Cruiseship Call to Cobh on Irish Debut

1st July 2012

#CRUISE LINERS – The newest addition to the Saga Cruises fleet Saga Sapphire (1981/37,301gt) is to make her debut to Dublin Port tomorrow, having made her inaugural Irish port of call to Cobh today, writes Jehan Ashmore.

Saga Sapphire previously the Bleu de France and launched as Europa for Hapag Lloyd, underwent a major refit taking several months in the Sicilian port of Palermo at the Fincantieri shipyard.

She arrived into her homeport of Southampton in preparation for her new owners 'maiden' cruise in late March which was delayed by several days. The delay in redelivering the 706-passenger cruiseship was due to strike action over redundancies at the shipyard.

Tomorrow she is due to berth in the capital port at Ocean Pier under the command of Captain Philip Rentell who has worked with the UK based operator when he joined the company in 2005 as master on their Saga Rose.

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals.

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