The Portuguese river and expedition cruise company Mystic Invest Holding bought the 1993-built CMV Vasco da Gama at an auction in the UK.
The vessel, which started life as Holland America Line's Statendam, was the first of 5 ships formerly operated by CMV-Cruise and Maritime Voyages, a UK-based small-ship operator, which went out of business in the aftermath of the global pandemic.
Mystic Invest will look at the German and British cruise markets to employ the 55,451 GT liner. It is by far the largest cruise ship owned by the company. CMV was also active in both markets and its Vasco da Gama sailed out of Germany (Bremerhaven and Kiel) during the summer months.
In 2019, Mystic Invest sold a 40% stake in its cruise unit to the New York-based hospitality-focused investor Certares for EUR 250 million. The unit includes expedition cruises operator Mystic Cruises and two river cruise companies - Douro Azul that operates on Portuguese waterways and Nicko Tours that has a presence on twelve rivers and is based in Germany. In the United States, Mystic owns Atlas Ocean Voyages.
Mystic Invest is the 100% owner of Portugal's WestSEA shipyard where it is building its expedition cruise ships.
The remaining 4 vessels that CMV chartered from the same Greek principal will be auctioned later, one at a time.