Star Pisces

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The Star Pisces in Hong Kong habour

M/S Star Pisces is a cruise ship, owned by Star Cruises and currently does short cruises from Hong Kong. She was originally built as the cruiseferry M/S Kalypso in 1990 by Masa-Yards, Turku, Finland for Rederi AB Slite for use in Viking Line traffic.

1 History
- 1.1 Viking Line years
- 1.2 Star Cruises years
2 Specifications
3 External Links

[edit] History

[edit] Viking Line years

The late 1980's were a time of hectic newbuilding in Baltic Sea ferry services. Between 1985 and 1991 no less than 11 new ships debuted for competing companies Viking Line and Silja Line. M/S Kalypso had the distinction of being the last newbuild to be delivered to Viking Line (at least until the delivery of the new Viking XPRS in 2008) and the last ship ever delivered to Rederi AB Slite. During construction of the Kalypso in 1989 Wärtsilä's shipbuilding division was declared bankrupt. A new company, Masa-Yards, was established to continue operating Wärtsilä's shipyards in Turku and Helsinki. As a result of the bankruptcy the Kalypso's final price was much larger than originally agreed, as was that of her older sister M/S Athena.

When delivered on April 30 1990, the Kalypso was set in traffic on route connecting Turku to Mariehamn and Stockholm, where she sailed without mishaps for the next three years. 1993 was to be the year when Slite would take delivery of another newbuild, the largest ferry in the world, M/S Europa. However, the Swedish krona was devaluated shortly before Slite were supposed to take delivery of the new ship. The Europa ended up in rival Silja Line's fleet in March 1993, and in April Rederi AB Slite was declared bankrupt.

As a result of Slite's bankruptcy, Kalypso and her sister were sold at an auction in August 1993. Bids were made by SF Line (the remaining Viking Line operator), P&O Ferries and DFDS, but the final buyer emerged from Malaysia where the newly established Star Cruises bought both ships. Kalypso stayed in Viking Line's traffic until January 1994.

[edit] Star Cruises years

After the end of her service for Viking Line, the Kalypso sailed to Naantali, Finland where she was docked and renamed M/S Star Pisces. Later in the same month she sailed to Finnyards, Rauma, Finland, where she was rebuilt as a cruisehip. In April 1994 the ship joined her sister (now called M/S Lankapuri Star Aquarius) for cruising from Singapore. Originally the ship sported a dark blue hull with a narrow red band on top. Already in 1994 Star Cruises' newer ships were painted with white hulls, but Star Pisces didn't get one until the late 90's (?).

In February 2001 it was announced that Star Pisces' sistership M/S Langkapuri Star Aquarius had been purchased by DFDS for service between Copenhagen and Oslo as the M/S Pearl of Scandinavia. Star Pisces is also reputedly available for sale, and had been linked to Color Line amongst others. However, as of September 2006 she remains in Star Cruises' fleet, making one-night cruises from Hong Kong.