Orient Lines Purchases Ship for Rebirth of the Line in 2009

The Maxim Gorkiy will be transformed into the Marco Polo II to launch the rebirth of Orient Lines in April 2009.

Speaking here Wednesday, Orient President and CEO Wayne Heller said that the 25,000-ton, 650-passenger ship would have 20 percent fewer passengers than the Orient’s original ship, the Marco Polo, but 20 percent more space. Heller, who purchased the Orient Lines brand from Star Cruises in June, would not disclose what Orient had paid for the ship.

The vessel was built as the Hamburg in 1969 for Hanseatic Cruise Lines and later called the Hanseatic. It is best known for being the vessel that was used to host an international summit in 1989 between former President George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, the former head of the Soviet Union.

The ship’s ice-strengthened hull will enable it to sail to Antarctica, as Orient’s former ship the Marco Polo did, and which Heller said was one of the most important characteristics the line’s flagship ship would have to have.