M/S Scandinavian Star
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M/S Massalia, later known as M/S Scandinavian Star and M/S Regal Voyager was a car and passenger ferry built in France in 1971.
History
M/S Massalia was built by Dubegion-Normandie S.A. in 1971 and delivered to Compagnie de Paqueboats who put her on the route Marseille - Málaga - Casablanca and also cruises in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1984 she was owned by a number of companies and named Stena Baltica, Island Fiesta and finally Scandinavian Star, a name given to her by Scandinavian World Cruises who chartered the ship and put her on cruises between Tampa, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico.
Disaster
In 1990 she was sold to Vognmandsruten and put on DA-NO Linjen's route between Oslo, Norway and Frederikshavn, Denmark. During the night of April 7, 1990, at about 2 a.m. local time, a fire broke out on the ship, killing 158 people, one more died after two weeks from his injuries and one of the women who died was 6 months pregnant. 136 of those killed were Norwegian. The ship was towed to Lysekil in Sweden where fire department managed to put out the fire in 10 hours. The crime investigation stated that the fire was started by a pyromaniac.
During the fire captain ordered his philippino crew to turn off air conditioning system as the captain imagined it was feeding air to the fire. After this was done smoke entered cabins suffocating trapped passengers. The captain and his crew also abandoned ship without evacuating passengers. Many passengers were still onboard the burning ship after it was towed to harbour.
Prior to the 1990, the Scandinavian Star, while working for SeaEscape had a fire in her engine room in 1988 while on a Caribbean cruise. On March 15, a fire started in the engine room of the Scandinavian Star about 50 nautical miles northeast of Cancun, Mexico. The ship was carrying 439 passengers and 268 crewmembers. The ship lost power and its fire fighting oxygen system malfunctioned (would have let the fire parties breath while fighting the fire). The inability of the crewmembers to communicate with each other and with passengers was a serious concern and created confusion during the fire fighting and evacuation activities.
This from the NTSB report on the fire and from the U.S. Coast Guard Radioman who copied and worked the Search and Rescue case.
Salvage
The burnt ship lay in Copenhagen for a few months until she was towed to Southampton and renamed Candi. In February 1994 she was sold on auction to International Shipping Partners. She was renamed Regal Voyager, sent to Italy for rebuilding and later chartered to Comarit Ferries and put on the route between Tangier and Port Vendres.
In 1997 she was registered for St. Thomas Cruises and put on a route between Port Isabel and Puerto Cortés for Isabel Cortes Ferry Service. Chartered to Ferries del Caribe in 1999 and put on the route Santo Domingo - San Juan.
The ship was laid up in South Carolina in 2003. Sold to Indian shipbrokers in 2004, renamed to Regal V. Arrived at Alang on May 14, 2004 and the work to get her broken up started five days later.
Memorial
On April 7 2006 a memorial was inaugurated in Oslo, near the Akershus Fortress. It features a mother with her child and a big commemorative plaque with names of all the dead.
See also
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