Recycling Firm Buys Astoria, Famous 77-Year-Old Liner Turned Cruise Ship

 

A Belgium recycling firm confirmed that it was the sole bidder at the June 17 auction for the famed liner Stockholm which spent its final years operating as the cruise ship Astoria (15,000 gross tons). The ship which earned a place in history for its 1956 collision with the Italian passenger liner Andrea Doria, is expected to leave its final port, Rotterdam, as early as next month.

An auction was held in the Netherlands on June 17 and Galloo was the sole bidder. Reports are the company offered the minimum opening bid of €200,000 ($230,000) and it was accepted. The company however must also settle outstanding port fees before it will be able to remove the ship.

The Astoria was towed into Rotterdam in December 2020 months after the ship was laid up during the COVID-19 pandemic. It had been operating under charter to a UK firm, Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), which filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic. The ship reverted to its Portuguese owners which by that time had also gone bankrupt with the ship controlled by the banks. It was sold to investors who called for restoring the famed ship.

Built in 1948 as one of the first post-World War II passenger liners, her size was limited by the available shipyards. Introduced as Stockholm of the Swedish American Line she was a workhorse passenger-cargo ship that filled an important gap till larger liners could be built in the 1950s and 1960s. However, it was the faithful night of July 25, 1956, that sealed her fame as she was outbound from New York to Sweden. Off Nantucket in patchy fog, she collided with the Italian luxury liner killing more than 50 people and causing the Andrea Doria to sink hours later. 

Stockholm although badly damaged survived and in the 1960s became an East German holiday ship for the working classes. Retired in 1985, she was in nearly original condition and cheated the scrappers instead being sold for an extensive reconstruction in Italy. She was stripped to the steel and returned to service as a cruise ship in 1994 operating during the following years as Italia I, Italia Prima, Valtur Prima, Caribe, Athena, Azores, and finally in 2016 Astoria. It was rumored on several occasions that she was scheduled for retirement including in 2020.

Acquired in 2021 by an investment group, the ship languished as they sought to develop a plan and then offered it for sale. Sale to scrappers had been rumored more than once. In 2024, two YouTubers snuck aboard the ship and videoed her condition which showed decay from a lack of maintenance as well as the historic bones of a now 76-year-old ship.

Galloo reports it plans to move the ship as early as July to a recognized recycling yard in Ghent. It notes the ship which is 160 meters (525 feet) in length with accommodations for over 500 passengers will account for more than 12,000 tonnes of material, including ferrous and non-ferrous metals, wood, glass, and plastics. It expects 97 percent will be recycled into renewable raw materials.
 

Top photo by Niels Johannes - CC BY-SA 4.0