Route Southern Caribbean Length 268 m Launched 22 September 1990 Beam 32 m | Yard number A30 Construction started 31 July 1989 Weight 47,510 tons | |
 | ||
Name 1991–2013 Monarch of the Seas2013–present Monarch Builders | ||
MS Monarch (built as Monarch of the Seas) is the second of three Sovereign-class cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. As of April 1, 2013, Monarch is operated by RCCL's Pullmantur Cruises brand. It was built in 1991 at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in Saint-Nazaire, France.
Contents
At 73,941 GT, Monarch was one of the largest cruise ships in the world at time of her completion. She can carry up to 2,744 passengers.
Monarch has an outdoor basketball court, two shuffleboard courts, and a rock climbing wall. There are also two full-sized salt water pools. She was refurbished in May 2003 to add the rock-climbing wall, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Seattle's Best Coffee, a Latin Bar, disco, Asian-fusion restaurant and conference center. The fitness center, spa and children's area were also enlarged. Prior to being retired from the Royal Caribbean International fleet, Monarch of the Seas (as she was then called) sailed 3 and 4 night cruises to the Bahamas out of Port Canaveral, Florida.
In 2007, Monarch became the first major cruise ship in the world to be captained by a woman, the Swede Karin Stahre Janson, who remained the only one until 2010 when the British captain Sarah Breton took charge of MS Artemis of P&O Cruises.
On April 1, 2013, Monarch was transferred from Royal Caribbean International to Spain's Pullmantur Cruises to join her sister ship MS Sovereign after serving for Royal Caribbean International for 22 years. Monarch will be sailing year-round in the Southern Caribbean for Pullmantur beginning April 27, 2013. Before sailing for Pullmantur, Monarch underwent another refurbishment in April 2013 to some of its cabins, casino and shops.
Grounding off St. Maarten
After evacuating a sick passenger at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, the Netherlands Antilles on 15 December 1998, Monarch of the Seas grazed a reef while departing, opening a gash along the starboard hull 40 by 2 metres (131.2 by 6.6 ft) in size. The ship started taking on water and began to settle by the head. Three of its watertight compartments were completely flooded and several others partially flooded.
It was intentionally grounded on a sandbar to prevent further sinking. All passengers were evacuated by crew members and local tender operators. No lives were lost. The grounding breached two of the ships diesel fuel tanks and an overflow tank causing a small fuel spill of approximately 100 US gallons (380 l; 83 imp gal). There was also severe damage to the ship. A joint investigation by the Norwegian Maritime Investigator and the United States Coast Guard found that the accident was due to "…a myriad of human performance deficiencies." Reports also indicate that navigation out of the port was done visually rather than using of electronic navigation and that the relocation of a vital buoy was not reflected on charts.
The ship was drydocked for repairs for three months at Atlantic Marine's Mobile, Alabama facilities. One hundred fourteen of the ship's compartments had to be cleaned. The work also included replacement of machinery, 460 tons of shell plating, and 18 miles (29 km) of electrical wiring.
Gas leak
While docked at the port of Los Angeles in August 2005, maintenance on a sewage pipe caused a small amount of raw sewage and an unknown amount of hydrogen sulfide gas to escape. Three crew members, Boris Dimitrov of Bulgaria; Willie Tirol of The Philippines and Radomilja Frane of Croatia, were killed and 19 others were injured. Reports said that the deaths were almost instantaneous as the crew members were not wearing breathing apparatus at the time.
Captain's death
Thirty-eight-year-old Captain Joern Rene Klausen was found dead in his stateroom aboard the Monarch early the morning of January 30, 2006. The ship was returning to Los Angeles from a three-night cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. According to reports, the death appeared to be of natural causes.