The classic cruise ship “Funchal”, built in 1961 and which had been moored in Lisbon for several years, was auctioned off at a court in Madeira. According to media reports, a Turkish shipbreaking yard is said to have bought the ship at auction for 802,265 €.
The last owner of the ship, which was most recently operated by Portuscale Cruises, had been the local ship management company Teamson Lda since April 2021; the company is currently subject to insolvency proceedings.
The bids were opened on 9 October on board the ship, and only two bids were received. According to media reports, the “Funchal” was sold for just over the minimum bid price to a Turkish ship-breaking company, which had previously purchased two ships from the original owner, Portuscale Cruises (“Arion” and “Lisboa”) for scrapping in 2015 and 2018.
After Teamson acquired the ship in 2021, it was moved to the Rocha Conde shipyard in Lisbon for a planned conversion into a floating hotel. The company was unable to complete the project. However, during its time at the shipyard, at least the full asbestos removal work was completed.
The ‘Funchal’ is one of the oldest surviving cruise ships and was originally built in 1951 at the Danish shipyard Helsingør Skibsværft og Maskinbyggeri for the Portuguese company Empressa Insula de Navagação as a passengerand postal vessel for the regular Atlantic service between Lisbon, the Azores and Madeira. Around 40 years ago, it was then converted into a fully-fledged cruise ship with a capacity for 402 passengers.
It subsequently served under various owners. Its last owner was the shipping company Portuscale Cruises, owned by the entrepreneur Rui Alegre, who had acquired the ship, along with three others, in 2010 from the insolvent shipping company Classic International Cruises. The plan was to get the “Funchal” back into service successfully following a number of costly refits. However, demand for such industry ‘veterans’ – alongside the “Funchal”, Portuscale Cruises’ fleet also included the “Azores,” the “Lisboa” and the “Porto” – failed to materialise. The “Lisboa” and “Porto” have since been scrapped; the “Azores” continued to operate for a few more years as the “Astoria” and is currently being scrapped in Ghent, Belgium. Only the “Funchal” remained, and it has been laid up in Lisbon, out of service, since 2015.
Following the insolvency of Portuscale Cruises, the British hotel group Signature Living purchased the “Funchal” at auction in December 2018 for €3.9 million, with the aim of converting it into a floating luxury hotel. Signature Living had planned to refit the ship and launch it as a trendy disco party boat with 625 berths, which was then to operate off the coast of Ibiza with a zebra-striped livery. However, the project stalled after only a short time as the new owner was unable to pay the full purchase price. The “Funchal” was subsequently put up for auction again, and Teamson Lda won the bid.
