US-based cruise operator Victory Cruise Lines has revealed that it has acquired the 5,000-gross-ton (gt) cruiseship Sea Discoverer (built 2004) from Denmark’s Clipper Group.

The deal is structured so that ownership of the vessel will be transferred to Victory II Partners, an entity owned by three European private investors, including Copenhagen-based adventure-travel specialist Albatros Travel. No pricing details have been disclosed.

The ship will join Victory as Victory II in early 2017 and operate cruises on the Great Lakes, the Canadian and US East Coasts, and to Cuba.

The Bruce Nierenberg-led company was founded in June last year when it took on the Sea Discoverer’s identical sistership, the Saint Laurent (renamed Victory I, built 2001) after its charter to Haimark Line was abruptly terminated due to the company’s financial troubles.

This latest deal finally reunites the two 202-passenger cruiseships that were ordered by American Classic Voyages (ACV) as Cape May Light and Cape Cod Light at Atlantic Marine in Jacksonville.

The pair were part of ACV’s plan to revive the US-flagged cruise industry and were designed to operate in US coastal waters and the Great Lakes. Only one entered service briefly before ACV went bust. The second was never delivered and eventually the pair were taken over by the US Maritime Administration (MarAd), put in lay-up and finally sold to Clipper in 2008.

As the younger of the pair, the Sea Discoverer, previously the Cape Cod Light, has yet to carry a commercial cruise passenger. Clipper assigned its commercial and technical management to International Shipping Partners, now divided into SunStone Ships (commercial management) and Cruise Management International (technical management), but the ship did not attract any interest in the charter market from cruise operators.

Instead, it found employment in the offshore oil sector where it was used as an accommodation ship in the North Sea until recently.

Cruise Management International will continue to provide technical management for the Victory II while sister company CMI Leisure will handle hotel operations.

Victory plans to refit the ship and bids are being solicited from shipyards in Europe.

The company does not appear interested in bringing either ship back under the US flag. Both are registered in the Bahamas.