''Dodi Princess'' was a cruise boat on

Lake Volta Lake Volta, the largest artificial reservoir in the world based on surface area, is contained behind the Akosombo Dam which generates a substantial amount of Ghana's electricity. It is completely within the country of Ghana and has a surface area ...

in South

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. It was owned by the

Volta River Authority The Volta River Authority (VRA) is the main generator and supplier of electricity in Ghana. They are also the responsible for the maintenance of the hydro power supply plant. Establishment The VRA was established by the Volta River Development ...

and under the management of Volta Hotels. It was the only cruise ship in Ghana. It was built as a cargo ship and later converted into a passenger ship in 1991. The ship was replaced with the 176-passenger restaurant ship, ''Dodi Princess II'', built in Akosombo, Ghana by Onur Makina of Istanbul, Turkey.

History

The ship was built in 1977 at the Tema Shipyard and christened ''Grains Maid''. The vessel was used mainly for the transportation of dry cargo and agricultural products including fertilizer. A typical voyage upstream would carry goods from

Akosombo Akosombo is a small town in the south of the Asuogyaman District, Eastern Region, Ghana with notable street names of some African Countries in the sub-region like Ghana, Congo, Namibia, Lagos-town, Freetown etc. It is preoccupied by people ...

Yeji Yeji is a town in the centre of Ghana and the capital of the Pru East District of the Bono East Region in Ghana. Yeji is adjacent to Lake Volta. Yeji is connected by highway to Ejura and Kwadjokrom. It had a population of 29,515 at the census o ...

in the Brong-Ahafo Region and

Buipe Buipe is a small town and is the capital of Central Gonja District, a district in the Savannah Region of north Ghana. Because of the proximity of limestone deposits, Buipe is the proposed location of a cement works. The Black Volta The Black ...

in the northern part of Ghana and its downstream voyage would return with yam and grains to the southern part of the country. ''Grains Maid'' sailed on the lake from its commissioning in the late 1970s to the late 1980s when its commercial services declined due to financial constraints. After months of low patronage of its services, the vessel was abandoned at the port of Akosombo.

Conversion

In 1991, the then

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2020 presidential elec ...

Jerry John Rawlings Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 194712 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the de ...

commissioned German engineer, Hans Hein to convert the hull of the vessel to a tour pleasure boat for tourists. Staff of the Maritime Services Unit (MSU) of the

formed a team with Hein to complete the project which was commissioned in 1991, and renamed ''Dodi Princess''. The vessel was the only cruise boat on Lake Volta. The ship had seating for 400 passengers, who were provided with barbecue meals and live entertainment on board.

Structure

The ship had three decks. The first (lower) deck was an air conditioned, strictly non-smoking cocktail bar, for guests to enjoy a quiet cruise. The two upper decks were open-aired and allowed passengers to enjoy the scenery of the

while being treated to

live band Live (, often typeset as LĪVE or +LĪVE+) is an American rock band formed in York, Pennsylvania, in 1984 by Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals, guitars), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass), Chad Gracey (drums), and Chad Taylor (guitars). Kowalczyk is the only ...

performances from musicians. The middle deck houses a

sick bay A sick bay is a compartment in a ship, or a section of another organisation, such as a school or college, used for medical purposes. The sick bay contains the ship's medicine chest, which may be divided into separate cabinets, such as a refrigerat ...

with the upper deck having a large gridiron for barbecue.

Maiden cruise

''Dodi Princess'' made its first cruise in 1991 during the celebration of the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...

(NAM) conference which was hosted by Ghana.

Management

The day-to-day management of ''Dodi Princess'' upon its commissioning was done by the Marine Division of the Volta River Authority. In 2005, the Division handed over the ship's management to Volta Hotels Limited because the tour business was one of the core objectives of the hotel. ''Dodi Princess'' generates 40 percent of the total revenue of Volta Hotels.

Cruise

The ship cruised

. A typical cruise took passengers through scenery and landed at

Dodi Island Dodi Island is an island in Ghana, located off the shore of Lake Volta. It is a tourist destination and a land place for the cruise ship, Dodi Princess. Gallery File:Dodi Island and Rocky Shore − Lake Volta.jpg, Rocky Shores of Dodi Isla ...

Fire outbreak

On 4 May 2013, the ship was destroyed by fire. Initial assessment showed that the fire started in the kitchen in the vessel's restaurant. At the time of the fire outbreak, there was nobody on board. Damages were estimated as running into several hundreds of thousands of cedis.

Replacement

After the May 2013 destruction, Volta Hotels Limited contracted Bluefone Marine Company, a Ghanaian-based marine construction company, to reconstruct the vessel at a cost of 1.3 million dollars. Bluefone Marine proposed that the vessel would be seaworthy in six months. The VRA's 2013 Annual Report stated that its subsidiary Akosombo Hotels Ltd was seeking to raise financing of over $10,000,000 to complete construction of 65–100 rooms and re-construction of the ''Dodi Princess''. However, the 2014 report stated that financing of over $20,000,000 was needed to complete construction of 65 rooms and construction of a new cruise boat, ''Dodi Princess''. The 2015 report stated that VRA had spent approximately $1.5 million on construction of a new 176-seater cruise boat, ''Dodi Princess II''. In the end, the burnt Dodi Princess has been replaced with Dodi Princess II. Akosombo Hotels Ltd contracted Onur Makina of Istanbul, Turkey to build and deliver the 176-passenger restaurant ship in Akosombo, Ghana. The construction of Dodi Princess II has been successfully completed by the firm and the ship was put back in service on the Volta Lake in July 2019.

References

{{reflist, 2 1977 ships Volta River Authority Cruise ships Ships of Ghana Ship fires