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WebUrbanist brings us their Top 6 picks for luxury subsea accommodation. The above picture is of The Posiedon Myster Island:

The Poseidon Mystery Island is competing for the title of the world’s first luxury underwater resort. The complex will be designed by Bruce Jones, famous for designing a series of $80-million luxury submarines with their own private state rooms and plush carpets, designed for voyages of up to three weeks in length. The project will cost $105 million and will be submerged next to a private island at a depth of 40 feet with an amazing view of the ocean floor.

You can find the next five hotels HERE.

CDR Salamander features China’s largest FPSO on Ugly Ship Thursday. He writes;

A ship only a Captain could love. I don’t think anyone will be making those cool mahogany models of it anytime soon, but I ask you to BEHOLD and up close and personal shot of the 300,000 DWT $230 million Hai Yang Shi You 117, China’s biggest floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

Our Ugly Ship pick is the Norwegian Gem, as photographed by the Lisbon Cruise Bog:

The Fairmont Summit is not much prettier but it is a working ship.

Can you believe an FPSO can actually be beautiful or that people actually pay to board the Norwegian Gem? Shocking, we know.

Photo by 123 look at me

First we witnessed trouble for the Hawaii Superferry (which is back in service) now Hawaii’s largest source of jobs for US mariners, Norwegian Cruise Lines, is pulling another ship out of the state. The Mercury News tells us;

Last week, NCL announced it will pull the Pride of Aloha, the ship that launched its Hawaii itinerary in 2004, effective May 11.

Earlier this month, NCL’s Pride of Hawaii made its final sailing before being deployed to Europe, a move announced last April. It will be renamed Norwegian Jade.

NCL officials insist they remain committed to the Hawaiian market - Pride of America sailings were recently put on sale through 2010 - but filling three ships consistently for seven-day sailings was too difficult in a competitive field.

Andy Stuart, the line’s executive vice president of marketing, called the move “an extremely difficult but necessary commercial decision.” He also acknowledged that NCL’s costs were considerably higher because its U.S.-flagged ships must be filled by a U.S. workforce. Foreign-flagged ships typically pay their crews lower wages. Continue Reading…

Here is some video of the cruise ship Voyager battling the 2005 cyclone Valentina off the coast of Majorca. The full story: LINK

BitterEnd reports that the Royal Navy Ice patrol ship HMS ENDURANCE, which amongst other tasks is carrying survey work in the Antarctic on behalf of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) to improve Safety of Life at Sea products and services, has located the wreck of a cruise liner which sank last year.

Listen to our podcast on the M/V Explorer sinking HERE then read our previous posts HERE and HERE.

Also be sure to take a look at these excellent BitterEnd posts:

• Invasive Tunicate Found in the San Juan Islands

• Drone Boats

• Japanese CG pursues Sea Shepard Vessel

• Military Sealift Command

• Riverdance Flounders After Rogue Wave