MV RCGS Resolute
ex Heritage Adventurer, Hanseatic, Society Adventurer
© Cees Bustraan
Steel twin screw motor vessel built in 1991 by Rauma Repola Yards, Finland (Yard No 306) for Society Expedition Cruises
Technical Data
- Original Cost: $68 million
- Length: 122.83 m (overall) 105.45 m (between perpendiculars)
- Breadth: 18.0 m
- Depth: 7.0 m
- Draught: 4.90 m
- Tonnage: 8378 gross/2554 net/1100t deadweight
- Engines: 2 8-cylinder Krupp-MaK diesels
- Power: 5880 kW/HP
- Speed: 14 knots
- Capacity: 188 (passengers (service) 200 (max)
- Cabins: 94
- Crew: 122 (2003), 115
- Passenger Decks: 6
- Call Sign: C6KA9, CQAL6
- MMSI Number: 255806208
- IMO Number: 9000168
- Port of Registry: Nassau/Bahamas 🇧🇸, Madeira/Portugal 🇵🇹
Current AIS Location
Please note that this specific vessels AIS position data may be over an hour old and that the vessels position will only be displayed when it is within range of the VesselFinder AIS system. The AIS transponder/ship position data featured on this page is intended for information purposes only and it is in no way related to the 'Safety of Navigation at Sea'. All the AIS ship position data featured within this article is provided by VesselFinder and we are therefore not responsible for its content or its accuracy.
History
December 22nd 1989: Contract signed.
September 3rd 1990: Keel struck.
January 5th 1991: Launched as SOCIETY ADVENTURER for Society Adventurer Shipping Co., Nassau, but never sailed under that name, due to the fact that the company declared itself bankrupt and never took possession of the ship.
June 7th 1991: Completed.
March 23rd 1993: Long term bare-boat charter to Hanseatic Tours for world-wide specialised expedition-style cruises and renamed HANSEATIC.
March 27th 1993: Maiden cruise between Hamburg – Seville.
© Dieter Pots
August 29th 1996: Ran aground in the Simpson Strait.
September 5th 1996: Passengers and crew are evacuated to the Russian icebreaker KAPITAN DRANITSYN.
© Ingvar
September 8th 1996: Towed free and repaired in Canada.
1996: Hapag-Lloyd takes over Hanseatic Tours.
July 13th 1997: Stranded at Hinlopenfjord, Spitsbergen. All passengers were evacuated.
© Jens Boldt
July 17th 1997: Re-floated and repaired.
December 15th 2002: Berthed at Lyttelton, New Zealand after a voyage at reduced speed from the Chatham Islands. The ship was struck by a rogue wave which broke one of the bridge windows and damaged electrical systems. The ship was on a coastal cruise around New Zealand.
© Nigel Thornton (Dover, 15/06/2005)
August 23rd 2005: Grounded 22 miles south of the Polar circle, near the Norwegian island of Lurøy. Her 161 passengers were flown back to Germany the following day, no injuries were reported. A five-meter long gash in the ship¹s ice-strengthened double bottom has been reported. Hapag-Lloyd, yet to announced which yard will repair the ship, confirmed that the next scheduled voyage set to depart Kiel for Norway on August 25 had be cancelled.
September 2005: To Blohm & Voss, Hamburg for repair.
© Robert Fournier
2015: Registered Owner; Bunnys Adventure and Cruise Shipping Co., Ltd. Registered Manager; Hapag Lloyd AG.
© Cees Bustraan
March 25th 2018: Called at Dover.
2018: Chartered to One Ocean Expeditions and renamed RCGS RESOLUTE through a partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
🆕© Fotoflite (08/10/2018)
August 2019: Briefly arrested in Iqaluit over a C$100,000 payment dispute. While this issue was reportedly solved quickly, another arrest over non-payment of services and crew wages followed in Halifax next month.
October 2019: One Ocean Expeditions was forced to cancel an Antarctic cruise midway after the vessel could not be refuelled due to the company’s non-payment of outstanding debts. Shortly after the ship’s 140 passengers disembarked, RCGS RESOLUTE was detained in Buenos Aires over “significant debt”
January 2020: The company entered administration.
March 5th 2020: Left Buenos Aires after the ship’s registered owner, Bunnys Adventure & Cruise Shipping Company Limited, paid a total of US$3.6 million of One Ocean Expeditions’s outstanding debt to fuel suppliers, ship agents and crew members in order to avoid a court-ordered sale of the vessel.
March 30th 2020: Involved in an incident in international waters off the Venezuelen coast which led to the sinking of the Venezuelen Coast Guard patrol boat NAIGUATA (GC-23) following a collision with the cruise ship. RCGS RESOLUTE suffered only minor damage. Because the cruise ship was a Portuguese−flagged vessel, an investigation was conducted by the Office for the Investigation of Maritime Accidents and the Aeronautical Meteorology Authority (Gabinete de Investigação de Acidentes Marítimos e da Autoridade para a Meteorologia Aeronáutica or GAMA) of Portugal. The investigation report discussed the possibility that the unexpected change in NAIGUATA’s heading just before the collision, as reported by RCGS RESOLUTE, may have been caused by a suction effect between the vessels as the faster patrol boat passed the bow of the cruise ship. Although the collision may have not been intentional ramming, the conclusion was nonetheless that the incident that led to the sinking of NAIGUATA was the result of a deliberate act initiated by the Venezuelan Navy rather than an accidental occurrence.
June 2020: Reported that the vessel would be sold in an auction in Curaçao to cover the shipowner’s nearly $4 million debt
June 22nd 2020: Sold to Artica Adventure & Cruises, Squamish, Canada for $600,000.
December 1st 2020: Registered Owner: Nordic Heritage Expedition.
2021: Acquired by Heritage Expeditions.
🆕© Giwrgos Mertis (Kinosoura,Salamina, 12/01/2022)
March 1st 2022: Following an extensive refit, entered service as HERITAGE ADVENTURER.
🆕© Heritage Expeditions
© Wayne A’court
All information is believed to be correct and no responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions. All items included in this article are subject to © copyright. We would like to take this opportunity of thanking: Wayne A’court, Jens Boldt, Cees Bustraan, Fotoflite, Robert Fournier, Heritage Expeditions, Ingvar, Giwrgos Mertis and Dieter Potts for their assistance in producing this feature.
Article © Nigel Thornton and Ray Goodfellow (Dover Ferry Photos Group)
