Expedition News

Royal Caribbean Group announced to has tapped Bert Hernandez to succeed Barbara Muckermann as president of its Silversea brand.Most recently serving as senior vice president, international, Hernandez has been with the Royal Caribbean Group for the past 20 years. He previously served as president of China operations for Royal Caribbean International and was chief operating officer for the group’s former luxury cruise line, Azamara.Muckermann is departing Royal Caribbean Group after 14 years with Silversea to pursue other opportunities…

The global cruise industry reported record passenger volumes in 2023 as the sector continues its rebound following the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic.Cruise ships carried 31.7 million passengers in 2023, up 7% from previous highs recorded in 2019, according to latest figures published by the trade group Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).Most increases were in the United States—which remains, by far, the world's largest cruise market—with an incremental increase of 2.7 million passengers…

ABB has been selected by the Astilleros y Servicios Navales S.A. (ASENAV) shipyard based in Chile to provide a power and propulsion system for Antarctica21’s newbuild boutique expedition ship Magellan Discoverer. Due for delivery in 2026, the vessel is the first hybrid-electric polar cruise ship featuring Azipod propulsion to be built in the Americas. Accommodating up to 96 passengers and 67 crew members, the vessel will be operating in the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and…

A passenger ferry has run aground near the entrance to Maui's Maalaea Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard said. At 5:05 a.m. on Monday, Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders received notification from the 55-foot ferry Expeditions Five, which had run aground with three crew members on board.Watchstanders issued an urgent marine broadcast to mariners and dispatched a 29-foot Response Boat-small crew from Station Maui. The Station Maui crew confirmed that the vessel was hard aground…

Scientists aboard Britain's high-tech polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough are headed to the Weddell Sea to investigate how carbon dioxide moves and transforms in the Southern Ocean.The ship departed Tuesday from Punta Arenas, Chile for the 30-day scientific expedition.As the carbon in the seawater rises to the surface near Antarctica, it interacts with the atmosphere, ice, and microscopic plants and animals, called phytoplankton and zooplankton, near the ocean surface, before descending to the ocean depths.

SunStone Maritime Group announced it has secured multi-year charters for two of its expedition cruise ships.The deals are for SunStone's Infinity Class vessels Ocean Explorer and the Ocean Odyssey, both built by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) and delivered in 2021 and 2022 respectively.Under its new charter agreement, Ocean Explorer will return to polar cruising in October 2024 for SunStone's long-term client Quark Expeditions. The vessel, which ran aground in a remote part of Greenland last year…

A classic 1930s-built boat with a storied history has been updated with a hybrid propulsion system from Transfluid.Originally built in 1937 in Tacoma, Wash., the Western  Flyer is most well known as the boat chartered by John Steinbeck in his 1940 expedition to the Gulf of California chronicled in The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Called “the most famous research vessel to ever have sailed”, the Flyer is a 77ft wooden fishing vessel that has been restored in Port Townsend, Wash. by the Western Flyer Foundation.The boat was recommissioned as a fishing vessel, and a showpiece for green technology.

The steel cutting ceremony for the seventh and final vessel in the Infinity series of expedition cruise ships took place at the Haimen shipyard of China Merchants Heavy Industries (CMHI).The PC6 expedition cruise ship, yet to be named, will embark on a long-term charter upon its delivery, the ship is technically identical to the rest of the Infinity vessels.The Infinity-class newbuilds, featuring up to 95 passenger cabins, each equipped with bathrooms and most with balconies, promise an immersive and comfortable experience for travellers.

Finnish companies have designed about 80 percent of the world’s icebreakers, and about 60 percent of them have been built by Finnish shipyards.Finland is home to a strong and vibrant maritime cluster, with a mix of large, medium and small shipyards, as well as a deep pool of marine engineering expertise and a broad network of vessel equipment suppliers.As one of the world’s northernmost countries, Finland is also home to a fleet of icebreakers that keep imports and exports flowing through its harbors, even during the coldest winter months.

Yacht cruising company Atlas Ocean Voyages has held a naming ceremony in Ushuaia, Argentina for the World Voyager.The 198-guest expedition yacht was christened by Godmother British physiotherapist and British Army Captain Harpreet "Preet" Kaur Chandi MBE.The third vessel in the line's expedition fleet, the sister ship to Atlas Ocean Voyages' World Traveller and World Navigator, the vessel will now begin its inaugural deployment for the 2023/24 Antarctica season.The Polar Category C- and Ice Class 1B-certified vessel features two Rolls Royce 9…

Hurtigruten Group's expedition cruise line Hurtigruten Expeditions is rebranding with a new name, HX.The new HX brand and logo will be fully implemented starting in December, and repainting of the fleet’s six ships will commence over the next 18 months.Hurtigruten Norway will continue with the name simplified to just Hurtigruten.Both Hurtigruten Expeditions and Hurtigruten Norway are 100% owned by Hurtigruten Group and form a portfolio of sustainable travel brands that includes land-based activities…

A luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people remained stuck in a remote Greenland location on Wednesday after running aground earlier this week, the vessel's operator and rescue services said.The Danish military's Joint Arctic Command (JAC) said Tuesday's tide had failed to lift the 104-metre (341-foot) Ocean Explorer enough to free it."The tide that came in during the day, local time, did not provide the desired help to sail on," the JAC said in a statement.The passengers and crew remained safe on board, Australian cruise operator Aurora Expeditions said."There is no immediate danger to themselves, the vessel or the surrounding environment," Sydney-based Aurora said in a statement.The ship ran aground on Monday while touring the Alpefjord national park, some 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of

A Panamanian-flagged vehicle carrier vessel rescued three sailors from a Russian yacht that was mauled by sharks in the Coral Sea. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it coordinated the rescue after the Russian-registered Tion activated its emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) at 1:30 a.m. (AEST) on Wednesday.The distressed vessel, a 9-meter inflatable catamaran with three people on board, including two Russian and one French citizen, was sailing…

Almost two centuries after Charles Darwin's voyage around the world, environmentalists plan to follow in his footsteps by undertaking a two-year journey across four continents to study endemic wildlife and boost conservation.The group will set sail on board a 105-year-old schooner on Tuesday from the southern English port of Plymouth, from where British naturalist Darwin's own expedition began in 1831, leading him to develop the theory of evolution by natural selection.The 40,000 nautical mile "Darwin200" expedition hopes to anchor in 32 ports, including all the major ports visited by Darwin's

After 268 days in his kayak, 1643 hours of paddling and a journey of almost 6,800 miles, 65-year-old Mark Fuhrmann has completed his epic “Reverse the Bad” charity expedition across Canada and the United States.In doing so, he becomes the first person to solo kayak the ‘Greater Loop’ circuit, beginning (and ending) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and traversing the Great Lakes, the Illinois, the Mississippi, the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers, before hitting the Gulf of Mexico and heading up the Atlantic Coast.A smiling…

Carnival's Seabourn brand has taken delivery of its second purpose-built, ultra-luxury expedition ship, Seabourn Pursuit, during an official handover ceremony at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. The "yacht like" small ship is designed and built for remote, diverse environments to PC6 Polar Class standards and includes modern hardware and technology that extend the ship's global deployment and capabilities and allows the line to offer a wide range of expedition activities led by an expert 24-person expedition team of scientists…

In November 2020 I wrote a column in MREN that discussed the right of people to engage in crazy marine ventures. The example I used in that column was an attempt to row from South America to Antarctica. In it I also made note of the inherent unseaworthiness of single-handed ocean racing and noted that such foolishness often resulted in the public spending lots of money providing rescue services.The Ocean Gate Expedition Titan venture has now managed to set an entirely new standard…

Ocean explorer Rob McCallum has offered to join a mission to find and retrieve the data recorder of the livestock carrier that capsized in the East China Sea in 2020.Reporting by 7News.com.au indicates that McCallum is confident that his team could find the Gulf Livestock 1, offering fresh hope to the families of the missing crew after some recently voiced disappointment with the investigation report into the catastrophe published by flag state Panama.The livestock carrier was sailing from New Zealand to China with 43 crew and approximately 6,000 dairy cattle onboard when it capsized in the East China Sea during Typhoon Maysak. 40 crew members remain missing after the capsize.As vessel flag state…

A Canadian-flagged ship on Wednesday brought ashore debris from the Titan submersible that imploded while on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic earlier this month, killing all five people on board.Video from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation showed what appeared to be the nose of the submersible and other shattered fragments wrapped in white tarp pulled up by a crane off the Horizon Arctic vessel at the St. John's harbor in Newfoundland on Wednesday morning.The debris is expected to shed more light on the cause of the catastrophic implosion that killed everyone on board - OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush; British billionaire Hamish Harding…

Canadian safety officials on Friday opened an investigation into the undersea implosion of a tourist submersible that killed all five people aboard while diving to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, raising questions about the unregulated nature of such expeditions.A debris field from the submersible Titan was found at the bottom of the North Atlantic on Thursday by a robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian search vessel, ending an intense five-day international rescue effort.Fragments of Titan…

The question on many minds this week is why did some of the world’s richest men risk death to venture to the bottom of the sea in a cold and cramped “experimental” submersible for a chance to glimpse the wreck of the Titanic?The “unsinkable” ship that sunk on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg is arguably the world’s most well-known boat. The Titanic is recognisable to more of the world’s population than, say, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria (Christopher Colombus’s fleet that launched the Spanish conquest of the Americas)…

The first fatal accident aboard a deep-sea tourist submersible is certain to raise calls for additional safety regulations, but industry experts say any new measures may be impossible to enforce given the international nature of the business.Moreover, they say the tragedy of the Titan submersible that imploded during its expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic was an outlier, given that the maker of the vessel opted against certifying the vessel, defying industry convention.All five people aboard the Titan…

The five people aboard a missing submersible are thought to be dead, according to the company that owns the vessel, bringing a grim end on Thursday to the massive search for the vessel that was lost during a voyage to the Titanic."These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans," OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement. "Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families…