GET ON BOARD

The world’s first battery-powered cruise ship has touched the sea for the first time.

Hurtigruten’s 20,889 gross tonnage, state-ofthe-art hybrid vessel Roald Amundsen was launched at Norway’s Kleven Yard at Ulsteinvik.

She will be fitted out to sail the Norwegian coast, Antarctica and the Arctic later this year and traverse the North West Passage in 2019.

Her design features an indoor/outdoor observation deck wrapped around the bow – and her 530 passengers will be able to explore their destinations via underwater drones and kayaks.

A near-identical sister ship, the Fridtjof Nansen, is also under construction at the yard and will debut in 2019.

P&O Cruises’ 1,874-passenger Aurora returns from refit next March as an adults-only ship, to join sisters Arcadia and Oriana.