On Tuesday, June 2, Oceanwide Expeditions’ newest ship - MV Janssonius, had its keel-laying ceremony, which traditionally marks the vessel's “birthday”.
The special event was held at Brodosplit Shipyard (Split Croatia) and celebrated the start of the ship’s construction. MV Janssonius' inauguration is planned for late summer 2021 with scheduled voyages to Antarctica.
The cruise ship Janssonius is the second of Oceanwide's newbuild vessels - with fleetmates Hondius (2019, sistership), Ortelius (1989), Plancius (1976) and the two polar-class sailships - Noorderlicht (1991) and Rembrandt van Rijn (1994). The newbuilds Janssonius and Hondius are ice-classed LR-PC6 ("Lloyd's Register Polar Class 6") passenger vessels with ice-strengthened hulls.
Janssonius has passenger capacity 170 (plus 72 crew), 80 cabins and 5 decks (4 with staterooms).
Janssonius' keel-laying ceremony was attended by Wijnand van Gessel (Oceanwide Expeditions' founder), the company's COO (Mark van der Hulst) and Brodosplit Shipyard's management team.