| IMO | 9813072 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 20,889 GT |
| Length | 140 m |
| Beam | 23.6 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 530 |
| Crew | 155 |
| Builder | Kleven Verft |
| Yard | Ulsteinvik |
| Launched | 2018 |
| Maiden voyage | 2019-07-03 |
| Operator | HX Expeditions |
| Status | Active |
Note: the dataset row gives no crew, speed or class; operator-published figures (crew 151, cruising speed 15 knots, ice class PC-6) are identified in the text.
Overview
MS Roald Amundsen is the world's first hybrid-powered cruise ship, built by Kleven Verft at Ulsteinvik, Norway, for Hurtigruten's expedition arm — now HX Expeditions — and entering service on 3 July 2019. Large battery packs support her diesel engines, allowing periods of sailing on battery power alone and cutting fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by about 20 percent in her operator's estimates at launch.
She is named for Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian polar explorer who led the first traverse of the Northwest Passage, the first expedition to the South Pole and the first undisputed reaching of the North Pole. In her maiden season she honoured the name operationally: she became the first hybrid-powered ship to traverse the Northwest Passage, arriving at Nome, Alaska, on 10 September 2019 after a passage of more than 3,000 nautical miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
That autumn she was christened in Antarctica — the first ship ever named there — with a chunk of ice crushed against her bow in place of champagne, reviving a ritual Amundsen himself used for his polar ship Maud in 1917.
Key specifications
Dataset: 20,889 GT, 140 m by 23.6 m, 530 guests, Kleven Ulsteinvik, launched 2018, maiden voyage 3 July 2019. Hurtigruten / HX published figures add: 265 cabins, crew 151, cruising speed 15 knots, draught about 5.3 m, Polar Class 6 ice class, Norwegian flag. Wikipedia's capacity range of 530–1,018 reflects the quirk that her certificate maximum counts all berths and day capacity differently from the 530-guest expedition complement; 530 (500 in Antarctica under IAATO practice in operator material) is the meaningful operating figure, and the dataset's choice is the right one for a directory.
Hybrid specification is the headline: battery packs charged from excess engine output and returned to propulsion at peak demand — peak shaving, in engineering terms — enabling silent, emission-free sailing for periods of roughly 45 to 60 minutes under ideal conditions at launch, per the chief executive's contemporary Reuters interview. The system was designed to reduce emissions without depending on shore charging infrastructure that barely existed for ships in 2019.
Design and construction
Built by Kleven Verft (Kleven Yards), Ulsteinvik, to a design for polar expedition service with Scandinavian interiors — natural materials including granite, oak, birch and wool in the operator's descriptions — a two-deck Science Center, extensive observation decks, an infinity pool, panoramic sauna and more than half of cabins with private balconies (unusual for an expedition ship at her 2019 debut).
Her construction was not smooth. Launched on 17 February 2018, she was due for delivery that year; in late February 2018 Hurtigruten announced delivery would slip to 2019 because of problems at the shipyard — Kleven's well-documented financial and workload difficulties in that period. She was completed in mid-2019 — Wikipedia's infobox gives completion in July 2018 in one field against a 2019 service entry, an internal inconsistency of that article which the delivery record resolves in favour of 2019 completion for service purposes.
Her maiden voyage, on 3 July 2019 under Captain Kai Albrigtsen, ran from Tromsø along the Norwegian coast toward Hamburg in the operator's account, opening a maiden season of Norwegian coast, Svalbard and Greenland expedition cruising before the Northwest Passage transit.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Named for Roald Amundsen (see Overview). Launched 17 February 2018 at Ulsteinvik. The naming ceremony was deferred to the maiden Antarctic season and held in fall 2019 at Chiriguano Bay, Brabant Island, Antarctica, where godmother and polar pioneer Karin Strand crushed ice against the bow with Amundsen's own 1917 words for Maud: "It is not my intention to dishonour the glorious grape, but already now you shall get the taste of your real environment…" — the most quoted christening in modern expedition cruising, and a deliberate piece of brand theatre grounded in genuine history.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2019–2023 | Roald Amundsen | Hurtigruten Expeditions |
| 2023–present | Roald Amundsen | HX Expeditions |
The dataset's operator history records "Hurtigruten Expeditions; HX Expeditions" and its current operator as HX Expeditions, reflecting the rebrand and separation of Hurtigruten's expedition business as HX — a corporate renaming, not a sale or a change of ship: same hull, same expedition programme, new brand name over the door. Wikipedia likewise lists her operator as HX Expeditions.
Her operating career highlights include the 2019 Northwest Passage transit (above), a full 2019–2020 Antarctic season, and — less happily — her place in the pandemic record detailed in the next-but-one section.
Onboard character
Era-defining character is science-led expedition cruising at hotel quality: a staffed Science Center with lecture and workshop programming as the ship's social and intellectual centre; an Explorer Lounge and observation decks designed for polar scenery; three restaurants in the operator's specification, including the Lindstrøm fine-dining venue named for Amundsen's expedition cook; a wellness deck with infinity pool, hot tubs, panoramic sauna and indoor/outdoor gyms; and a 150 m outdoor running track in the operator's brochure material. Cabins are Scandinavian-minimal, natural-material and window-rich, over half with balconies.
She was designed, in short, to make a hybrid polar ship feel like a Norwegian boutique hotel that happens to be an ice-class research-capable expedition platform — the HX house style in its first full expression.
Major refits and incidents
The defining incident of her early career was the July 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, among the most consequential of the cruise industry's restart period. Returning to service on 17 July 2020 with a Tromsø–Svalbard roundtrip (209 passengers) and a second sailing on 24 July (177 passengers), she arrived back at Tromsø on 31 July with crew members testing positive; testing ultimately confirmed 36 infections among crew and passengers in the first days, with four passengers positive by 3 August, in Wikipedia's detailed account drawing on Norwegian reporting. Passengers had disembarked before the outbreak was announced, up to 69 municipalities were potentially affected, Hurtigruten's notification handling drew public criticism from Tromsø's mayor and health officials, the next sailing was cancelled and all aboard the second cruise were quarantined. The episode became a case study in restart risk; the ship herself was unharmed and returned to service thereafter.
No casualty, grounding or machinery failure of note is recorded for the ship in the sources used; the 2018 delivery delay belongs to construction history (see above).
Sister ships and class
Her sister is MS Fridtjof Nansen (2020), the second Kleven hybrid expedition ship, likewise now with HX, of the same 20,889 GT platform and PC-6 class. The dataset's class field is blank; the pair form the Kleven hybrid class in practical terms, and were the first hybrid-powered ships in the Hurtigruten group's history, as Wikipedia notes. No third unit of the exact design followed, as HX's fleet development took other paths.
Fate and where she is now
Active with HX Expeditions, per the dataset and Wikipedia ("Active"). Still a young ship and her operator's technology flagship in historical terms — the first hybrid cruise ship, first hybrid Northwest Passage transit, first ship christened in Antarctica are permanent entries in her record whatever follows. No sale, lay-up or renaming is recorded; her foreseeable fate is continued HX expedition service with her sister.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Roald_Amundsen; https://hurtigruten.mynewsdesk.com/pressreleases/named-in-ice-with-ice-battery-hybrid-powered-cruise-ship-becomes-first-vessel-named-in-antarctica-2940718