The Gruziya was one of five cruiseferries built between 1975 and 1976 for the Black Sea Shipping Company for intra-Soviet Union service on the Black Sea. It was converted to a passenger cruise ship in the 1980s.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Black Sea Shipping Company was based in the newly independent state of Ukraine. In 1995 she was transferred to Blasco, UK, re-registered to Liberia and renamed Odessa Sky. On August 26, 1995 the vessel was seized in Montreal, Quebec, and remained there for several months. In August 1996 she was re-registered to Odessa and on September 11, 1996 the ship arrived in Wilhelmshaven, Germany for an engine overhaul. Blasco could not pay for the overhaul, and as a result the Odessa Sky was seized in Wilhelmshaven. Her crew remained on board, unpaid.
The Odessa Sky was sold at auction, in August 1998, to the Dutch businessman Gerard van Leest for 16.5 million Deutsche Mark. The crew of the ship refused to leave the ship unless they were paid the two years worth of salaries Blasco owed them, and even threatened to sink the ship, should their demands not be met. A settlement was eventually reached where the crew were given flight tickets home and even money for new clothes, and the Odessa Sky could proceed to Bremerhaven for rebuilding.
The Odessa Sky was renamed Club I and re-registered to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in March 1999. From April 1999 onwards she made short cruises out of Rotterdam under the banner of Club Cruise. The Club 1 failed to find popularity in The Netherlands, and as a result the planned winter program was cancelled and the ship was laid up in September 1999. In December 1999 Nouvelles Frontieres, a France based group, chartered the Club 1 and renamed her Van Gogh for cruises around the Mediterranean and Caribbean. In 2002 she was chartered to the United Kingdom-based Travelscope.
On September 26, 2004 the Van Gogh collided with the tanker Spetses outside Gibraltar in heavy fog. The Van Gogh received heavy damage to her bow, but there were no injuries and the Van Gogh could return to Gibraltar for repairs under her own power. The Van Gogh was found to have been travelling at an unsafe speed (14 kn) for the conditions, the crew failed to give proper audio signals for reduced visibility and both vessels were found to have failed to keep proper radar watch.
Traveloscope went bankrupt in December 2007, but Club Cruise took over the ship's planned 2008 world cruise. In January 2008, Club Cruise established a new subsidiary, Van Gogh Cruises, which took over all existing bookings for the Van Gogh and planned to continue to operate her in the UK market. Due to difficulties in acquiring a membership in the Association of British Travel Agents, Van Gogh Cruises were forced to suspend operations in April 2008. As a result, the Van Gogh was chartered to the Russia-based Metropolis Tur for the 2008 northern hemisphere summer season.
The Van Gogh was detained by police in Funchal, Madeira on April 1, 2008, in a dispute over a debt owed by a previous operator. The ship was allowed to depart after 48 hours.
After Club Cruise fell into bankruptcy, in July 2009, the Van Gogh was sold to Cyprus-based Salamis Cruises for $ 6.5 million. The ship was renamed Salamis Filoxenia and replace the Salamis Glory on short cruises from Limassol. |