Empress of the Seas
MS Empress of the Seas in Grand Cayman on Monday, May 30th, 2016.
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| History | |
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| Name: |
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| Owner: | Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. |
| Operator: |
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| Port of registry: | |
| Builder: | Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire, France |
| Yard number: | G29 |
| Launched: | August 25, 1989 |
| Christened: | Gloria Estefan |
| Acquired: | May 31, 1990 |
| Maiden voyage: |
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| Homeport: | PortMiami |
| Identification: | IMO number: 8716899 |
| Status: | In service |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type: | Empress-class cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | |
| Length: | 210.81 m (691.63 ft) |
| Beam: | 30.70 m (100.72 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.10 m (23.29 ft) |
| Decks: | 9 Passenger Decks |
| Installed power: |
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| Speed: | 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph) |
| Capacity: | 1,840 |
| Crew: | 668 |
| Notes: | Formerly Nordic Empress and Empress of the Seas for Royal Caribbean. |
MS Empress of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International. She was formerly operated by Pullmantur Cruises as Empress. The ship was ordered by Admiral Cruise Lines and was intended to be called the Future Seas and join the other Admiral ships, the Azure Seas and the Emerald Seas. However, when Royal Caribbean merged with Admiral in 1987, the Admiral brand was dissolved and the newbuild (still under construction) was incorporated into the Royal Caribbean fleet. A few signature Royal Caribbean brand elements were added, including the Viking Crown and Windjammer Cafe.
The ship was originally named Nordic Empress and was the final Royal Caribbean ship whose name did not end with "of the Seas" until the name was changed to match the rest of the fleet following an extensive rebuilding that ended on 8 May 2004.
Nordic Empress was the first mainstream cruise ship especially designed for the 3 and 4 day cruise market. Her initial itinerary was a short cruise to the Bahamas, which was then combined with 3 and 4 day cruises from San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1999, following the sale of the Song of America, the Nordic Empress took over the New York City to Bermuda route.
In 2000, Royal Caribbean announced that the Nordic Empress would be undertaking a series of cruises in South America. Shortly after these cruises were put on sale, Royal Caribbean decided to replace the Nordic Empress with the Splendour of the Seas on the South American itineraries, leaving the Nordic Empress in the Caribbean.
In June 2001 the Nordic Empress suffered extensive engine room fire damage while sailing 140 miles north of Bermuda. Subsequent investigation revealed the cause of the fire was failure of a loose bolt in a fuel line flange assembly that had been improperly repaired. The broken bolt caused the flange assembly to separate, allowing fuel to leak around the engine. Moments after a low fuel pressure alarm sounded in the engine room, the leaking fuel ignited against the hot engine surfaces, causing a large explosion that was visible on the engine room CCTV. The engines were stopped immediately and all fuel pumps switched off. Crew members attempting to enter the engine area to fight to fire with fire hoses were forced to turn back from the intense heat. 6 minutes into the fire, the engine room overhead fire sprinkler system was activated along with the ship's general emergency alarm. The sprinklers appeared to have extinguished the fire after 4 minutes, and crew once again attempted to re-enter the engine area, only to have the residual fuel in the engine area ignite a flash fire that was quickly extinguished with fire hoses. During the subsequent inspection of the engine room and surrounding areas, burning wires were discovered in an adjacent compartment. The space was evacuated before lowering watertight doors and releasing 885 kg of halon and restarting the overhead sprinkler system. 3 hours after the first fire broke out, the incident was logged as resolved. The ship was able to return to Bermuda under reduced power, and was subsequently taken out of service for 2 weeks for repairs. Total expenses and lost revenue related to the fire totaled over $8.8 million.
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