| IMO | 8883563 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 1,471 GT |
| Length | 54.0 m |
| Builder | Jeffboat |
| Launched | 1984 |
| Maiden voyage | 1984 |
| Operator | Alaskan Dream Cruises |
| Status | Laid up |
| All names | Chichagof Dream; Spirit of Glacier Bay; Nantucket Clipper |
Overview
Spirit of Glacier Bay is a small American coastal cruise ship with a double life — and a double grounding — behind her. Built in 1984 at Jeffersonville, Indiana, as Nantucket Clipper for Clipper Cruise Line, she spent two decades cruising the US East Coast, the Caribbean, the Canadian Maritimes and the Great Lakes. Bought by Cruise West in 2006, renamed twice in two years, she ran aground in both of her Cruise West identities, was laid up in Seattle from 2008, and lost her operator entirely when Cruise West folded in 2010. Her story did not end there: rebuilt for Alaskan Dream Cruises, she returned to Alaskan service in 2016 as Chichagof Dream — a chapter the frozen dataset, which still shows her as an active Cruise West ship, does not record.
Key specifications
The dataset records IMO 8883563, 1,471 GT, a length of 54.0 m, builder Jeffboat and launch and maiden voyage both in 1984. Her own article's particulars agree on tonnage (1,471 GT) but give a registered length of 52.578 m and a beam of 11.28 m — while its text, and her later operator's material, describe a ship 207 feet (about 63 m) long. These are almost certainly different measures — registered versus overall length — but the sources do not say so explicitly, so the dataset's 54.0 m should be treated as approximate. Capacity in original form was 102 passengers with about 28 crew; in her Alaskan Dream rebuild she was reconfigured for roughly 74–80 guests in 37–40 staterooms, a reduction that traded berths for space. Her shallow draught — the quality that made her useful from the Intracoastal Waterway to Glacier Bay's coves — is the specification her whole career hangs on.
Design and construction
She was built by Jeffboat Corporation at Jeffersonville, Indiana — a yard on the Ohio River better known for barges and towboats than for passenger ships, which makes her a genuinely unusual product: a seagoing coastal cruiser from an inland river yard. She was one of Clipper Cruise Line's small American-flag ships, designed for the protected and semi-protected waters of the eastern seaboard: four decks, expansive bow and aft viewing areas, and a size small enough for the Great Lakes, the Intracoastal Waterway and Caribbean anchorages alike. Nothing about her was luxurious in the European sense; her design virtue was access.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Launched in 1984 as Nantucket Clipper, the name advertising the New England cruising that was her first employment. She was renamed Spirit of Nantucket in 2006 on joining Cruise West, whose fleet all carried "Spirit of…" names, and renamed again in spring 2008 — rechristened at Seattle — as Spirit of Glacier Bay, reviving a name a smaller Cruise West ship had carried from 1990 to 2001. She is therefore, technically, the second Spirit of Glacier Bay. The dataset's maiden-voyage entry of 1984 is a year-only proxy for her entry into Clipper service.
Career by operator
| Name | Operator | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Nantucket Clipper | Clipper Cruise Line | 1984–2006 |
| Spirit of Nantucket | Cruise West | 2006–2008 |
| Spirit of Glacier Bay | Cruise West | 2008–2010 |
| Chichagof Dream | Alaskan Dream Cruises | 2016– |
The dataset's operator history lists Cruise West alone, omitting both her first operator of 22 years and her later one. The researched sequence: two decades with Clipper Cruise Line on the East Coast, from the Caribbean to the Canadian Maritimes and into the Great Lakes as far as Chicago; purchase by Seattle-based Cruise West in 2006, together with her fleet-mate Yorktown Clipper; two further East Coast seasons; repositioning to the Pacific in early 2008; lay-up at Seattle from late 2008; the collapse of Cruise West on 18 September 2010; purchase by Alaskan Dream Cruises in 2015 and, after extensive modification, a return to service in Southeast Alaska in June 2016 as Chichagof Dream.
Onboard character
Her character, in every career, is the viewing platform. Wide bow decks and an aft promenade, a single sociable lounge, and — in her Alaskan Dream form — staterooms equipped for the scenery with binoculars as standard issue tell the story: she is a ship for watching coastlines pass at eight knots, not for being entertained indoors. The rebuild for Alaska enlarged the sense of space by cutting capacity by roughly a quarter, keeping the intimate, everyone-knows-everyone atmosphere that 100-passenger ships generate whether their operators plan it or not.
Major refits and incidents
This hull has an incident record out of proportion to her size. On 8 November 2007, as Spirit of Nantucket, she struck a submerged, uncharted object while cruising the Intracoastal Waterway near Virginia Beach, Virginia; her captain deliberately drove her into the shallows to keep her from settling in deeper water. Sixty-six people were aboard; there were no injuries, and Coast Guard officials publicly credited the captain's decision. Eight months later, on 7 July 2008, now Spirit of Glacier Bay, she ran aground again — at the head of Tarr Inlet in her namesake national park. She was stuck for more than nine hours awaiting the incoming tide; no casualties or injuries were reported, and passengers were offered re-accommodation, substantial refunds or credit. After that grounding she returned to Seattle and never cruised for Cruise West again, spending 2008–2010 at Jacobsen's Terminal in Ballard as floating accommodation, training, meeting and storage space. Her one major refit is the 2015–2016 Alaskan Dream conversion.
Sister ships and class
She has no sister in the class sense. Her closest relative is her Clipper and Cruise West running-mate Yorktown Clipper (later Spirit of Yorktown), a similar small American coastal cruiser bought alongside her in 2006 — a fleet-mate, not a sister hull. The dataset correctly assigns her no class.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset lists her as active and operating for Cruise West; Cruise West ceased operations in 2010, so that entry is a frozen roster artifact. Her documented later life is as Chichagof Dream for Alaskan Dream Cruises from 2016, the largest ship in that small fleet. In February 2026 that operator announced it had ceased business operations, leaving the hull's next chapter — for a 1984-built ship on her fourth career — unwritten at the time of writing.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Glacier_Bay, https://adventuresmithexplorations.com/cruises/ships/chichagof-dream/, https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Chichagof-Dream-1106?tab=review