Displaying items by tag: Belfast Built Ships

31st August 2012

Detained Cruiseship Departs Dublin Port After Fuel Bill Resolved

#CRUISESHIP RELEASED – As previously reported, the Princess Danae (1955/16,531grt) which was at the centre of a dispute over an unpaid fuel bill departed Dublin Port last night, after the High Court set aside orders it had earlier granted detaining the vessel.

Yesterday afternoon the High Court ordered the arrest and detention of the Madeira registered vessel which arrived in Dublin yesterday morning, having sailed through the North Channel.

The 800 passenger and crew capacity cruiseship, was detained arising out of an alleged failure by its owners to pay an outstanding fuel bill of $94,000 (€74,940).

All but three bunks aboard the ship were occupied at the time Princess Danae was detained. The vessel was built originally as the cargoship Port Melbourne by Harland & Wolff, Belfast and is currently en-route to La Rochelle in western France.

For more on this story, The Irish Times has a report.

Published in Cruise Liners

Tagged under

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour