American Cruise Lines has bought the four paddlewheel river ships that have been laid up since February when American Queen Voyages, their owner, shut up shop and its parent company, Hornblower Group, filed for bankruptcy.
The ships were sold in an auction supervised by the bankruptcy court, and the deal includes American Queen's trademarks and website domain, although no announcement has been made whether American Cruise will operate them under that name. The ships are American Queen, Empress, Countess and Duchess.
Two other AQV ships, Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager, which operated on the Great Lakes rather than as river cruisers, were also up for bids. Reports indicate that John Waggoner, founder of AQV in 2011, may be the winning bidder for those ships.
American Cruise Lines operates a fleet of 19 small ships and riverboats, visiting more than 140 U.S. ports; it has nearly tripled in size in the past five years. Unlike AQV's riverboats that are meant to resemble 19th-century ships, ACL's have modeled their newer ships on European river cruisers.
Image: Benroethig/Wikimedia Commons
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