Palm Beach Princess

MS "Palm Beach Princess" is a cruise ship owned by Cruise Holdings and operated by Palm Beach Cruises on casino cruises out of Palm Beach, Florida. She was built in 1964 by Wärtsilä Helsinki New Shipyard, Helsinki, Finland for Finland Steamship Company as MS "Ilmatar". From 1970 until 1974 and again from 1978 to 1980 she was marketed as a part of Silja Line fleet. In 1973 she was lengthened at HDW Hamburg, Germany by convert|20.04|m|ftin|abbr=on. Between 1975—1976 she was chartered to Finnlines. In 1979 she was converted to a cruise ship.

In 1980 the "Ilmatar" was sold to Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab, without a change of name. In 1974 she was sold to Grundstad Maritime Overseas and renamed MS "Viking Princess" for cruising with Crown Cruise Line. In 1997 she received her current name.

On 28 November 1968 the "Ilmatar" collided with the Siljavarustamo ferry MS|Botnia in the Åland archipelago, resulting in the death of six people on board the "Botnia".Malmberg (2007). pp. 102-103]

Concept and construction

In the early 1960s the Finland Steamship Company decided to construct a 5,171 gross register ton ship for the Finland—Sweden service the company operated in collaboration with Steamship Company Bore, Rederi AB Svea and Siljavarustamo, a joint subsidiary of the three companies. For the first time in Finland SS Co's history, the new ship was fitted with diesel engines and included side-loadable car deck for 50 cars. Her service speed was planned at convert|16.50|kn|km/h|abbr=on, and she was to carry 1000 passengers, 332 of them in two classes with berths and the rest as classless deck passengers.

The construction of the new vessel was awarded to Wärtsilä's Helsinki New Shipyard, and she was the largest ship built by the shipyard at the time. On 29 October 1963 the ship was launched and christened "Ilmatar" (spiritess of the air, a character from the Finnish national epic Kalevala) by Sylvi Kekkonen, the wife of Urho Kekkonen who was the President of Finland at the time. She was delivered on 15 June 1964.

The "Ilmatar" was found to be too small from the start, and in 1973 she was docked at HDW Hamburg, Germany, where she was lengthened by convert|20.04|m|ftin|abbr=on, increasing her passenger capacity to 1210, passenger berths to 450 and car capacity to 75. In 1978—1979 she was rebuilt for cruise service at the shipyard that had built her, with cabins rebuilt and a casino, swimming pool, gym and cinema were added.

ervice history

1964—1980

Following delivery, the "Ilmatar" was used on traffic from Helsinki or Turku to Skeppsbron in Stockholm. In July of the same year she lost her rudder near Mariehamn.

On 28 November 1968 the "Ilmatar" was en-route from Stockholm to Turku in heavy fog with 177 passengers on board. She was scheduled to pass MS|Botnia of Siljavarustamo near Långnäs, Åland around 2 AM. Both ships were in radar and radio contact with each other and their captains agreed on where and when the ships would pass each other. Despite the precautions the ships collided at 2:12 am, after the "Botnia" had accidentally drifted to the wrong side of the shipway. Due to the heavy fog, visual contact was not established until five seconds before the collision. The "Ilmatar"'s bow hit the "Botnia"'s starboard side in a 40° angle, tearing a 40-meter gash on the "Botnia" and destroying eight cabins. One crew member and two passengers of the "Botnia" were killed instantly, while seven passengers were seriously injured and three of them died later on. The "Ilmatar"'s bow was entirely destroyed but no people on board here were seriously injured. She was able to continue to Turku under her own power, and re-entered service after repairs on 8 December 1968. The crew of the "Ilmatar" were found innocent of causing the accident.

In 1970 Finland SS Co, Bore and Svea restructured their joint operations, creating a new marketing company Silja Line. [Malmberg (2007). p. 106] As a result the "Ilmatar" came to be marketed as a Silja Line vessel and logos of the new company were painted on her sides. In 1973 she was lengthened at HDW Hamburg. Following the lengthening she was mainly used in Finland Steamship Company cruise traffic, and only occasionally for Silja Line service. In 1974—1975 she was used in Finland SS Co's Helsinki—Copenhagen—Travemünde service. In 1975 the company withdrew from the joint Finland—Germany service with Finnlines. As a result the "Ilmatar" was chartered to Finnlines from 25 May 1975 until 6 July 1976 and used on the Helsinki—Copenhagen—Travemünde service. In 1976 Finland Steamship Company changed their name to Effoa. Following the end of charter to Finnlines, the "Ilmatar" was used by Effoa on cruise traffic on the Baltic Sea, Norwegian Fjords and the Mediterranean.

From the beginning of 1978 the marketing of the "Ilmatar"'s cruises was taken over by Silja Line, and Silja Cruise logos were painted on her superstructure. Her cruises were successful, and during the winter 1978—1979 she was rebuilt as a genuine cruise ship by Wärtsilä. Restrictions placed on cruise traffic by the Soviet Union, the long maritime strike of 1980 and following increased crew costs resulted in the decision to stop cruise service in June 1980. [cite web |url=http://www.valkeatlaivat.net/historia/80-valkeat_kaunottaret_saapuvat.htm |title=Valkeat kaunottaret saapuvat |accessdate=2008-03-01 |last=Koski |first=Sami |language=in Finnish |work=Valkeat Laivat ] The "Ilmatar" returned briefly to Helsinki—Stockholm service for Silja Line, until she was sold to Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab on 27 October 1980 for $6.5 million.

1980—1984

Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab re-registered the "Ilmatar" in the Norwegian International Shipregister, but kept her original name and initially even Effoa funnel colours, although these were later changed to those of Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab. The ship was used for cruising around Europe until 27 November 1982, when she was laid up at Toulon, France.

1984—1997

After being laid up for over a year, the "Ilmatar" was sold to Grunstad Maritime Overseas, renamed "Viking Princess" and re-flagged to Panama. Initially the "Viking Princess" was used for cruising from San Diego, California to Mexico in Crown Cruise Line colours from April 1984 until 1985, when she was moved to cruising from West Palm Beach to the Caribbean. Following the bankruptcy of her owners, the "Viking Princess" was laid up in October 1995.

1997—present

In November 1997 the "Viking Princess" was sold to Deerbroke Invest, renamed "Palm Beach Princess" and used for casino cruising out of West Palm Beach in the colours of Palm Beach Casino Line. Her ownership changed several times during the following years, but she continued cruising on the same route in the same colours. [cite web |url=http://www.pbcasino.com/ |title=Palm Beach Princess |accessdate=2008-03-01 |last= |first= |language= |publisher=Palm Beach Casino Line ]

Design

Exterior design

The "Ilmatar" was originally built with a yacht-like external appearance, with a sleek raked bow and a rounded stern. In keeping with the ferry design of the day she did not have a traditional funnel, but two slim exhaust pipes at near the back of the superstructure. The bridge was located on a separate deck on top of the superstructure, almost amidship. A half-arch shaped dummy "funnel" was attached to the back of the bridge structure, and the Finland Steamship Company colours were painted there.

The 1973 lengthening altered the ship's external appearance. The convert|20.04|m|ftin|abbr=on extension meant she lost her yacht-like looks and now appeared more like a liner. In addition to the lengthening, new spaces were built behind the bridge, which meant the removal of her original stylified dummy funnel. A new, large but low dummy funnel was built on the top and behind the added top deck structure. Her rear sun deck was also slightly extended.

When the "Ilmatar" became the "Viking Princess", the dummy funnel was heightened to almost twice its original height. At some point during her career as "Viking Princess" the ship's rear sun deck was radically extended with the addition of a two-level overhanging structure.

References

External links

* [http://www.pbcasino.com/ Company website]