''SuperStar Libra'' was a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

owned and last operated by

Star Cruises Star Cruises was a cruise line headquartered in Hong Kong and operating in the Asia-Pacific market. The company was owned by Genting Hong Kong. It was the eighteenth largest cruise line in the world after Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbea ...

. She was built in 1988 at

Wärtsilä Marine Wärtsilä Marine ( fi, Wärtsilä Meriteollisuus; sv, Wärtsilä Marinindustri) was a Finnish shipbuilding company. The company was created in 1987 in order to improve shipbuilding productivity by combining the Wärtsilä and Valmet yards unde ...

Perno Shipyard Perno shipyard is a shipyard in Turku, southwest Finland, that specialises in building cruise ships, passenger ferries, special vessels and offshore projects. The yard area is . The yard is operated by Meyer Turku Oy. The dry dock is long, wid ...

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

as ''Seaward'' for

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

. In 1997 she was renamed ''Norwegian Sea'', remaining in NCL fleet. In 2005 she was transferred to the fleet of Star Cruises. In May 2022, the ship, renamed ''Libra'', arrived in Turkey for demolition.

History

The vessel entered operation with

(NCL) in 1988 as ''Seaward''. The vessel was renamed ''Norwegian Sea'' in 1997. In 2005, the vessel was transferred to

, part of the

Genting Group The Genting Group is a company headquartered in the Wisma Genting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It comprises the holding company Genting Berhad (), its listed subsidiaries Genting Malaysia Berhad (), Genting Plantations Berhad (), Genting Singapore ...

, and renamed ''SuperStar Libra''. With Star Cruises, ''SuperStar Libra'' sailed a variety of cruises in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, Aegean and Guatemalan seas in the summer of 2006. The vessel deployed back to Mumbai in late September 2006. ''SuperStar Libra'' has subsequently been based at various ports in Asia including Singapore, Penang, Hong Kong, Xiamen and Haiku.

Accommodation vessel

In March 2018, Star Cruises announced that ''SuperStar Libra'' would end her public cruise operations for the company in June 2018. From July 2018, ''SuperStar Libra'' was used as an accommodation ship for workers at the

MV Werften MV Werften is a Hong Kong–Germany, German shipbuilding company that operates three facilities in eastern Germany to construct cruise ships for parent company Genting Hong Kong. In January 2022, MV Werften filed for bankruptcy, and an admini ...

shipyard of the Genting-Hong-Kong-group in

Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...

, Germany to support the construction of ships for Genting's

Dream Cruises Genting Hong Kong Limited ( zh, 雲頂香港有限公司) was a holding company that operated cruise and resort businesses. It was headquartered in (海洋中心), Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (). It was p ...

and

Crystal Cruises } Crystal Cruises is a cruise line now headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 1988 by Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and sold to Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate Genting Hong Kong in 2015. Following in ...

. She remained there under a 3-year lease. ''SuperStar Libra'' was moved to another berth in Wismar harbour in November 2021. On 4 February 2022, it was announced that the ship's operator, Star Cruises Germany GmbH, was insolvent, and she was sold to Flash Maritime Ltd, which is associated with the Greek company

Hellenic Seaways Hellenic Seaways is member of Attica Group, which is engaged in passenger shipping through SUPERFAST FERRIES, BLUE STAR FERRIES, HELLENIC SEAWAYS and AFRICA MOROCCO LINK operating 35 vessels providing modern, high-quality transportation service ...

. On 11 April 2022 she departed Wismar in tow for Greece, reportedly to continue as an accommodation vessel, but was resold for demolition at

Aliağa Aliağa is a town and a district of Izmir Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The town is situated at about north of Izmir. Aliağa has a large port, mainly for oil and bulk cargo. Its economic activity is based on tourism, shipbreaking, ...

, Turkey, departing Salamis in tow on 28 May. The ship arrived in Aliağa and was beached on 1 June.

Popular Culture

* The vessel appeared as ''Norwegian Sea'' in the 2003 film

2 Fast 2 Furious ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' is a 2003 action film directed by John Singleton from a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, from a story by Brandt, Haas, and Gary Scott Thompson. It is the sequel to ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2001), and is t ...

References

External links

SuperStar Libra former homepage
{{Star Cruises Ships of Star Cruises Ships built in Turku 1987 ships