Classic Liner Turned Cruise Ship Faces Uncertain Future
Another one of the few remaining classic passenger ships is facing an uncertain future as Funchal is currently being auctioned as part of the insolvency of her owner. Built in the days when passenger ships conducted liner service, the now 65-year-old ship retains her classic silhouette and her original name even though she was converted to cruising and has changed ownership multiple times.
Shipping aficionados and members of the Portuguese community are rallying with last-minute hope to save the classic ship even though her age and condition likely mean her prospects are limited. The Madeira Judicial Court has ordered Funchal (IMO 5124162) to be sold in a sealed-bid auction as part of the liquidation of a company called Teamson, her last owners, which the media links to Brock Pierce. A child actor who appeared in Disney movies, Pierce is an American cryptocurrency entrepreneur who acquired the ship in 2021 for a reported price of approximately 1.6 million euros.
The court and insolvency administrator opened the Funchal on September 18 for inspection by potential bidders. Interested parties have until September 30 to submit sealed bids. They will be opened on October 9, with the administrator highlighting that the buyer gets the ship free of debts and encumbrances but takes over the expenses immediately. Minimum bids are set at 802,354 euros ($921,000), putting Funchal in the scrap market.
It is not the first time Funchal has faced the auction block in her long career. Emblematic of the long-ago Portuguese passenger fleet, people argue she deserves to be saved yet one more time. The insolvency administrator highlights that before the current owners stopped work, the interiors had been stripped and are free of asbestos and other hazardous products. They also obtained a license for her to operate as a hotel on Portugal’s Tagus River.
Built in 1961, she is one of the last classic liners
Funchal was conceived in the late 1950s as a replacement for another ship built in 1907 that was operating carrying passengers, cargo, and mail from Portugal to Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. Funchal was ordered by the privately-owned Empresa Insulana de Navegacao, a Portuguese shipping company with a long heritage of sailing both to the islands and South America.
The ship was built at the Elsinore shipyard and, despite only being 9,842 gross tons and 501 feet (155 meters) in length, was at the time the largest ship built in Denmark. She was launched in February 1961 and entered service in November of the same year with accommodations for 80 First Class and a total of 320 Tourist Class passengers.
Funchal was recognized as a stylish workhorse, maintaining the service to the islands as airplanes were taking over many of the traditional liner services. She had been designed to offer an occasional cruise, but at her heart was a steam-driven liner.
She also had her moments of fame. Portugal’s authoritarian president, naval officer Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás, used the vessel as a presidential yacht. In 1972, Funchal also carried the remains of Dom Pedro I (1798–1834), known as Brazil’s liberator and first emperor, back to Brazil on the 150th anniversary of its liberation.
Funchal became a full-time cruise ship by the mid-1970s, seen here in white livery in 2010 (Donald Macleod photo - CC BY 2.0)
By the early 1970s, however, she was no longer needed for the route to the islands. In 1972, she had broken down and underwent what became a life-saving overhaul. She was fitted with new diesel motors, and her passenger spaces were rebuilt for cruising with 400 passengers and the addition of an outdoor pool. Her Portuguese owners started using her for cruising, and then Greek businessman Georgios Potamianos took the ship on charter, running her as a cruise ship. In the 1990s, he built up a small cruise line called Classic International, headed by Funchal, and added several other historic ships.
The next challenge to her life came with the SOLAS 2010 regulations, which put many older ships out of service. Funchal was sent for an overhaul to make her compliant and ready for another decade of service. However, work stopped, and Classic International folded after the death of Potamianos, leaving Funchal with an uncertain future.
Portuguese entrepreneur Rui Alegre stepped in in 2013, buying Funchal and several other classic cruise ships to launch a firm called Portuscale Cruises. Funchal seemed to cheat fate and returned to service in the fall of 2013, but it was short-lived. Portuscale Cruises ceased operation by the end of 2015. Funchal was laid up in Lisbon and has never sailed again.
She was sold in 2018 to a UK-based firm called Signature Living. They said she would be rebuilt as a party ship for the Ibiza crowd. When that failed, they said she would become a floating hotel in Liverpool. When that failed, Teamson acquired her. First, it said she would sail again, and then it said she would become a hotel in Lisbon. After a small fire in 2021, work stopped, and she continues to wait for her future.
Funchal in June 2026 - photo courtesy of Rich Turnwald
People who got aboard earlier this year reported she was stripped bare on the interior down to her steel. Furniture was stacked and strewn about. Her decks were bare. The exterior has patchy paint and is rust-streaked. Media reports indicate there is a caretaker crew of 10, but they have not been paid in 25 months.
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Observers note the minimum bid is a very fair price for the little ship, and she comes without the problems of asbestos or debt. It remains to be seen, though, if the emblematic little ship of the bygone liner days and glory of Portugal’s merchant marine can yet one more time survive an auction and find a future, avoiding the recyclers.
Top photo of Funchal in 2014 by Pjotr Mahhonin - CC BY-SA 4.0
