| Gross tonnage | 23,615 GT |
|---|---|
| Length | 170 m |
| Beam | 26 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 264 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 317 |
| Crew | 120 |
| Service speed | 19.0 knots |
| Builder | T. Mariotti |
| Launched | 2023 |
| Maiden voyage | 2023-08-12 |
| Operator | Seabourn Cruise Line |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Seabourn Pursuit is the second of Seabourn's two purpose-built expedition ships, delivered by the T. Mariotti yard in Genoa in the summer of 2023. She is an ultra-luxury ship of 23,615 GT built to Polar Class PC 6 standards, carrying just 264 guests in all-suite accommodation while operating as a fully equipped expedition platform — with two custom-built submarines, 24 Zodiacs, kayaks and a large specialist expedition team. Together with her sister Seabourn Venture, she took a brand known for luxury ocean cruising into polar and remote-region expedition work with ships designed for that purpose from the keel up, rather than adapted to it.
Key specifications
The dataset figures are: 23,615 GT; 170 m in length and 26 m in beam — 557 feet by 78 feet in the yard's delivery reporting; 264 guests at double occupancy and 317 maximum; a crew figure of 120 as recorded in the dataset's source; and a service speed of 19.0 knots. She has 132 oceanfront suites across twelve categories, every one with a private veranda, including two-level Wintergarden suites. Her Polar Class PC 6 notation is the specification that defines her employment: it certifies the hull and machinery for operation in polar conditions that exclude almost all conventional cruise ships.
Design and construction
Pursuit's construction was split between two Italian sites. Steel cutting took place on 17 September 2020 at the CIMAR yard at San Giorgio di Nogaro, near Trieste, where the hull was built up with engines, generators and main machinery installed. In April 2022 the substantially complete hull was loaded onto a heavy-lift barge and carried some 1,200 nautical miles around Italy to T. Mariotti's Genoa yard for final outfitting — a transfer made necessary by the yard group's division of work, and delayed, like the whole programme, by pandemic closures and supply-chain disruption; the ship had originally been expected in service in 2022. Her name was announced on 27 September 2021. The design pairs the expedition hardware — shell doors at waterline level for Zodiac boarding, a mast-mounted 4K Cineflex camera feeding wildlife imagery to screens around the ship, and close to 30,000 square feet of deck space — with a deliberately yacht-like luxury interior of eight dining venues and all-suite accommodation.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The dataset records her launch year as 2023 and her maiden voyage as 12 August 2023. She was delivered at Genoa on 31 July 2023 in a ceremony at which Seabourn president Natalya Leahy and T. Mariotti managing director Marco Ghiglione signed the handover documents, and she entered service on 12 August 2023 with a departure from Malta, as the line's press material announced at delivery. No separate christening ceremony is recorded in the sources used for this guide.
Career by operator
Seabourn Pursuit has had a single name and operator.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2023–present | Seabourn Pursuit | Seabourn Cruise Line |
Her first season after the Malta debut took her across the Atlantic and into expedition work through South America and Antarctica, the employment she was built for; this directory records the pattern of her debut year only and does not track itineraries.
Onboard character
Pursuit's character is the deliberate collision of two ship types. The expedition layer is serious: two six-seat submersibles, two dozen Zodiacs, kayaks, scuba equipment and an expedition team of scientists, naturalists and scholars numbering over twenty. The hotel layer is pure Seabourn: all-suite accommodation with heated jacket cabinets and heated bathroom floors for returning from the ice, multiple dining venues, an infinity pool, and lounges — the Constellation Lounge with nearly 270-degree views, the Expedition Lounge as the briefing and social heart — designed to keep the landscape in view. Few ships of her size carry both layers at full strength; that combination, rather than any single venue, is her design signature.
Major refits and incidents
No refit has been reported for Seabourn Pursuit, and no significant incident involving her had been reported in the sources used for this guide at the time of writing. Her build delays were a construction matter, not an incident, and are covered in the construction section above.
Sister ships and class
Seabourn Pursuit's only sister is Seabourn Venture, delivered in 2022 as the first of the pair from the same T. Mariotti programme; the two ships are near-identical expedition twins. The dataset assigns no formal class name, and the pair is best described as Seabourn's expedition class of two.
Fate and where she is now
Seabourn Pursuit is in active service with Seabourn (status as recorded in the dataset), working the expedition programme she was built for.
Sources: https://www.adventure-life.com:443/cruises/2647/seabourn-pursuit; Marine Log, "T. Mariotti shipyard delivers Seabourn Pursuit" (1 August 2023); Seabourn delivery press material via Travel Weekly and Recommend (2023); Cruise and Ferry report on the hull transfer to Genoa (April 2022).