The Havila Capella – the first of Havila’s four sister ships to sail on the Norwegian coast – has safely arrived at the quay in Bergen, Norway. According to Havila Voyages, the ship docked at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 24.

The 468-passenger ship will kick off her program on the traditional coastal route from Bergen on Dec. 12 – the first new ship for the Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen voyage in 18 years, according to Havila.

The Capella, like her three sisters, will be powered by LNG and batteries. The battery packs – the biggest in the world for such ships, according to the cruise line – with their capacity of 6.1 megawatt-hours, will allow the ships to sail up to four hours on battery only.

For example, the ships will be able to sail to the World Heritage fjord, Geiranger, emission-free – a location that from 2026 will require all nearby sailings to have zero emissions.

According to Havila’s senior vice president, Tor Johan Pedersen, the ships’ port calls on the Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen route will be between 20 minutes and a couple of hours, which allows for a completely emission-free destination exploration.

Each Havila ship will have two LNG tanks and two battery packs. The four ships, when in service, will be charging batteries and bunkering LNG in Bergen. One turnaround day will be “more than enough” for the 11-day return journey to Kirkenes, Pedersen previously told Cruise Industry News. Havila has an agreement with Gasnor, which will be delivering the LNG to Bergen. However, the cruise line will try to use the batteries as much as possible when sailing into different fjords and ports.

Havila Voyages, a Norwegian shipping company, won a contract from the Norwegian government to provide coastal transportation service with four ships, splitting the coastal service deal with Hurtigruten. Prior to 2021, Hurtigruten had 11 of its own ships sailing.

With Havila coming in, Hurtigruten is taking four ships out of business on the Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen route to allow for Havila’s four new ships to join the route. Most of Hurtigruten’s staff on the ships that are taken out of the coastal service will be transferred to Havila, Pedersen explained previously.

Corrections and Amplifications: This article has been updated to include the new date for the Capella’s start of operations after Havila announced that the ship’s first voyage has been postponed to Dec. 12, 2021.