Hamburg

M/S Hamburg is a 15,000-ton, 420-passenger luxury cruise ship owned by the Conti Group and operated by Plantours Kreuzfahrten. She was built in 1997 in Wismar, Germany. Her relative small size (overall length 472 feet) allowed her to transit the Great Lakes in North America, where she cruised seasonally between 1997 and 2011, as well as other cruises worldwide. Her crew consists of 170 members, and her top speed is 16 knots. She was previously known as c. Columbus for Hapag-Lloyd. Hamburg is registered in Nassau, The Bahamas.

In April 2015, the vessel suffered damage due to an oil leak. On 5 May 2015, a fishing net became tangled in the ship’s propeller off the South East coast of England. The ship was diverted to Southampton to be inspected. On 11 May 2015, the ship grounded on charted rocks near the New Rocks buoy in the Sound of Mull, Scotland. The official accident report states that Hamburg’s bridge team failed to apply Bridge Team Management tools effectively. The ship needed to be repaired at a shipyard in Belfast and at Bremerhaven and would be completed by 10 August 2015. To continue operations, Plantours chartered M/S Deutschland.

As Hamburg, the ship continues to make seasonal trips into the Great Lakes, usually with European passengers on board.

Written by Roger LeLievre.