ISLAND ESCAPE cruise vessel

[aukepalmhof]

On the 18th of June 2012, Gibraltar issued a set of six stamps for Europa 2012 – Visit Gibraltar.
The 44p value shows an aerial photograph looking from south to north and showing the whole of Gibraltar from Europa Point. Visible are Europa Point Lighthouse and the port of Gibraltar.
The 54p value is a land view looking south to Europa Point Lighthouse.
The 10p value is of the most interest to ship stamp collectors. This is an aerial view of Gibraltar Port taken from the west. At the North Mole are two cruise ships. On the inside of the mole is the ISLAND ESCAPE and on the outside is one of Fred Olsen’s former Royal Viking Line cruise ships.
Using Gibraltar Port’s cruise schedules I narrowed down the date of the photograph used on the stamp to 30th October 2009 or 14th May 2011. Since 2003 these are the only two dates where ISLAND ESCAPE and a Fred Olsen vessel have been in port on the same date. On 30/10/2009 the Fred Olsen vessel was BOUDICCA and on 14/5/11 it was BLACK WATCH.
However, on both these dates there was a 3rd cruise ship in the port. On 30/10/2009 SAGA RUBY arrived at the port at 06.49 and sailed at 13.00 and BOUDICCA arrived at 13.30. On 14/5/2011 the third cruise ship was the EURODAM and would also have appeared on the photograph which appears to have been taken at mid-day or just later – all three vessels were in port from 11.30 to 17.00.
Given these factors, I have concluded that the photograph on the stamp was taken on 30/10/2009 and that the Fred Olsen Line ship on the stamp is the BOUDICCA.
There are a number of other vessels shown on the photograph which I hope to identify with the aid of a friend and fellowship enthusiast in Gibraltar.
ISLAND ESCAPE
MS ISLAND ESCAPE is a cruise ship owned and operated by Thomson Cruises under their Island Cruises brand. She was built in 1982 by Dubigeon-Normandie S.A., Nantes, France for Scandinavian World Cruises (a subsidiary of DFDS) as the cruise ferry MS SCANDINAVIA. At the time of her construction, she was the largest cruise ferry in the world. After being withdrawn from Scandinavian World Cruises, she briefly sailed for DFDS Seaways. Between 1985 and 1990 she sailed for Sundance Cruises and Admiral Cruises as MS STARDANCER. In 1990 the ship was sold to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and renamed MS VIKING SERENADE. The following year she was converted into a genuine cruise ship. In 2002 she was transferred to the fleet of Royal Caribbean's new subsidiary Island Cruises. ISLAND ESCAPE joined the fleet of Thomson Cruises in April 2009, but retained her name and continued with her more informal style of buffet restaurants and relaxed dress code.
ISLAND ESCAPE operates in the Canary Islands and the Western Mediterranean under Thomson Cruises. In November 2010, Thomson was scheduled to spend a further £4 million in refurbishing ISLAND ESCAPE

27 November 2015 sold to Cruise Holdings Inc. Limassol, Cyprus,
December 2015 was renamed in OCEAN GALA. Register under Bahama flag and homeport Nassau.
14 June 2016 arrived at Utansjo, Sweden where she would be used as a refugee accommodation ship.
03 November 2016 sailed from Utansjo and via Tallinn for bunkers, calling at Esbjerg and Valletta to Alexandria.
December 2016 Sold to Pisces Maritime Ltd., Mumbai, India. Renamed in OCEAN GALA-1 under St Kitts & Nevis flag with homeport Basseterre.
30 April 2017 passed Suez Canal.
2017 At anchor off Khalifa.
2018 Sold to India for scrapping, put under Comoro flag for her last voyage to India.
March 2018 sailed from Khalifa for Alang in India.
04 April 2018 she was beached in Alang and the demolishing commenced.


ISLAND ESCAPE was featured in a mini-series TV documentary which consisted of 10 episodes. The documentary was initially broadcast in the UK in 2002. Repeats of the documentary were later shown on Bravo. The documentary followed the working lives of several crew members and gave a good insight into what it was like to work on a cruise ship.
Between 3rd May and 17th May 2005, I took two back-to-back cruises from Palma, Mallorca, on the ISLAND ESCAPE and visited a number of ports including Ajaccio, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Messina, Toulon, Barcelona, and Naples where I saw the GRAND LATINO which was later renamed BOUDICCA.
Name: 1982—1985: MS SCANDINAVIA
1985—1990: MS STARDANCER
1990—2002: MS VIKING SERENADE
2002-present: MS ISLAND ESCAPE
Owner: 1982—1985: DFDS
1985—1987: Sundance Cruises
1987—1988: Admiral Cruises
1988—1990: Royal Admiral Cruises
1990—2002: Wilh. Wilhelmsen
2002-present: Island Cruises
Operator: 1982—1983: Scandinavian World Cruises
1983—1985: DFDS Seaways
1985—1987: Sundance Cruises
1987—1988: Admiral Cruises
1988—1990: Royal Admiral Cruises
1990—2002: Royal Caribbean International
2002—2009: Island Cruises
2009-present: Thomson Cruises
Port of registry: 1982—1991: Nassau, Bahamas
1991—2002: Monrovia, Liberia
2002 onwards: Nassau, Bahamas

Builder: Dubigeon-Normandie S.A., Nantes, France
Cost: $100 million
Yard number: 164
Laid down: April 6, 1981
Launched: October 16, 1981
Christened: September 28, 1982
Acquired: August 20, 1982
In service: October 2, 1982-present
Identification: IMO number: 8002597
Status: In active service as of 2012-May
General characteristics (as built, 1981)
Type: cruiseferry
Tonnage: 26,747 GT (gross tonnage)
4,294 metric tons deadweight (DWT)
Length: 185.25 m (607 ft 9 in)
Beam: 27.01 m (88 ft 7 in)
Draught: 6.80 m (22 ft 4 in)
Installed power: 2 × B&W 9L55GFCA diesels
combined 19,850 kW
Propulsion: Twin propellers
Speed: 20 knots (37.04 km/h; 23.02 mph)
Capacity: 1606 passengers
1606 passenger berths
530 cars
51 trailers
General characteristics (as of 2009)
Type: cruise ship
Tonnage: 40,132 GT (gross tonnage)
Length: 189.89 m (623 ft 0 in)
Draught: 7.20 m (23 ft 7 in)
Decks: 9 (passenger accessible)
Capacity: 1544 passengers (lower berths)
1740 passengers (all berths)
Crew: 540
Notes: Car and trailer space converted into cabin space

Gibraltar 2012 10p sg?, Scott? (see for BOUDICCA http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 0%A6#p9312

Sources: Wikipedia; Gibraltar Port - http://www.gibraltarport.com/cruise/schedules and http://www.gibraltarport.com/shipping_movements; Photographs of port and stamp are from the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau Bulletin of May 2012 (which also includes an article on stamp illustrator John Batchelor).

Peter Crichton

[aysugnacar]

The article is very informative and lucid. Making stamps of ships is a very good way to create interest of people in navy business. I recently came across a ship management software that can help a lot of people.
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vessel registry software

[clbkkfff]

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