Azamara Quest is the second cruise ship to be disabled by an engine room fire in recent weeks. Until taken in tow, Costa Allegra, on a voyage from Madagascar to the Seychelles, drifted with no power at all for three days in an incident at the end of February.
The latest victim was more fortunate. The fire broke out a week ago last Friday, when the ship, on a 17-day cruise from Hong Kong to Singapore, was a day out from Manila on the way to Sandakan, Malaysia.
Engineers restored power to one of the engines and the ship, with 590 passengers and a crew of 411, continued to Malaysia.
Azamara Quest is operated by the Pullmantur-Azamara Club Cruises arm of the Royal Caribbean group. It is also a sister ship to Regatta, here for the third time on Good Friday. Both belong to the class of eight 30,277gt ships built for Renaissance Cruises and delivered from 1998 to 2001, by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard at St Nazaire.
However, this rather ambitious project ran into financial difficulties and Renaissance Cruises was declared bankrupt in September 2001.
Eventually, all the ships, with their uninspiring names R One to R Eight, passed to new owners.
Regatta, built in 1998 as R Two, is the fourth of the class to call here. The ship is operated by Oceania Cruises, whose Nautica (R Five) has also been a local visitor. And the Carnival group's Pacific Princess (R Three) was the second member of the class to berth here.
It made the first of seven visits on March 10, 2005, four days after a sister ship, now trading as Azamara Quest, introduced the design locally. Completed in September 2000, as R Seven, it was owned by Cruiseinvest Seven A.S. and sailing under the Marshall Islands flag when it made that one-off visit as Delphin Renaissance.
The ship sailed under that name from 2003-06, then as Blue Moon, before receiving its present name in 2007. Also part of the same fleet is Azamara Journey (R Six).
Of the remaining three ships, Oceania operates Insignia (R One). The Carnival group runs Ocean Princess (ex Tahitian Princess and R Four) and Adonia (R Eight).
Just missing out in being in port together at the end of last week were the Hyundai Mipo class, 2824 TEU sister ships Irenes Remedy, on its second visit, and Irenes Rainbow, on its fourth. Both, on charter to Maersk, carry the colours of the Tsakos group.
The career of another of its vessels, that made nine visits from May 13, 2008, to January 14, 2009, on MSC's transtasman link, recently came to an end. The chartered 31,356gt. 1822 TEU MSC Rugby, built in 1983, was beached at Alang for demolition on February 20.
Also beached there on the same day was the MSC-owned MSC Nora. Dating from 1986, the 39,892gt, 3016 TEU vessel made two calls here, in October and December 2011. Sister ship MSC Clementina was here for the fourth time last week.
