MARITIME MATTERS Ocean liner history and cruise ship news
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Published February 6, 2004. All images and text copyright Peter Knego 2004 (unless otherwise noted). Updated May 10, 2004.
Page One:
Built in 1955 by Steinwerder Industrie AG (Blohm and Voss), Hamburg
(hull number 786)
Rebuilt at Piraeus 1960, various refits over the years
2,496 gt
293 feet by 40 feet
12 foot draft
Five Maybach 12 cylinder diesels; electric drive; 6,000 bhp; twin screw; 17.5 knots
Passengers: 186 (double occupancy)
The XANADU 2 (with the name FAITHFUL still on her bows) at Terminal Island's Southwest Marine Ship Yard, Los Angeles Harbor, 6 September 2003. Photo and copyright Peter Knego 2003.
Update May 10, 2004: Reports of the vessel's sale were unfounded. The XANADU 2/ FAITHFUL remains for sale at Los Angeles.
This mysterious, yacht-like former cruise ship has lain at various anchorages and remote berths in Los Angeles harbor for the better part of two decades. Despite ambitious plans and good intentions, she has been the victim of no less than three unrealized enterprises and is once again on the block.
Her last incarnation as the Christian good will and hospital ship FAITHFUL was never properly fulfilled, although the name remains painted clearly on her weathered flanks. Renamed XANADU 2 last year by a new owner, she was to have been restored as a floating hospital but instead has sat silently at a Terminal Island shipyard. Sadly, one of the financial partners in the new venture died in a car accident and the ship is now without necessary funding.
Two different post card views of the WAPPEN VON HAMBURG as built. Peter Knego collection.
XANADU 2 was built in 1955 for Hafendampfschiffahrt A.G. as the WAPPEN VON HAMBURG by the Steinwerder Industrie AG shipyard at Hamburg, Germany. Steinwerder is better known today as Blohm and Voss and WVH was their first post war seagoing passenger vessel. As she was intended for day cruise service between Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Heligoland and Hornum, she had a rather enormous capacity of 1,600 passengers.
The similar 1957-built BUNTE KUH. Peter Knego collection.
In 1957, a similar but not quite identical ship was placed on the Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Heligoland service. The 2,520 gt BUNTE KUH carried 1600 passengers, and was powered by Maybach diesels capable of 18 knots. The most obvious external difference was her uniquely shaped funnel.
The 1965-built WAPPEN VON HAMBURG. Peter Knego collection.
Before we leave German waters, it would be fitting to take notice of the WVH's current namesake, the 1965-built WAPPEN VON HAMBURG, a ship whose lines clearly evolved from her 1955-built predecessor. The "new" WVH replaced a 1962-built WVH (renamed HELGOLAND and still in service) in 1966. She is larger (4,473 gt) and faster (22 knots) and carries more passengers (1938) than our subject ship.
Nomikos Line's DELOS. Peter Knego collection.
In 1960, the WAPPEN VON HAMBURG was sold to Nomikos Lines of Greece. She was renamed DELOS and refitted at Piraeus in 1961 with a swimming pool, full air conditioning and cabins for 186 passengers in one class. DELOS was considered a pioneering cruise ship and outclassed the motley fleet of aged but interesting ships sailing from Greece to the Aegean at the time. She was so successful that the BUNTE KUH soon followed in her wake, going to the Kesseoglu family who converted her into Sun Line's first STELLA SOLARIS. In 1971, with the purchase of the second STELLA SOLARIS (link), she was sold to the Shiekdom of Quatar and remamed NAIEF for use as a royal yacht.
By the mid to late 1960's an ever-expanding fleet of former liners and ferries were being refitted for Aegean service for an array of companies like Typaldos, Sun Lines, Epirotiki, Efthymiadis, and K-Lines. DELOS maintained her Piraeus to Delos, Mykonos, and Rhodes service until 1967, when she was bought by Westours and renamed POLAR STAR.
The POLAR STAR in a post card view. Peter Knego collection.
POLAR STAR was a perfect fit for the burgeoning Alaska cruise market. She joined stalwart regional mainstays like the CP and CN veterans PRINCESS PATRICIA and PRINCE GEORGE on summer Inside Passage cruises from Vancouver. In the winter, she sailed for Westours subsidiary West Line on cruises along the Pacific Coast to Mexico and even ventured as far as Tahiti and the South Pacific.
A popular post card view of Xanadu Cruises' XANADU. Peter Knego collection.
In 1970, she was officially transferred to West Lines and renamed PACIFIC STAR. In 1972, she was sold to Xanadu Cruises of Panama and renamed XANADU.
Please click for page two: In XANADU Was A Pleasure Ship Decreed