MV Discovery

Career
Name:	1971-1974: Island Venture 1974-1999: Island Princess 1999-2001: Hyundai Pungak 2001-2002: Platinum 2002 onwards: Discovery
Operator:	1971-1974: Flagship Cruises[1] 1972-1999: Princess Cruises 1999-2001: Hyundai Merchant Marine 2001-2002: Fiducia Shipping 2002-2013: Voyages of Discovery 2013 onwards: Cruise & Maritime Voyages
Port of registry:	1971-1974: Oslo  Norway 1974-1999: London,  UK 1999-2002: Panama,  Panama 2002 onwards: Hamilton,  Bermuda
Cost:	$25 million [2]
Laid down:	1971
Launched:	3 March 1971
Christened:	14 December 1971
Identification:	IMO number: 7108514 Call sign: ZCDG2 MMSI number: 310382000
Status:	In service
General characteristics
Type:	Cruise ship
Tonnage:	20,186 GT
Length:	168.74 m [2]
Beam:	24.64 m
Draught:	7.49 m [2]
Decks:	8 decks passenger accessible
Propulsion:	Four 10-cylinder GMT-Fiat diesel engines [2]
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (service)
Capacity:	698 passengers
Crew:	350 [2]

MV Discovery (formerly Island Venture, Island Princess, Hyundai Pungak and Platinum) is a cruise ship, currently in operation with Voyages of Discovery.

History

The ship began operation in 1972 with Flagship Cruises, under the name Island Venture. In 1974, she was sold to P&O's Princess Cruises along with sister ship Sea Venture. The pair were renamed Island Princess and Pacific Princess, the latter, laid up since 2008 at the San Giorgio del Porto shipyard in Genoa, Italy, and as of early 2013 apparently destined for scrapping at Aliaga, Turkey. Both appeared in the 1970s television sitcom The Love Boat, although the Pacific Princess was the main feature of the show. The Island Princess operated as part of the Princess fleet until 1999, when she was sold on to Hyundai Merchant Marine of South Korea. Renamed Hyundai Pungak her role was to transport South Korean pilgrims to religious sites in North Korea

Island Princess at Station Pier, Melbourne

After a brief stint as the Platinum, the ship went through a major refit between 2001 and 2003. Since then, the vessel has been sailing as Discovery under the care of the cruise company Voyages of Discovery (part of the All Leisure Group Plc) cruising out of Harwich and Liverpool in England. Voyages of Discovery sells these cruises predominately to the British, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African markets.

For the most part Discovery can be found in the Baltic, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea, and North Africa, in the months April–September (Spring and Summer in the Northern Hemisphere), and in South America, Antarctica, the Indian Ocean, India, and the Mediterranean, in the months October–March (Spring and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere).

In Feb 2013, for 249 days, the Discovery began sailing for Cruise & Maritime Voyages following a joint agreement with All Leisure Group, where both companies will operate the ship.^[3]

In 2012/13 the owners of "Discovery" are replacing her under their Voyages of Discovery brand with the soon to be refurbished ship, "mv Voyager".

March 2013 Maritime and Coastguard Agency detention

In early March 2013, on her maiden voyage with Cruise & Maritime Voyages, the Discovery was detained in Portland Harbour by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency after a recent routine inspection revealed that the ship's safety drills and crew's familiarisation of the vessel were inadequate. The cruise was cancelled after passengers spent around 24 hours aboard the ship, before leaving the vessel and boarding coaches out of the port. Afterwards, passengers expressed their anger about the cruise being cancelled but also about dirty wash areas and exposed electrics aboard the ship.^{[citation needed]} Passengers were offered a full refund as well as £250 compensation and 40 per cent off their next cruise with the company.^[4]

Cruise and Maritime voyages issued a statement in response to the incident.

"Due to unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control and notwithstanding the recent dry-docking, the vessel has encountered technical problems which prevent her from sailing. We have been unable to resolve these technical issues to enable us to continue with the cruise on time and further works will have to be undertaken to ensure all issues are fully resolved.".^[5]

The ship was due to set sail from Avonmouth after arriving from Italy after refit but due to weather conditions it was diverted to Portland, with the passengers being brought to the port from Avonmouth by coach.^[6]

On 11 March 2013, Cruise and Maritime Voyages announced that the Maritime and Coastgaurd agency had cleared the ship for active service. The ship left on her second cruise with Cruise & Maritime Voyages on 15 March, from Avonmouth, the first cruise ship to do this in around 20 years.

General characteristics

Two of the four Fiat C4210SS medium speed geared diesel engines on board Island Princess

The ship is 168.8 m (554 ft) long and 24.7 m (81 ft) beam, originally measured 19,910 GRT and was built at Nordseewerke, Germany. She could carry 646 passengers, and had a top speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h). The Discovery Cruises web site lists her current gross tonnage as 20,186, top speed as 18 knots (33 km/h) and passenger capacity as 698. Propulsion is by four Fiat medium speed diesel engines with a combined power output of 18,000 shaft horsepower. The engines are individually clutched and geared in pairs to each of the two shafts which drive controllable pitch propellers. This arrangement enables one or more engines to be shut down and declutched as required. Current registry is under the Bermudan flag.

On board eight decks are open to the public; Sky Deck, Sun Deck, Bridge Deck, Promenade Deck, Riviera Deck, Pacific Deck, Bali Deck and Coral Deck.

References

• "P&O- Port Out, Starboard Home", David L. Williams, Ian Allan Publishing, 2002
• mv Discovery Photo Review website

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to IMO 7108514.

• Voyages of Discovery Australia
• Voyages of Discovery New Zealand
• Voyages of Discovery North America
• Voyages of Discovery UK
• M/S Island Venture
• Cruise and Maritime Voyages