SS The Emerald

SS The Emerald is a cruise ship owned by the Cyprus-based shipping company Louis Cruise Lines, under long-term charter to the United Kingdom-based Thomson Cruises. It was built in 1958 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, USA for Grace Lines as SS Santa Rosa. Between 1992 and 1995 it sailed for Regency Cruises as SS Regent Rainbow. As of 2007 it is the only passenger liner built at a U.S. shipyard (passenger liners having not been built there since 1958) that is still in service.^[1]

History

The ship was originally launched in 1958 as Santa Rosa, she measured 20,000 tonnes. She sailed under this name for 13 years before she was laid up in port in 1971. She remained in port for twenty years and, in this period, changed hands various times. She was sold to Vintoro Corp of New York in 1976 and was renamed Samos Sky, she was to operate South American service once again, but this venture did not eventuate and the ship remained idle. She was sold to Coral Cruise Lines in 1989 and was towed to Greece in December. She arrived in Chalkis, Greece in March 1990 to be modernised, Coral Cruises first renamed her Pacific Sun, then Diamond Island. Later that year, she was sold to the Lelakis Group of Greece and was substantially rebuilt at the cost of $70 million. She emerged in 1991, with a brand new superstructure above her unaltered hull, and she was barely recognisable, although, unusually, she kept her steam turbine engines. She now measured 26,431 gross tonnes and entered service under Regency Cruises as the popular Regent Rainbow from 1992 until Regency Cruises suffered extensive losses and was declared bankrupt in 1995. The Regent Rainbow was placed under arrest on November 27 of that year and, in December 1996, was sold to the Maltese Louis Cruise Lines and renamed Emerald. She was chartered to Thomson Cruises in 1997 and The was added before her name. The ship has become very popular and has continued to sail with Thomson for most of her life in service since, and will continue to sail with them in 2008. She is likely to be withdrawn from service in 2010 at the latest, as new SOLAS regulations coming into effect on 1 July 2010 will make operating her impossible without a major reconstruction.

Decks

The Emerald has ten decks, all ten of which are accessible to passengers.

1. Gym, hospital, Kidzone, massage room, sauna, engine room, crew spaces
2. Outside and inside cabins, engine room, crew spaces
3. Outside and inside cabins, crew spaces
4. Outside and inside cabins, beauty salon
5. Outside and inside cabins, reception
6. Yacht club bar, Royale lounge, casino, shops, library, Monte Carlo court, Chanterelle dining room, Regency showlounge
7. Outside and inside cabins
8. Outside and inside cabins, Le Bistro buffet, swimming pool, lido bar
9. Starlight lounge, disco, whirlpools
10. Sun deck (exists in the forward part of the ship only)

References