MS Hamburg

MS Hamburg is a 15,000-ton, 420 passenger, luxury cruise ship owned by the Conti Group and is now operated by Plantours Kreuzfahrten. She was built in 1997, in Wismar, Germany. Her relative small size allows her to transit the Great Lakes in North America, where she cruised seasonally between 1997 and 2011, as well as other cruises worldwide as travelling the Mediterranean for cultural cruises with Martin Randall Travel, the north Atlantic and at Asia. Her crew consists of 170 members, and her top speed is 16 knots. She was previously known as Columbus for Hapag-Lloyd, she was since replaced by Columbus 2.

Incidents

In April 2015, the vessel suffered damage due to an oil leak. The following trips were canceled in Tanger.

On 5 May 2015, a fishing net became tangled in the ship's propeller off the South East coast of England. The ship was diverted to Southampton to be inspected.

On 11 May 2015, the ship hit the ground near the Isle of Mull due to strong winds.

The ship needed to be repaired at a shipyard in Belfast and at Bremerhaven and would be completed by 10 August 2015. To continue operations, Plantours chartered MS Deutschland

MS Insignia

MS Insignia is the lead ship of the R class of cruise ships built for Renaissance cruises. She is now owned by Oceania Cruises as part of its Regatta Class of ships, but recently sailed for Hapag-Lloyd as the Columbus 2. She was built in 1998 by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France for Renaissance Cruises as MS R One. On December 11, 2014, 3 crew members died in a fire that broke out in the engine room when the ship was docked in St. Lucia.

Concept and construction

Renaissance Cruises had begun operations in 1989, with a series of eight small luxury cruise ships constructed during the course of the next three years. In the mid-90s the company placed an order for eight identical 30,277 GT vessels with Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in France. The first ship in the series, MS R One, was delivered in June 1998, followed by R Two in November of the same year.

Lease to Hapag-Lloyd

Beginning in April 2012, MS Insignia began what was initially announced as a two-year lease to Hapag-Lloyd, which renamed the ship Columbus 2.