These Five Former CMV Ships Are Up For Sale By Auction

Author: Isabella Sullivan

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The five ships are officially up for sale – but how much will they go for?

The cruise industry was hit hard earlier this year when beloved British cruise line Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) went into administration.

The cruise line had six ships in its fleet when it ceased trading in July 2020, with plans for two new ships to also enter service in the upcoming years.

Just a couple of months later, many of us have been wondering what has happened to these ships, and the answer is they’ve been put up for sale by auction.

Ships Vasco Da Gama, Columbus, Astor, Magellan and Marco Polo have been put up for sale, with each vessel reportedly being sold under a separate deal.

CMV Cruise & Maritime
Magellan is one of the ships up for auction

The sale is being brokered by CW Kellock & Co, with deadlines for the sale between 8 October and 22 October 2020. It has not been disclosed how much the ships will go for, but it’s likely to be in the tens of millions.

CMV’s 556-passenger ship Astoria is not up for sale by auction, as the ship was always due to leave the CMV fleet in October 2020.

It is not known what is happening to the Amy Johnson and Ida Pfeiffer, the two ships CMV purchased by P&O Cruises last year that were due to enter CMV’s service in 2021.

Four of the ships are currently docked in the port of Tilbury, Essex, CMV’s former homeport, and one is in Bristol Avonmouth.

The sale comes despite the news last month that the former Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ boss is planning on relaunching the now-defunct cruise line.

According to Sky News, the former boss bought the defunct cruise line’s customer database and booking systems, in a hope to get things back up and running.

Sky News reported that a “number of assets” belonging to CMV had been sold to a new vehicle established by former boss, Christian Verhounig.

The sale included customer databases, computer systems, booking systems, office furniture and equipment, IT infrastructure and intellectual property, but sadly not CMV’s ocean vessels.