The Astor

Monday, 14 July 2014 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Cruise Ships
Reading Time:  7 minutes

MS Astor in Kiel © VollwertBIT/cc-by-sa-3.0

MS Astor in Kiel © VollwertBIT/cc-by-sa-3.0

MS Astor is a cruise ship owned by the Germany-based Premicon, under charter to the Germany-based Transocean Tours. She was built in 1987 under the name Astor by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), Kiel, for the Mauritius-based Marlan Corporation, although originally ordered by the South African Safmarine as a combined ocean liner/cruise ship for the SouthamptonCape Town service.

In 1988 the ship was sold to the Soviet Union-based Black Sea Shipping Company and renamed Fedor Dostoevskiy (some sources spell the name Fedor Dostoyevskiy), but spent her time under charter to various West German cruise lines. In 1995 she reverted to the name Astor. Since 1996 she has been under charter to Transocean Tours. Today she operates for Cruise & Maritime Voyages on voyages in Europe, South Africa and Australia.

MS Astor departing from Tallinn © Pjotr Mahhonin/cc-by-sa-3.0 MS Astor in Valletta © Mike1979 Russia/cc-by-sa-3.0 MS Astor in Tallinn © Pjotr Mahhonin/cc-by-sa-3.0 MS Astor in Tallinn © Pjotr Mahhonin/cc-by-sa-3.0 MS Astor in Liverpool © Rept0n1x/cc-by-sa-3.0 MS Astor in Kiel © VollwertBIT/cc-by-sa-3.0
<
>
MS Astor departing from Tallinn © Pjotr Mahhonin/cc-by-sa-3.0
Externally, the 1987-built Astor was designed to be almost identical to the 1981-built Astor, but approximately 12 metres (39 ft) longer. Due to the similar design the ships were distinguishable only due to the additional windows below the first lifeboat on the 1987 ship. Both Astors were designed with a sharply raked bow, a relatively low, terraced superstructure and a large, square funnel. In Marlan Corporation service, the Astor was initially painted with a white hull and superstructure, a red decorative stripe deparating the hull and superstructure, and red/blue funnel with a large white cross painted on it alongside the letters ML. This was later altered so that the decorative stripe was extended to cover the entire lowest supersrtucture deck, while the funnel was painted white with red stripes. As Feodor Dostoevskiy, the decorative stripe on the hull reverted to the same form as in the original livery, while the funnel was painted white with blue exhaust pipes and a wide red stripe with the hammer and sickle emblem on it. In Transocean Tours service the ship received a livery with a narrower light/dark blue decorative stripe on the hull, a white funnel with blue exhaust pipes, a thin light/dark blue stripe with Transocean Tours’ large T logo in the middle.

As with the exterior, the interior layout and decorations of the 1987-built Astor were very similar to the 1981-built Astor, down to the bathroom fittings. However, the 1987-built ship was designed with a larger number of suites, improved crew quarters, an added casino and added conference facilities. Like the 1981-built ship, the 1987-built Astor was furnished in traditional style using large amounts of dark wood, with many of the public rooms having high ceilings. The author Douglas Ward described the ship as having “a certain degree of style, comfort and elegance”.

Read more on Wikipedia MV Astor. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center - Global Passport Power Rank - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Lake Wörth architecture

Lake Wörth architecture

[caption id="attachment_230714" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Johann Jaritz/cc-by-sa-3.0-at[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The so-called Wörthersee architecture shaped the appearance of the cultural landscape around the Wörthersee between the opening of the then private Southern Railway and the "Anschluss of Austria" from 1864 to 1938. Castles, villas, boathouses and bathhouses around the lake have been built in the so-called "Wörthersee style". Examples can be found in Pörtschach, Velden, Krumpendorf, Klagenfurt and on the...

[ read more ]

Budva in Montenegro

Budva in Montenegro

[caption id="attachment_160836" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Igycg[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Budva is a coastal town in Montenegro. It has around 18,000 inhabitants, and it is the centre of municipality. The coastal area around Budva, called the Budva Riviera, is the centre of Montenegro's tourism, and is well known for its sandy beaches, diverse nightlife, and examples of Mediterranean architecture. Budva is 3,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic sea coast. The Old Town in B...

[ read more ]

Theme Week New York City - Manhattan on Hudson River

Theme Week New York City - Manhattan on Hudson River

[caption id="attachment_26483" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Midtown and Lower Manhattan © flickr.com - Eneas De Troya/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Manhattan is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coterminous with New York County. The borough mostly consists of Manhattan Island, bounded by the East, Hudson and Harlem Rivers, but also includes several small adjacent islands and a small area on the mainland. Manhattan has been described as the economic and cultural center of ...

[ read more ]

Palmyra in Syria

Palmyra in Syria

[caption id="attachment_185897" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Cella of the Temple of Bel - destroyed in 2015 © Bernard Gagnon/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Palmyra is an ancient Semitic city (Tadmor) in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second millennium BC. Palmyra changed hands on a number of occasions between different empires before becoming a subject of the Roman Empire in the first century AD. T...

[ read more ]

The Silicon Valley

The Silicon Valley

[caption id="attachment_6555" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Stanford University © Zadonix[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Silicon Valley is the southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. The region, whose name derives from the Santa Clara Valley in which it is centered, is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations as well as thousands of small startups. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to...

[ read more ]

Chester in North West England

Chester in North West England

[caption id="attachment_153077" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Northgate Street © geograph.org.uk - John Firth/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Chester, is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 119,000 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100. Chester was granted city status in 1541. A considerable amount of land in Chester is owned b...

[ read more ]

Santa Clarita in California

Santa Clarita in California

[caption id="attachment_228025" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Fountain in front of the Edwards Theater © Mrrxx/cc-by-sa-2.5[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Santa Clarita is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County, California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, and the 17th-largest in the state of California. It is located about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and occupies 70.75 square miles (183.2 km²) of land in the Santa Clarita Valle...

[ read more ]

Lisbon, the white city

Lisbon, the white city

[caption id="attachment_146422" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Stefan Didam-Schmallenberg[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Nowhere in Portugal visitors will find a more impressive reminder of the great seafaring tradition and the wealth of the former colonial power than in the capital. It seems as if one would breathe history and even untrained eyes can see "Once here was power and money at home!". Much is well preserved, especially the pride of the residents. Lisbon is one of the quieter, yet vibrant European cities with the typi...

[ read more ]

Portrait: Werner von Siemens, founder of modern electrical engineering

Portrait: Werner von Siemens, founder of modern electrical engineering

[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ernst Werner Siemens was a German inventor and industrialist. Siemens’s name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance, the siemens. He was also the founder of the electrical and telecommunications company Siemens. After finishing school, Siemens intended to study at the Bauakademie Berlin. However, since his family was highly indebted and thus could not afford to pay the tuition fees, he chose to join the Prussian Military Academy's School of Artillery and Engineering, between the years 1835-1...

[ read more ]

The schooner Western Union

The schooner Western Union

[caption id="attachment_151756" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © schoonerwesternunion.org[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]A restored schooner that served the Western Union Telegraph Company and now carries visitors on leisure trips from Key West has been fully refurbished after a three-year, $1.25 million effort. Residents celebrated the restoratino Saturday. Refurbishment of the 72-year-old, 130-foot Western Union was spearheaded by a local organization formed to preserve the vessel and keep it home-ported in Key West, ...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
© vivaconagua.org
Viva con Agua de St. Pauli

Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli is a charity founded in 2005 in the Hamburg quarter of St. Pauli. The...

Agora Square © Tech bro/cc-by-sa-3.0
Limassol on Cyprus

Limassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus. Limassol municipality has a population of 101,000, while the metropolitan area has a...

© symaltesefalcon.com
The sailing yacht Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon built by Perini Navi in Tuzla, Turkey is a ship-rigged sailing luxury yacht, commissioned and formerly owned...

Schließen