Hurtigruten announced the first-ever naming ceremony in Antarctica for the line's hybrid-powered expedition ship MS Roald Amundsen.
This fall, when the official christening will take place, the world’s first hybrid-powered cruise vessel will make her way to the white continent on a maiden Antarctica voyage.
Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam said they could think of "no better place to name the truly unique MS Roald Amundsen than the waters of Antarctica – where no ship has ever been christened before."
MS Roald Amundsen will be named after the polar hero who led the first expedition to traverse Northwest Passage, the first expedition to the south pole as well as the first expedition proven to have reached the North Pole. The naming ceremony is set to honour the explorer's legacy with a ritual invented by Roald Amundsen himself.
When christening the famed expedition ship ‘Maud’ back in 1917, Roald Amundsen switched the traditional bottle of champagne for a chunk of ice. Prior to crushing the ice against the bow of the ship, he said:
“It is not my intention to dishonour the glorious grape, but already now you shall get the taste of your real environment. For the ice, you have been built, and in the ice, you shall stay most of your life, and in the ice, you shall solve your tasks.”
The company of Hurtigruten along with the yet to be disclosed godmother, are due to use the same ritual when christening MS Roald Amundsen. Skjeldam added that "to honour Roald Amundsen and his explorer heritage," they would revive his ritual and pay their respects to the "oceans, the environment and past and present explorers.”
Hurtigruten’s hybrid-powered Roald Amundsen made history by being the world's first cruise ship to sail purely on battery power as the vessel left Kleven yard for her maiden voyage off Norway's coast in late June.