Thursday 27 October 2011

MS Saga Ruby Cruise Ship and a God of the Night, Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

At top-right, the fiery eyes of some departing God of the Night blaze down in rage as a last-minute prey achieves sanctuary upon entering the harbour:


(Click this MS Saga Ruby cruise ship text link to see the largest size)


The unsuspecting ship, the MS Saga Ruby cruise liner, is shown framed in the Eastern Entrance of Dover Harbour, formed by the Eastern Arm pier on the left and the Southern Breakwater on the right.

The structure on the end of the Eastern Arm pier is the Dover Port Control building; beyond the Eastern Entrance lie the dangerous waters of the Straits of Dover and English Channel.

The photo was taken from near the lighthouse end of the Prince of Wales Pier at 6.17 am on Wednesday the 11th of August, 2010.

Another Saga Cruises ship in port this day was the Spirit of Adventure (photographed during an earlier visit in June).

Later, the Saga Ruby left Dover at the start of the "Treasures of the Anglo-Celtic Isles" cruise that called at various ports in England, Scotland, Wales, Nothern Ireland, and Eire (Ireland).

Full itinerary (1):

Edinburgh, Kirkwall, Portree, Greenock (Glasgow), Belfast, Holyhead (Wales), Dublin, Cork, Falmouth, Guernsey (Channel Islands).

The Saga Ruby returned to Dover on Tuesday, 24th of August, to appear in two further photographs:

The first is the Night Panorama of the Western Docks in Dover Harbour photo that was taken from St Martin's Battery, a Victorian and World War II coastal artillery position on top of the Western Heights cliffs overlooking the harbour.

The second photo, MS Saga Ruby Cruise Ship and Neptune Catamaran in the Western Docks, was taken shortly after the first and is a side-view of the passenger ship while berthed at Cruise Terminal 1 (CT1) on the Admiralty Pier.

This view from the from the Prince of Wales Pier also shows the Dover-based Neptune catamaran, a charter boat powered by twin Caterpillar diesel engines, in the bottom left-hand corner.

Click to see the official Saga Ruby webpage and Saga Ruby Captain's blog.

Saga Holidays cater for solo travellers and claim both the Saga Ruby and Saga Pearl II have a "a high number of single cabins".

Videos: Saga Travel use the Saga Pearl II video to illustrate the Saga Ruby on their website. "Life on Board" also applies to both ships:




MS Saga Ruby


The MS Saga Ruby is a cruise ship owned and operated by Saga Cruises PLC. She was built as the combined ocean liner/cruise ship MS Vistafjord in 1973 by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in the United Kingdom for the Norwegian America Line.

In 1983 the MS Vistafjord was sold to Cunard Line, retaining her original name until 1999 when she was renamed MS Caronia. In 2004 she was sold to her current owners. She is the last cruise ship to have been built in the United Kingdom.

Career (2) (3)

Name: 1973-1999: MS Vistafjord, 1999-2004: MS Caronia, 2004 onwards: MS Saga Ruby
Owner: 1973-1983: Norwegian America Line, 1983-2004: Cunard Line, 2004 onwards: Saga Shipping Company
Operator: 1973-1983: Norwegian American Line, 1983-2004: Cunard Line, 2004 onwards: Saga Cruises
Port of registry: 1973-1983: Oslo, Norway, 1983-1999: Nassau, Bahamas, 1999-2004: Southampton, United Kingdom, 2004 onwards: London, United Kingdom
Builder: Swan Hunter Shipbuilders, Newcastle, England, United Kingdom
Call Sign: 9HA2415
IMO: 7214715
MMSI: 248563000
Status: In service

General characteristics (as built)

Type: cruise ship
Tonnage: 24,292 GRT
Displacement: 5,954 metric tons deadweight (DWT)
Length: 191.09 m (626 ft 11 in)
Beam: 25.00 m (82 ft 0 in)
Draught: 8.20 m (26 ft 11 in)
Ice class: 1 C
Installed power: 2 × Sulzer 9RD68 diesels, combined 17,650 kW
Propulsion: 2 propellers
Speed: 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) service speed
Capacity: 670 passengers (maximum)

General characteristics (after 2005 refit)

Tonnage: 24,492 GT (gross tonnage)
Draught: 8.23 m (27 ft 0 in)
Decks: 9 (passenger accessible)
Capacity: 655 passengers (maximum)
Crew: 380

Click to see the official Saga Cruises website.



(1) Cruise Scotland 2010 Schedules
(2) Excerpt from Saga Ruby
(3) Marinetraffic entry for MS Saga Ruby

The main photo first appeared at:

MS Saga Ruby Cruise Ship and a God of the Night, Dover Harbour

To be uploaded:

MS Saga Ruby approaching the Admiralty Pier

Other Dover Saga Cruises photos include:


Click to see all Saga Ruby and Cruise Ship photos.

More Dover at Sunrise photos.

Clickable thumbnails of all harbour-related photos on the main Panoramio Images of Dover website are available on this blog at the Port of Dover Page (also linked to below the blog title).

The Panoramio photos are each accompanied by a Google Earth satellite map. However, the images are smaller than those on the Images of Dover Blog and the captions are less well formatted.

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

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