The agreement with Foreship includes parts of the basic design as well as design, purchasing and production assistance of the ENDEAVOR class luxury expedition yachts.

The 20,000 GT cruise vessels with PC6 polar class designation will be built at MV WERFTEN Stralsund, with production starting late 2017 and deliveries from spring 2019.

Being about 160 metres long and 23 metres wide, the ENDEAVOR class vessels for luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises will be the world's largest and most spacious expedition yachts, says the press release from MV WERFTEN. "They are designed to operate mainly in Arctic and Antarctic regions and cruise in the tropical regions when travelling between the poles. They can accommodate up to 200 passengers in 100 suites and the same amount of crew."

Earlier today Hapag-Lloyd announced the order for two five-star expedition vessels who will be a bit smaller (138m and 16,100 GT) for a slightly higher number of pax (240).

Additionally on August 18, the owner's architect agreements for the ENDEAVOUR project were signed in Wismar by Crystal Cruises with design companies Tillberg Design, AD Associates and Kudos Dsign, as well as with Tillberg Design, SMC and Kudos Dsign on the "Global class" cruise ships for Star Cruises.

The order book of MV WERFTEN includes a total of ten vessels in the next five years. Therefore the shipyard group is currently increasing its in-house capacity and competence at all three locations in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the fields of project management, design, planning, purchasing and production.