MS Sovereign

	Sovereign of the Seas in Nassau, Bahamas, 2005
History
Name	1988-2008: Sovereign of the Seas; 2008-2020: Sovereign;
Owner	1988-1997: Royal Caribbean Cruise Line; 1997-2020: Royal Caribbean Group;
Operator	1988-2008: Royal Caribbean International; 2008-2020: Pullmantur Cruises;
Port of registry	1987-2005: Oslo, Norway; 2005-2008: Nassau, Bahamas; 2008-2020: Valletta, Malta;
Builder	Chantiers de l'Atlantique; St. Nazaire, France;
Yard number	A29
Laid down	June 10, 1986
Launched	April 4, 1987
Sponsored by	Rosalynn Carter
Christened	January 15, 1988
Completed	December 18, 1987
Maiden voyage	January 16, 1988 as Sovereign of the Seas; March 23, 2009 as Sovereign;
In service	1988–2020
Out of service	2020
Identification	Call sign: 9HUE9; IMO number: 8512281; MMSI no.: 249539000;
Fate	Scrapped in Aliağa in 2020
General characteristics
Class and type	Sovereign-class cruise ship
Tonnage	73,529 GT; 45,194 NT; 7,546.9 DWT; (Previously 73,192 GT and 7,283 DWT)[citation needed];
Length	268.32 m (880 ft 4 in)
Beam	32.2 m (105 ft 8 in)
Draft	7.8 m (25 ft 7 in)
Installed power	Four 9-cylinder Pielstick-Alsthom diesel engines; 21,844 kW (combined);
Propulsion	Two controllable pitch propellers; Two bow thrusters;
Speed	21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph)
Capacity	2,850 passengers

MS Sovereign (formerly Sovereign of the Seas) was one of three large cruise ships of the Sovereign class operated by Pullmantur Cruises and formerly by Royal Caribbean International. When she was completed in 1987, Sovereign of the Seas was the world's largest passenger ship.^[4] On 24 June 2020, due to economic losses caused by COVID-19 pandemic, Sovereign arrived and was beached at Aliağa, Turkey, where she was dismantled.

History

She sailed on her maiden voyage on January 16, 1988, and was initially based at the Port of Miami.

In 1998 and 1999, the Royal Caribbean International cruise company was fined US$9 million because Sovereign of the Seas had repeatedly dumped oily waste into the ocean and tried to hide this using false records, including fake piping diagrams given to the US Coast Guard. Because the company was and is incorporated in Liberia, Royal Caribbean argued that this case was not in the jurisdiction of US courts.^[5]

Her refurbishment in November 2004 was the subject of the Travel Channel mini-series Dry-Dock, A Cruise Ship Reborn.^[6]^[7] Throughout her time with Royal Caribbean she sailed cruises to the Bahamas and the Caribbean out of Miami and Port Canaveral, Florida. These cruises visited Coco Cay, one of RCI's privately owned islands, in the Berry Islands group.

In November 2008 Sovereign of the Seas was transferred to the fleet of Pullmantur Cruises, a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd subsidiary, and renamed MS Sovereign. Sovereign set sail on its first voyage with Pullmantur Cruises on March 23, 2009.^[8] Similar to other ships in the same class, Sovereign had a multi-deck atrium lobby and a top-deck, funnel-mounted lounge with panoramic views of the sea. The ship's facilities included nine bars, five restaurants, four pools, a spa and a casino.^[9]

In 2018, the ship was featured in the film Yucatán, filmed by Telecinco Cinema.^[10]

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sovereign and MS Monarch were placed into "cold lay-up" and Pullmantur Cruises filed for financial reorganization.^[11] According to reports, the interiors of the ships were stripped of "everything of value."^[12] On 23 July 2020 she was beached in Aliağa alongside her sistership Monarch, which was beached one day before. Scrapping began in August that year and was finished in February 2021.^[13]