News came in mid-September of the arrest of three of Classic International Cruises’ ships, two in Marseille and one in Kotor. Athena (1948/16,144gt) was on charter to Belgian operator All Ways Travel when detained in the French port on 15 September. Her passengers were repatriated, but the crew remained on board.
Princess Danae (1955/16,531gt), on charter to NDS Travel of France, was detained two days later. Various reports have cited unpaid fuel bills and crew wages. A third ship, Arion (1965/5,888gt), was detained in Kotor, Montenegro on 18 September while on charter to Russia’s Metropolis Tur. The Australia branch of Classic International was confident that the matter would be resolved in time for Athena to complete her next dry-docking before leaving Europe in early November for an extended Australian cruise season.
Classic International also owns Princess Daphne (1955/15,833gt), which is operating for Germany’s Ambiente Kreuzfahrten, and Funchal (1961/9,563gt), which is part way through a SOLAS upgrade and refit in Lisbon. Princess Danae had previously been arrested in Dublin for unpaid fuel bills amounting to some €75,000, but was later released.
