Safmarine, a South African shipping line had started operating passenger ships in liner service between the UK and South Africa as early as 1965, operating former Union Castle vessels Transvaal and Pretoria Castle as S.A. Vaal and S.A. Oranje respectively until the mid 1970’s when liner service was discontinued due to the competition of the airplane.
But in in 1985, South Africa Marine Corporation based in Cape Town decided to order a newbuilding from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft for their Durban – Southampton route. The previous ship they had constructed to revive this route in 1981, their first Astor had to be replaced because her machinery could not maintain the planned liner schedule.
On April 12, 1985 the contract with the yard was signed and in January 1986 construction started with the keel laying ceremony. Although outwardly very similar looking to her near sister she was 12 metres longer (close examination shows an additional group of four windows just below her first lifeboat). Her machinery output was boosted to 15400 kW compared to 9700 kW of the first Astor. In fact her service speed remained at 18 knots just like her prdecessor, the extra power was needed to maintain her schedule while in liner service, for example being able to make up for lost time because of bad weather.
Like the first Astor, the new ship was designed with a sharply raked bow, a low superstructure and a large, square funnel. Her interiors also resembled those of her predecessor as they were done in a traditional style with the use of dark wood and public spaces had relatively high ceilings. She featured a dining room, main show lounge, conference facilities, a casino, sauna, gymnasium and outdoor swimming pools.
However, with their new ship still under construction, Safmarine changed its mind (it was mentioned this was related to the political situation at the time in South Africa) and it was decided to abandon their liner service between the UK and South Africa altogether and they immediately sold her to the Marlan Corporation based in Panama in 1986.
She was afloat in drydock for the first time on May 30, 1986 and a few weeks later on June 24, 1986 she was named Astor by her godmother Mrs. Inta Elisabeth Gleich. Six months later she commenced sea trials and Astor was finally delivered on January 14, 1987.
The Astor was marketed by Morgan Leisure in Colchester, which had a subsidiary Globus Kreuzfahrten GmbH in Hamburg which took care of the German market. In the background, Morgan and Globus both had a financial relationship with Safmarine. Astor was ultimately chartered out to a trading company in Hong Kong and it was under their name the ship is was registered after delivery in Port Luis, Mauritius. Her funnels however featured the ML symbol of Marlan Line.
On January 31, 1987 she started her maiden cruise from Hamburg via Genoa to South America and the Caribbean. Originally intended for liner service, the 1987-built 650-passenger vessel was, after being sold by Safmarine, completed by the German yard with luxury soft adventure cruising for the British and German market in mind.
But shortly hereafter in February the next year rumours started circling concerning a planned sale of Astor to the Soviet Union. In May of 1988 Astor was chartered to German cruise operator Transocean Tours replacing the Lev Tolstoy previously chartered from the Black Sea Shipping Cy, but the contract would effectively start in October that year after she had been handed over to her new owners, as indeed she had been sold to Soviet owners, the Black Sea Shipping Co, Odessa. They renamed her Fedor Dostojewskiy (a Russian writer and philosopher).
On December 23, 1988 she departed on her first cruise as Fedor Dostojewskiy from Genoa. Almost immediately she passes on to new ownership again, this time to Sovcomflot, also a Russian shipowner, for a reported price of 110 million DM. However, already in February 1990 Sovcomflot prematurely terminates the charter contract with Transocean Tours effective from the end of November 1990.
Fedor Dostejewskiy is quickly chartered to another German operator, Neckermann Seereisen for five years and she departs on her first cruise on December 22, 1990.
A year later, in December 1991 because of the final collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian flag changes to that of the Bahamas and from now on she is operated by the Cypriot company Unicom.
In November 1995 Fedor Dostejewskiy is sent to the yard to be upgraded to comply with new SOLAS requirements and and that same month she is returned by Neckermann to Sovcomflot. Immediately, she is renamed Astor, her original name by godmother Marie-Luise Marjan, followed by a handover to cruise travel operator Aquamarin from Bremen as the new charterer.
Starting 1996 she is registered with owners Astor Shipping Co., Nassau, Bahamas. Because the charter to Aquamarin is not succesful, she returns to Transocean Tours and in April 21, 1997 she makes her first cruise for Transocean.
July 1998 she develops problems with her stabalizers and is sent to Blohm & Voss for repairs. In dry dock, her faulty stabilizers are removed. In between she sails on one cruise without them before they are reinstalled in August. Shortly thereafter, four months later she visits the yard again for a total renovation of the Übersee Club.
On November 28, 2008, Astor was sailing in the Gulf of Oman en route from Egypt to Dubai when the German Navy frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern spotted Somalian pirates on their way to attack Astor. She intervened and the pirates retreated. No one on board Astor was aware of the hazardous situation.
Then some bad luck for Astor in May 2009 when she runs aground in the port of Copenhagen. She does come loose after a while and after investigations it turns out that her hull is undamaged.
In May 2010 she is sold to Astor Premicon Hochseekreuzfahrten, Munich, Germany and from now on sails under the flag of the Bahamas, homeported in Nassau. Transocean Tours is a subsidiary of Premicon so she is now operated and owned by the same interests.
UK cruise operator Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV) charters her from 2013 onwards, at first for their new venture in Australia. CMV later acquires Astor outright in 2014 as well as Transocean Tours to expand on the German market.
Astor’s new yearly routine consists of sailing in Australian waters during the winter season under the Transocean name and in summer she is operated under the CMV brand (although also marketed by Transocean in Germany).
Plans were to shift her to CMV’s French brand and operate her under the name Jules Verne, making 2020 her last year sailing for Transocean which could now expand with their newly acquired Vasco da Gama (ex Holland America Cruises Statendam). But this never comes to pass as CMV is one of the first casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic which causes cruising to come to a complete halt world wide and the line goes into administration July 2020.
Astor was sold at auction on October 15, 2020 for $1,710,000 to Turkish scrappers. She was beached in Aliaga, Turkey on November 23, 2020.
