Canadian expedition cruise entrepreneur Andrew Prossin of collapsed One Ocean Expeditions has hit rough waters after attempting a restart in the Australian cruise business.
Prossin had the help of three shipping names better known from other sectors of shipping in a new Australian expedition cruise restart.
But all have now gone to court over the arrest and attempted re-arrest of the 4,200-gt, 114-passenger Caledonian Sky (built 1991), which remains at Broome in Western Australia.
Brian Ladin’s US-based Delos Corp, Mudit Paliwal’s Dubai and Copenhagen-based Delta Corp, and German owner and manager Nordic Hamburg have all been drawn into the dispute.
The ship is believed to be under multiple charters to parties including Delos and a Prossin entity, but ultimately under financial ownership of parties related to Australia’s APT, which TradeWinds previously reported was trying to sell the vessel. APT also had the ship under time charter from its bareboat charterers, but well-informed sources told TradeWinds that the ship was set for a multiyear charter to regional cruise operator Captain Cook.
But between chartering seasons, the vessel’s charterers, owners, and managers had a general falling out, following what informed sources described to TradeWinds as a charter default followed by management fee disputes and a demand for the return of a down payment.
As a result, former manager Delta Corp Ship Management of Dubai arrested the vessel on 25 August while it was docked following the winter touring season. Australian court documents show that Delta claims Delos subsidiary Delos Cruise Ventures II had contracted it to crew and technically manage.
“[Delta] says that Delos owes it a substantial sum of money under that agreement,” the Australian judge wrote. The sum includes damages, interest and costs.
But Delta requested the vessel be released just three days later. The terms of a settlement behind the release are unknown.
However, by that time, the Delos had signed new technical and crew management contracts with two Nordic Hamburg subsidiaries on 22 and 25 August. And by 31 August, the newly contracted Nordic Hamburg was also looking to arrest its new client’s vessel.
The court turned down Nordic Hamburg’s arrest bid for technical legal reasons having to do with the proper use of the Australian “caveat” procedure, by which a second claimant can step in to prevent a vessel from being released from arrest after the original arresting party’s claim is satisfied.
Delta, Delos, and Nordic Hamburg have been contacted for comment.
Vancouver-based Prossin spoke with TradeWinds by phone but was unwilling to comment immediately on the record.
Other than Prossin, who headed Canadian cruise venture One Ocean Expeditions before its collapse, the companies involved are better known from other shipping sectors.
Delos, long a shipping investor, is perhaps best known for the controversy following its failed 2018 plan to order a series of up to 12 very large ethane carriers in South Korea for charter to China’s Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical (STL).
But it also controls the 22,496-gt, 709-passenger World Odyssey (built 1998, ex-Deutschland), and that ship is also the focus of litigation. Veteran US sale-and-purchase broker Bill Mollard and other parties are currently in arbitration with Delos and Ladin over claims that the owner devised a sham sale to deprive them of commissions.
Nordic Hamburg, well known not least for its heavylift multipurpose ships, became involved in regional expedition cruise trades last year when it took on the management of another expedition cruise ship with links to Prossin — the 8,445-gt, 184-passenger Heritage Adventurer (built 1991) for New Zealand-based Heritage Expeditions.
Expedition cruises
That ship formerly sailed for One Ocean under the name RCGS Resolute but was sold for €11m (then $13.31m) in May 2021 to a Hamburg-based entity called Nordic Heritage Expedition Cruise Gmbh & Co. VesselsValue pegs the veteran small cruise vessel at only $3.6m but, at the same time, there were reports that it went on a seven-year charter last year to an unknown charterer at a rate of $28,900 per day.
Delta Corp, founded by former Caravel Group trader Mudit Paliwal, is historically most associated with dry bulk shipping and trading. But it is currently pursuing a stocklisting in the US, and Paliwal is looking to rebrand it as a diversified company, now with interests ranging from ship management to bunkering to battery-powered landside delivery logistics.
Among the Delta Corp Ship Management technically managed fleet of about two dozen ships, there are currently some Australian offshore vessels but no cruise ships other than the Caledonian Sky. However, two sources with information about the company’s activities told TradeWinds that it is pursuing management of river cruise vessels belonging to APT.
