The American Club is taking Carnival's UK arm to court over unpaid premiums for Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV)'s former headline-making fleet.
The New York protection and indemnity club filed a suit on Monday in US federal court seeking $1.9m plus legal fees for policies taken out on six ships, three of which were never previously connected to the cruise major and five that were arrested in the UK last year.
"Despite demands for payment, the outstanding premiums due and owing on the fleet entry have not been paid," the American Club said in its lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York.
The six ships are the 16,100-gt Astoria (built 1947), 20,700-gt Astor (built 1987), 46,100-gt Magellan (built 1985), 22,100-gt Marco Polo (built 1965), 63,800-gt Columbus (built 1989) and 55,900-gt Vasco da Gama (built 1993).
All but the Magellan were arrested last summer by the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
News of the arrests were picked up by the mainstream press following a social media campaign from crews complaining that they were trapped aboard their ships, laid up due to Covid-19.
The American Club's lawsuit is not related to the arrests, but they did shed some light on the ships' ownership interests.
At the time of the arrests, TradeWinds reported that the Columbus and Vasco da Gama had been acquired by Greek firm Global Maritime Group from a Carnival subsidiary on a bareboat hire-purchase deal and then placed with CMV.
Global Maritime Group's principals were believed to be CMV shareholders.
The Magellan was reportedly chartered by CMV from Carnival in 2014.
It is not clear what connections the other three, the Astoria, Astor and Marco Polo, have to Carnival.
CMV was reportedly set to take two more Carnival ships, the 55,900-gt Pacific Aria (built 1994) and the 70,300-gt Pacific Dawn (built 1991), on charter in 2021.
Carnival declined to comment on the lawsuit and did not answer questions about their alleged involvement with the ships.
Following the arrests, CMV filed for administration and was liquidated last year.
Sources close to CMV blamed bad press related to the seafarer protests as harming the company's ability to raise funds.
The company's senior management has since launched a new cruise company, Ambassador Cruise Line.
Several of the ships have since been scrapped, while the Astoria and the Vasco da Gama appear to still be trading, according to shipping databases.
