Monday, February 2, 2009

The Cruise Ship Achille A Cruise Ship of Heartbreaking Memories

The Achille Cruise ship was a luxury passenger liner and became infamous because of its 1985 hijacking. It was designed in 1938; her hull was laid in 1939 at Vlissingen, which is in the Netherlands for the owners Rotterdamsche Lloyed. With the interruption of World War II coupled with two German bombing raids, it wasn't completed until 1947 and then named Willem Ruys.

She made her first voyage in late 1947. The ships’ size is 192 meters in length and 25 meters in beam. Its draught was 8.9 meters and came in at 21,110 long tons and could accommodate 900 passengers. It had 8 powerful Sulzer engines, with 2 main propellers doing the hard work. In 1964, the Achille changed hands to the Flotta Lauro Line or otherwise known as Star Lauro which is now known as MSC cruises and renamed it to Achille Lauro. At the same year, Star Lauro was also bought, which is Achille Lauro's sister ship, Angelina Lauro.

It was then Rebuilt and modernized. Achille Lauro was operational and being serviced in 1966. The ship played a valuable role in evacuating families if the British servicemen who were caught up in the Six Day Way. It arrived in Cairo in the first of June in 1967.
In October 7, 1985, 4 men that represent Palestine Liberation Front have taken the power over of the ship when it was on Egypt as it was seafaring starting on Alexandria in the direction of Port Said which is within Egypt.

Hijackers were surprised the crew of the ship and acted impulsively to repel the borders. The onboard passengers with the crew members were held hostages; they sailed towards Tartus, Syria and also demand 50 Palestinians in Israel prisons to be released.

When the hijackers were refused to wharf on Tartus, they executed one of the Wheelchaired passengers, an American, Leon Klinghoffer. Since he was Jewish, they threw his corpse overboard. Afterwards, the ship then sailed back to Port Said. After 2 days of discussions, the hijackers then arranged to dispose of the liner for secure passage. They were flown toward Tunisia aboard and Egyptian airliner.

Eventually, the airplane had been intercepted by US fighter planes on an Aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in October 10th and was told to land at a naval airport. Eventually, the hijackers had been detained by the Italians after a dispute over US and Italian government authorities. Other passengers including the hijacking principal mastermind, Abu Abbas were permitted to continue to their target destination in spite of a protest held by the US officials. Egypt demanded a public explanation from the US for demanding the plane to go off-course.

One of the hijackers' al-Asker has been approved parole on 1991. The hijacking mastermind Abu Abbas died in US custody in 1994 while Ahmad al-Assadi vanished in 1991 while on parole. And with the remaining hijacker, Youssef al Molqi had been sent to thirty years in jail.

Towards the end of its service, it was reflagged in 1987. It then remained operational until November 30th of 1994 where it caught fire off the coast of Somalia. It was left deserted and eventually sank on December 2 of the same year.
Learn about the Carnival Cruise Line Ship and discover all the fun you can have, exotic locations you can visit and the relaxing time which can be had aboard on one of the Princess Cruise Ships.

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