast and stretch along two of its lowest decks for the most part of the vessel.

MS Zuiderdam is powered by a CODAG propulsion system encompassing five (three 16-cylinder and two 12-cylinder) Sulzer ZAV40S diesel engines (built under license by Grandi Motori Trieste, now owned by Wärtsilä, in Trieste, Italy)^{[4][5][9][10]} and a GE LM2500 Gas Turbine. Zuiderdam was the first Holland America Line ship to use a CODAG propulsion arrangement, a GE LM2500 turbine or ABB Azipod propulsors.^[3][11] It is propelled by two 17.62 MW, 160 rpm synchronous freshwater-cooled ABB Azipod propulsors.

Zuiderdam in Glacier Bay, Alaska

Past Zuiderdams

The first vessel with the "Zuider" prefix launched in 1912 as the 5,211 ton cargo ship Zuiderdijk; at the time, "dijk" or "dyk" was the suffix used for cargo vessels, "dam" was used for passenger ships. She sailed between Rotterdam and Savannah, Georgia, for Holland America through 1922 as well as during World War I as a transport.

The second NASM ship to have the name prefix "Zuider", and the first to be wholly "Zuiderdam", was launched from a shipyard in Rotterdam for outfitting in 1941. However, on 28 August 1941 she was damaged by a British air raid. The ensuing blaze was fought for at least two days with sergeant W. Ollesch from the German Fire Regiment "Sachsen" killed while fighting the fire aboard the ship on 30 August 1941. The Germans raised her hull and re-floated her by 25 July 1942 only to be scuttled in order to block the port of Rotterdam to Allied forces by 22 September 1944. She was raised a final time after World War II, but the ship was never completed.^[12][13]

Gallery

• 

  Zuiderdam in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands - Nov 2007

• 

  Zuiderdam in Juneau, Alaska on July 9, 2012

• 

  Zuiderdam approaching Glacier Bay, Alaska on July 11, 2012

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MS Zuiderdam.

• Official Zuiderdam page
• "Zuiderdam" – review by Douglas Ward in The Daily Telegraph, London.

v t e Ships of the Holland America Line Fleet Signature class Eurodam Nieuw Amsterdam (2010) Vista class Noordam Oosterdam Westerdam Zuiderdam Rotterdam class Amsterdam Rotterdam Volendam Zaandam Staatendam class Maasdam Statendam Ryndam Veendam Explorer vessel Prinsendam Former ships Nieuw Amsterdam (1937) SS Rotterdam Nieuw Amsterdam (1984) Noordam (1984) Westerdam (1986)