Endeavour

Endeavour started her life as something totally different then a cruiseliner. The ship was built in Bremerhaven at the Weser Seebeckwerft under yardnumber 917 as a German fishing trawler for the Deutsche Hochseefischerei.  She was launched at the 26th of february 1966 and recieved the name Marburg for Northsea fishing. In 1982, the ship was extensively rebuilt as a passengership under the name of Lindmar and she started sailing expedition cruises from 1984 onwards. In 1989, the ship was renamed Northstar for North Star Cruises, a division of the Fernley and Eger company. A new name again came in 1996, when the ship was bought by Lindblad Expeditions, for whom she already sailed since 1994. This time, she recieved the name Caledonian Star. 

Under this name, she was struck by a freak wave of 30 meters in height when cruising the Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands. The windows of the bridge were smashed and a lot of navigation equipment was destroyed. Luckily, there were no casualties and the ship was still able to sail. The Argentinian Navyship ARA Alferez Sobral escorted the ship back to Ushuaia. In june of that same year, the ship was renamed Endeavour to honour the ship of the legendary explorer Captain Cook. On the 3rd of april 2005, the ship started sailing under the name National Geographic Endeavour, because of the close coöperation between Lindblad and the National Geographic Society. The ship is equiped with many Zodiac landing crafts for in-depth excursions. Normally, the passengers are older couples looking for adventures and singles, mostly American. The ship can sail with 124 passengers maximum and her crew counts 64 persons. Her tonnage was measured at 3132 tons. The ship had one small outside pool and a fitness center where three people can fitness together, so also rather small. Also, the ship featured a library, a small clinic and a showlounge, that is also used for lectures. These lectures were given every cruise by historians, underwater specialists or naturalists, for example. So cruising with this ship was really a learning experience.

The National Geographic Endeavour, outdated by the line's newer purpose-built cruiseships, was sold for scrap in may of 2017. The onboard piano was donated to the Tomas de Berlanga school in Santa Cruz at the Galapagos Islands and the bridge ceiling, where-in polarbear sightnings were notched during her time in Svalbard, was obtained by Sven Olov Lindblad himself. Some of her items were also transferred to the new National Geographic Endeavour II.