Chantiers de l'Atlantique

The Batillus oil tanker at the end of its construction in Saint-Nazaire, being refueled by the Port-Vendres

Chantiers de l'Atlantique is part of the South Korean STX Shipbuilding Group and one of the world's largest shipyards, based in Saint-Nazaire, France. It was owned by Alstom since 1984, and was acquired in 2006 by STX Europe, a subsidiary of STX Shipbuilding.
In 2008, the French Republic became a strategic substantial minority-shareholder with 33.34% of the shares.^[1]

The largest ocean liner, and for a while also the largest passenger ship -until the 2006 launch of MS Freedom of the Seas-, the RMS Queen Mary 2, was built at the shipyard and completed in late 2003 and delivered to Cunard Line in January 2004.

Its location near Nantes, France, at the mouth of the Loire and the deep waters of the Atlantic makes sailing large ships in and out easier.

History

Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire and Chantiers de Penhoët merged in 1955 to form Chantiers de l'Atlantique. The yard started by building ships for the French transatlantic line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. In 1961, it built the trans-Atlantic superliner SS France, then the world's longest passenger vessel.^{[citation needed]}

After the construction of the last Compagnie Générale Transatlantique liner and the closure of the Suez Canal, the yard began building large tankers, including Batillus, Bellamya, Pierre Guillaumat and Prairial. A new dry dock (Basin C) was planned for the construction of tankers over 1,000,000 tonnes but this fell through with the re-opening of the Suez Canal.^{[citation needed]}

The giant superliner RMS Queen Mary 2 under construction

Chantiers de l'Atlantique delivered the luxury cruise ship, Crystal Serenity of Crystal Cruises in July 2003.

The yard built the giant superliner RMS Queen Mary 2 for the Cunard Line in 2003. Shortly after construction a gangway connecting the ship to the dry dock collapsed killing 16 people.^[2]

Aker Yards and Alstom announced on 4 January 2006 their intention to join forces in shipbuilding and create together one of the world leaders in this industry, focused on high-value-added ships, including world-class cruise ships^{[citation needed]}.

The parties plan to establish a new company consisting of the shipyards in Saint-Nazaire and Lorient. Aker Yards would own 75% of this new company and Alstom would commit itself to keep the remaining 25% until 2010. The transaction would enable continuity in management and the actions taken as part of the “Marine 2010“ performance improvement and cost reduction programme already under implementation in Alstom Marine.^{[citation needed]}

Ships built

Ships built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique include:

• Batillus class supertankers, 4 ships launched 1976-9
• MS Dreamward entered service in 1992.
• MS Windward entered service in 1993.
• MS Paul Gauguin currently sailing in French Polynesia.
• Grand Mistral entered service in 1999. Nowadays, it is operated by Ibero Cruceros.
• Crystal Serenity entered service in 2003
• Queen Mary 2 floated in 2003 is the longest, tallest, widest, and at 151,400 gross tons, it's also the largest Ocean Liner ever.
• GTS Millennium built in 2000 and sailed by Celebrity Cruises.
• Seven Seas Mariner launched in 2001 and operated by Regent Seven Seas Cruises (formerly Radisson Seven Seas Cruises). This is the world's first all balcony luxury cruise ship.
• Part of MS Baltic Princess launched in 2008.
• The MS Thomson Spirit, then the MS Nieuw Amsterdam was finished by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in 1984, for the Holland America Line.
• Royal Caribbean International's MS Sovereign of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world from 1988 to 1990.
• Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Epic, built in 2010 and currently the world's second largest cruise ship, behind the Oasis-class and ahead of Freedom-class ships of RCI.
• MV Gastor and MV Nestor: two LNG carriers built in 1976-1977 for the Dutch NSU (later Nedlloyd) and Ocean Group. The large drydock, that was later used for the Queen Mary 2, was specially built for the building of supertankers in the 1970s, among which these two ships . The drydock was never used again until the QM2 was being built.^[3]
• SS Shalom ZIM Israel Flag-Ship 1964
• Coral Princess launched in 2002 by Princess Cruises
• Island Princess launched in 2003 by Princess Cruises. She is a sister ship to Coral Princess.
• Ocean Princess, formerly Tahitian Princess, was launched in 1999.
• Pacific Princess was launched in 1999 and is a sister ship to Ocean Princess.
• MV Adonia, formerly Royal Princess, was launched in 2001.

A plaque inside the Coral Princess

References

1. ^ http://www.stxeurope.com/?page=846&xml=S/134984/PR/200811/1267443 stxeurope.com, STX Europe, 6 November 2008.
2. ^ Inquiry into cruise liner deaths, BBC News, 2003-Nov-15
3. ^ Documentary on Discovery Knowledge Building of the Queen Mary 2 on YouTube - YT movie deleted because of copyright infringement

External links

• Aker Yards

Coordinates: 47°16′59″N 2°11′19″W / 47.2831°N 2.1886°W / 47.2831; -2.1886