MS Oosterdam is a cruise ship of Holland America Line, a division of Carnival Corporation & plc. As the second addition to Holland America's Vista class of ships, Oosterdam is sister to MS Noordam, MS Westerdam, and MS Zuiderdam. The ship's name is derived from the Dutch translation for the eastern compass point, and is pronounced "OH-ster-dam."

Christening

Oosterdam was christened by Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. The ceremony took place in Holland America Line's founding city, Rotterdam on 29 July 2003. The event was held over three days of celebrations marking the company's 130th anniversary. The joint flagship of the fleet, MS Rotterdam, joined Oosterdam "bow-to-bow" in welcoming her to the fleet.

Technical information

The machinery spaces aboard Oosterdam are vast and extend along two of its lowest decks for the most part of the vessel.

MS Oosterdam is powered by a CODAG propulsion system encompassing five (three 16-cylinder and two 12-cylinder) Sulzer ZAV40S diesel engines (built under license by Grandi Motori Trieste, now owned by Wärtsilä, in Trieste, Italy) and a GE LM2500 gas turbine, making it one of only a handful of merchant vessels that is powered by such an arrangement. It is propelled by two 17.62 MW (23956.53 ps), 160rpm synchronous freshwater-cooled ABB Azipod propulsors.

Its two engine rooms are separated by a watertight bulkhead division. Each engine room has its own fuel, lubricating, cooling and electrical distribution systems and is fully independent of the other.

The ship's potable water is produced by three large Alfa Laval multi-effect flash evaporating desalination plants.

History of the name Oosterdam

While no prior ship has been named Oosterdam, the first vessel with the "Ooster" prefix launched 1913 as the 8,251-ton, one-prop Oosterdijk. At the time, "dijk" or "dyk" was the suffix used for cargo vessels, "dam" was used for passenger ships. She sailed between Rotterdam and Savannah, Georgia for Holland America as well as serving the Allied war effort during World War I.

Areas of operation

The ship has been alternating fall/winter cruises along the Mexican Riviera and summer in Alaska. In fall 2011 she visited Hawaii for the first time. However, after January 2012 Holland America dropped Mexico's west coast, in part due to safety concerns there in connection to the Mexican Drug War and in part due to the depressed cruise market in Southern California; the Oosterdam will shift to Hawaii, Australia, and the South Pacific.