Name MV Gullfoss Operator Eimskipafelag Islands Launched 8 December 1949 Draft 5.4 m | Owner Eimskipafelag Islands Port of registry Reykjavík Length 108 m | |
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Route Reykjavik-Leith-Copenhagen-(winter only) Hamburg Builder Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen | ||
Mv gullfoss 1 72 model icelandic passenger ship
MV Gullfoss was a ferry operating between Iceland, Denmark, and Scotland from 1950 to 1972. She replaced another Gullfoss. They were named after the much-visited Gullfoss waterfall.
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In 1939 Eimskip planned to replace the 1915 Gullfoss, but World War II intervened.
Some days after launching, Gullfoss suffered a dust explosion, which killed four shipyard workers and injured two.
On 14 May 1950 Gullfoss made her maiden voyage from Copenhagen, Denmark, carrying 164 passengers, arriving in Reykjavík, Iceland, on Saturday, 20 May, to a ministerial welcome.
During the 1950s and 1960s Gullfoss ran fortnightly in summer on the Copenhagen-Edinburgh/Leith-Reykjavik route and three times weekly via Hamburg, West Germany, in winter. In winter she also ran cruises. In 1950 and 1951, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique chartered her for service from Bordeaux, France, to Casablanca, French Morocco. In 1953 she was in the Mediterranean and in 1967 cruised from Iceland to the Azores, Madeira, Casablanca, and Lisbon. Several cruises went to Amsterdam and London and around Iceland.
In 1963, Gullfoss was damaged by fire whilst being maintained at her builder's yard and in 1966 she collided with MV Malmöhus near Copenhagen.
By the early 1970s Gullfoss operated only during the summer, and she was withdrawn from service in 1972 due to airline competition. She evacuated Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) in January 1973 when Eldfell volcano erupted.
In November 1973 she was converted to carry 1,100 pilgrims and renamed Mecca. In January 1974 she arrived in Jeddah. Saudi Arabia, and operated the 160 nmi (300 km) route between Jeddah (the port for Mecca, 86 km (53 mi) away), Hodeidah, Yemen, and Port Sudan, Egypt, for Orri Navigation until she caught fire in the Red Sea on 19 December 1976, drifted onto a reef, and sank the next day.