How to get back in the game... find some drawing I have done and update them, first out is Coastal steamers from Norway.
I start of with one of the biggest and most prestigious company in Norway, "Bergenske Dampskipselskap" (The Bergen Steam ship company). There signature on there ships was a black funnel with three white. in 1984 the company was bought, and from that day no more ship sailed under black and three white line funnel. But in the 1990 J. Ludwig Mowinckels shipping company bought archive, office building and the rights to use the name and symbols of the BDS. and thus the company still exist on paper, but there haven't been put out plan to restart the company again. But the owner have said: "If we start the company, we would start it as an small compact luxury cruise ship company."
![[ img ]](http://www.thegreatoceanliners.com/Images/Jpegs/logo_bergen.jpg){kind=logo}
First ship is SS Leda. She is not actual an coastal steamers.
SS Leda was a turbine-powered passenger ship built in 1953 for the "BDS". She was building number 1823 at the English yard Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Wallsend Newcastle. Following the handover, the ship was put into England route between Bergen and Newcastle, a route she continued until 1974 when she was laid up, due to she was to big and to expensive to operate on the Coastal steamers route. In 1979 SS "Leda" was sold to Kuwait and later to Greece, Malta (registered in Vanuatu) and Panama. In 2001 she was towed to Turkey for scrapping.
The "BDS" had a tradition of naming its ships after phenomena and objects in the night sky. Leda is an asteroid that was discovered in 1856.
When handed over, SS 'Leda' s tonnage 6669 gross tons, 3635 net registered tons, and capacity was 1970 dwt. Progress The machinery were two Parsons steam turbines with total installed capacity 9698 kilowat*t, which gave a standard speed of 22 knots and a top speed of 24 knots*. TS "Leda" had cold at 75,410 cubic feet. Upon delivery was passenger capacity 498 divided by 114 berths in first class and 384 in tourist class.
* That's around 13000 ahp, but Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson documents said she had 30000 ahp
** Crews that worked on SS Leda say she was faster than 24 knots. some described her 26 knots. Either way, she was the fastest cruise ship of here time in the North sea, her speed record from Newcastle to Bergen is just over 15 hours.
Note. Leda was build with an strengthened hull and deck, and an more extensive and bigger electricity power plant, than normal cruise ship of here type. Since she was build for be able to be converted to an navy ship, for transport and hospital, and enough electricity for bigger and powerful radars and communication systems.
![[ img ]](http://media2.origo.no/-/cache/image/2538867_h06084cfc3a1d9b480c40_v1385067910_647x.jpeg)
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88748209/Norway/hurtigruten/SS%20Leda.PNG)
Working on finding better sources on here, when she was an Mediterranean cruiser under many different names.
