Stella Polaris

1927

(Albatros AL-152)

Type: Passenger
Displacement: 5,209 tons
Dimensions: 416 x 51 x 17 ft.
Machinery: Burmeister & Wain diesels, twin screws = 15 knots
Passengers: 200 all first class

Builder: Gotaverken Shipyards, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1927

Service: One of the most classic cruise ships ever built, she was delivered to the Bergen Line in 1927. Styled after a millionaire-class luxury yacht, she cruised along the fjords to the North Cape and Spitzbergen and into the Baltic during the summer. In spring and autumn, there were voyages around the Mediterranean; for winter, a luxurious circumnavigation of the globe. At the start of World War II she was laid up in Oslo, then moved near Bergen when Germany invaded in 1940. Eventually she was seized by German forces and used as a recreation center for submarine officers. When Germany surrendered, she was taken over by the British Ministry of War Transport and used for repatriating Russian POWs to Murmansk and on other trooping duties. Finally returned to Bergen Line in Nov 1945. She underwent an extensive refit at her birthplace, completed in June 1946. She returned to cruising in the Caribbean, and also service between Norway and Britain, and a 134-day round-the-world voyage starting in January 1951. Sold to Sweden later that year, refitted, and began her first voyage for the Clipper Line in December. Refitted again in 1954 at AG Weser, Bremen, with passenger accomodations reduced to 155. Continued sailing for the Clipper Line into 1960s. Refitted again in 1965 and 1968. Sold in October 1969 to International House Co Ltd in Tokyo and sailed to Yokosuka, Japan, for preparation as a floating hotel and restaurant at Kisho Nishiura on the Izu peninsula, where she still resides.