Ocean Countess - History

History

Cunard Countess was built in Denmark in 1974-75 and initially registered in Southampton, England. The vessel was fitted-out at the INMA shipyard at La Spezia, Italy, from where trials were conducted and the vessel completed in July 1976. The ship proceeded to her Caribbean sea base port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, via Barcelona, Spain and Antigua. A part-ship charter group of passengers were carried on this maiden voyage, between Barcelona and Antigua. On the eve of entering full commercial service in August 1976, Cunard Countess was christened at San Juan by Janet Armstrong, then wife of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

Cunard Countess became one of the better-known cruise ships to ply the Caribbean and middle Atlantic ocean, becoming a staple at the San Juan ship dock and later at Miami, Santo Domingo and many other places around the area. Cunard Countess was notably one of the few ships to regularly visit the Caribbean island of Grenada during the revolutionary period of that island (1979–1983) and thus played a major role in supporting the local tourist industry during those years.

Two of Cunard Countess's competitors in the Caribbean during the late 1970s-1980s were the much earlier but also very popular SS Amerikanis and Carla C, all three being of similar dimensions and capacity (recently built cruise ships are invariably far larger). Other contemporary ships in this market were the P&O/Princess Cruises' MS Sun Princess (1972) and MS Island Princess (1971), both also having similar dimensions and capacity to that of Cunard Countess.

In October 1982, after the conclusion of the Falklands War, the ship was chartered for 6 months by the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), to support troop movements between Ascension Island and Port Stanley whilst the Falkland Islands airfield was being reinstated. Families and friends of British personnel lost in the conflict were also carried on one round voyage, to enable commemorations both at sea and ashore. At the end of the charter, Cunard controversially awarded the contract for the refurbishment of the vessel to Malta Shipyards, at a reported cost of 2 million UK Pounds. Cunard Countess returned to Caribbean cruising in July 1983.

In 1990 the ship's port of registry was changed to that of Nassau, The Bahamas.

In 1996 - before Carnival’s buy-out of Cunard Line in 1998 - Cunard Countess was sold to Awani Cruises and renamed Awani Dream II, to cruise along with the original Awani Dream. The Awani cruise company ran into financial trouble and, in 1998, the ship moved to Royal Olympic Cruises, as Olympic Countess.

Re-styled as Ocean Countess in 2004, the vessel was chartered as Ruby to Louis Cruise Lines in May 2007, resuming the name Ocean Countess in December of that year. During this employment, cruises usually departed from Piraeus, visiting destinations like Mykonos, Patmos, Crete and Santorini in Greece as well as Kusadasi in Turkey. During 2009 the ship was leased by the Spanish operator Quail Cruises, for a series of Mediterranean cruises from Valencia.

The Ocean Countess is registered at Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

In April 2010, the refitted Ocean Countess joined MS Marco Polo in an extensive cruise programme from British ports for the recently formed company, Cruise & Maritime Voyages.

It was also announced on September 7, 2012, that the Ocean Countess will leave the fleet in late 2012, her final cruise is a 13-night Canary Islands & Madeira “Farewell Voyage” now scheduled to conclude in Barcelona instead of returning to Liverpool; she will be replaced by the MV Discovery.