mv Arcadia Cruise Ship History

History of P&O Ships named Arcadia

The present MV Arcadia is the fourth P&O vessel to hold that name and was built at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera, near Venice, Italy. Her keel was laid on 12 July 2003 having been ordered by Carnival Cruises to join their fleet under the Holland America name. As such, she was the fifth to be built to the Vista class specification like her sister ships: Zuiderdam, Noordam, Oosterdam and Westerdam. These four ships were built with three diesel generators and a gas turbine, but Arcadia is totally powered by diesel generators (see technical specification). Otherwise, Arcadia is the same as those four ships. Carnival changed their mind about the ship joining the Holland America fleet and designated the hull to be the new Queen Victoria. Later, they changed their mind again and allocated her to P&O to become the Arcadia. Because of this history, she is the only ship in the P&O fleet to use the Azipod propulsion system. A new, enlarged Vista class ship was ordered by Cunard from Fincantieri to be the Queen Victoria instead. A further ship to the same enlarged design has been built as the Queen Elizabeth. More information on the history of the Vista class ships and their derivatives can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista_class .
The previous P&O ship Arcadia (the third) was built in 1989 By Chantiers de l'Atlantique as the Sitmar FairMajesty at a time when the company was being taken over by P&O Princess. She was delivered to Princess Cruises as the Star Princess but, in 1997 was transferred to P&O Cruises as their third Arcadia. In 2003, Arcadia was transferred again to a new P&O subsidiary as Ocean Village, providing a less formal cruising experience for a younger target passenger group. She accommodates between 1,461 and 1,750 passengers and 515 crew and is driven by diesel engines producing 39MW (52,000hp). She is a ship of 63,564gt
The second P&O Arcadia was built at Clydebank by John Brown shipyards and completed in 1954, having been launched on 14 May 1953. She was refitted at Harland & Wolff in Belfast in 1959 when full air conditioning was installed. Arcadia operated on the UK-Australia passenger service but with increasing numbers of cruises until, in 1970, she became a full-time cruise ship. From 1976, she was based out of Sydney, Australia until she was scrapped in Taiwan in 1979. She was 29,734gt and driven by six steam turbines developing 42,500hp to drive twin screws. She accommodated 670 First Class passengers, 735 Tourist Class and 716 crew.
The first Arcadia in the P&O fleet was completed by Harland & Wolff in Belfast in 1888 having been launched on 17th December 1887. She was a small ship of just 6,603gt driven by a single screw producing 7,000hp. She accommodated 250 First Class passengers and 159 Second Class. She was sold for scrap in January 1915.