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Thursday, June 26, 2014

Cruise ship Pearl Mist to embark on maiden voyage

Trip follows dispute in courts, readying in Salisbury yard

Nearly eight years after it was ordered, the cruise ship Pearl Mist will embark finally on its maiden voyage Wednesday from Baltimore's Inner Harbor, ending the vessel's protracted saga.

The 335-foot cruise ship, which spent the past year being finished at a Salisbury shipyard, will depart for an 11-night "Maritime New England Cruise" that will take the 210-passenger vessel north to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it was built.

A lengthy legal dispute between the ship's buyer and its builder delayed its cruise schedule for years.

Charles Robertson, who owns Chesapeake Shipbuilding Inc. in Salisbury, established the Pearl Seas Cruises line in 2006, eyeing a growing market for smaller, more intimate ships calling on international ports. With his own shipyard running at full capacity at the time, Robertson hired Irving Shipbuilding Inc. of Halifax to build the Pearl Mist, the line's first ship, for $43.5 million.

Disputes between Pearl Seas and Irving over the construction of the vessel began just months later. Pearl Seas eventually would accuse Irving of not building the ship to specifications, question whether the ship met safety and environmental standards, and say it had failed multiple sea trials, according to court filings.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The TITANIC II.

Anonymous said...

Given the accusations, that ship is tainted, regardless of what parts of the accusations are true, if any. I would never buy a ticket or ever set foot on that vessel. I wouldn't want to be one of the ones that "ignored" the tainted history of the vessel.

Anonymous said...

God Speed Pearl Seas.

Anonymous said...

Talk about tainted, I guess you don't drive any of the GM model cars involved in the recall…..

The vessel has been completed here in Salisbury and certainly meets or exceeds all safety regs.

Let's all bash another local company until they move out of the area too!

Anonymous said...

Amen 1:45, not to mention it gave jobs to many people, my company included. We did not have to lay off some some Dads who were trying to feed their families.