One Ocean Expeditions will add a third expedition vessel for the 2018-2019 season as the 146-passenger RCGS Resolute will join the Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilo, a pair of Russian research vessels. 

The Resolute is believed to be the current Hanseatic, which will end its long-term charter agreement with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises in September of 2018. It is the first true cruise ship to be run under the One Ocean brand. 

“We have been looking for just the right vessel to expand our shipboard operations.  For the last two years we have experienced exponential growth and have seasons which have sold out across the breadth of our departures, in both Antarctica, the High Arctic and the East Coast of Canada,” said Andrew Prossin, Managing Director.

Named after the HMS Resolute, a British Royal Navy Arctic exploration vessel, as well as the Inuit town of Resolute in Canada’s Nunavut Territory, RCGS Resolute will arrive in Canada in November 2018 for its inaugural OOE polar voyage. RCGS Resolute also carries the name of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), since OOE and RCGS are exclusive education, environmental science, and expedition partners in Canada’s north. “Built in Rauma, Finland, the same ship yard as Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov, RCGS Resolute offers modern stabilization and unsurpassed ice classification (Lloyds 1AS) compliant with the new Polar Code,” said One Ocean, in a prepared statement. “Between the three vessels, One Ocean Expeditions is perfectly equipped with the right hardware to offer our full range of activities, guiding our adventurous guests on their quest to imagine, explore and discover the world’s most remote and awe inspiring regions.”

The company currently operates a pair of Russian research vessels on charter agreements in Antarctica, the Arctic and the Canadian Arctic.

Prossin told Cruise Industry News in May that there was unprecedented demand for expedition voyages.