A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liners and in virtually all cruise ships has this cargo capacity been eliminated.
Hurtigruten is a Norwegian cruise, ferry and cargo operator. The company was founded in 1893 to operate voyages on Norway's western and northern coast between Bergen and Kirkenes. Hurtigruten ships sail almost the entire length of the country, crossing the arctic circle and completing the round-trip journey in 11 days. The trip has been described as the "World's Most Beautiful Sea Voyage," with stops in such places as Bergen, the Geiranger fjord, and the Lofoten Islands. The company has nearly 2% of the worldwide cruise market. More recently, Hurtigruten has begun operating cruises in other areas such as Greenland, Canada, South America, Iceland, Svalbard, and Antarctica.
Chantiers de l'Atlantique is a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. It is one of the world's largest shipyards, constructing a wide range of commercial, naval, and passenger ships. It is located near Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire river and the deep waters of the Atlantic, which make the sailing of large ships in and out of the shipyards easy.
Hurtigruten AS, formerly Hurtigruten Group ASA and Hurtigruten ASA, is a Norwegian transport corporation with headquarters in Tromsø, Norway. The company provides services in bus transport, passenger ferry transport, automobile ferry transport, cruise ships, and tourism planning — in addition to operating Hurtigruten, the coastal ferry service along the Norwegian coast from which it takes its name.
The MS Nordnorge is a Hurtigruten ship. It was completed in 1997 by Kværner Kleven in Ulsteinvik, Norway, as a sister ship to MS Polarlys and MS Nordkapp. The Nordnorge has a gross tonnage of 11,386, crew capacity of 57, and can carry up to 691 passengers.
MS Nordkapp is a Hurtigruten ship built in 1996 by Kleven Verft AS, Norway, for Ofotens og Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab for use in Hurtigruten ferry service along the coast of Norway. She is a sister ship of MS Polarlys and MS Nordnorge. Nordkapp is one of 11 ships that travel the Norwegian coast from Bergen to Kirkenes.
Albatros is a sailing ketch built in the Netherlands in 1899. Trading as a cargo sailing ship until 1996, she is now used as a training vessel.
SS Barøy was a 424-ton steel-hulled steamship delivered from the Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted shipyard in Trondheim in 1929. She had been ordered by the Norwegian shipping company Ofotens Dampskibsselskab for the local route from the port city of Narvik to the smaller towns of Lødingen and Svolvær. After the company suffered ship losses in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign Barøy was put into Hurtigruten service on the Trondheim–Narvik route. She was sunk with heavy loss of life in a British air attack in the early hours of 13 September 1941.
MS Lofoten is a Norwegian passenger and cargo vessel owned and operated by Hurtigruten ASA. The ship was built in 1964. After MS Nordstjernen was retired from coastal service in 2012, MS Lofoten became the oldest ship in the current fleet still in operation. It operates cruises around the coast of Norway and sometimes in the Svalbard archipelago. The vessel was declared worthy of preservation in 2001 by the Norwegian Director General of Historic Monuments to preserve Norway's cultural heritage. She has been refitted several times—in 1980, 1985, 1995 and most recently in 2004.
Several steamships have borne the name Donau, after the German name for the river Danube:
Several steamships have borne the name Stella:
SS Nordnorge was a Norwegian steamship built in 1923–24 by Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted, for the Narvik-based Norwegian shipping company Ofotens Dampskibsselskap. First employed on the company's Narvik-Trondheim route, she was transferred to the longer Hurtigruten route in late 1936. Seized by the Germans following their April 1940 attack on Norway, she was used as covert troop ship and was sunk shortly after delivering her cargo of German troops behind Allied lines on 10 May 1940.
Two steamships have borne the name Nordnorge, after the Norwegian name for Northern Norway:
Four steamships have borne the name Dronning Maud, after the Norwegian Queen Maud:
Several motor ships have borne the name Midnatsol:
Several motor ships have borne the name Polarlys:
Two motor ships have borne the name Nordlys:
MS Finnmarken is a Norwegian coastal ship owned and operated by Hurtigruten ASA. It was built in 2002 at Kværner Kleven, Ulsteinvik, Norway, and cost around 750 million Norwegian Kroner (nok). It was part of the Hurtigruten coastal route from 2002 to 2009. In 2010 it was leased as a hotel ship in Australia. The ship returned to Norway in 2012 and is now a part of the coastal route travelling between Bergen and Kirkenes.
Three motor ships have borne the name Fernglen:
Several motor ships have borne the name Sama:
