The ship that shared a name with its own predecessor

Technology · Published 18 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1985, a shipping company faced a naming dilemma. They owned a cruise ship called Astor, but wanted a more powerful vessel for ocean liner service. The solution? They ordered a second ship, designed to look almost identical to the first, and named it Astor too.

The 1987-built MS Astor was born from a specific logistical need by the South African company Safmarine. In 1984, Safmarine acquired a 1981-built Astor, but found its engines too underpowered for the demanding Southampton-Cape Town liner route. They commissioned a new ship from the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft shipyard in West Germany. This new vessel was based on the 1981 design but featured more powerful engines and extra facilities. Because the new ship was not due until 1987, Safmarine sold the original 1981 Astor to East Germany in 1985, allowing them to keep the name for the upcoming construction.

The two ships were nearly indistinguishable to the casual observer. Both featured a sharply raked bow, a low terraced superstructure, and a large square funnel. The 1987 vessel was only about 12 metres (39 ft) longer than its predecessor. The primary visual giveaway was a small detail: the 1987 ship had additional windows located below the first lifeboat. Internally, they were so similar that they shared the same bathroom fittings and traditional dark wood furnishings, though the 1987 model included more suites, a casino, and better crew quarters.

The 1987 Astor's life was marked by complex ownership shifts. It was sold to the Soviet Union in 1988 and renamed Fedor Dostoevskiy, famously sporting a hammer and sickle on its funnel. It spent decades as a charter vessel for various European lines before reverting to the name Astor in 1995. Its final chapter began in 2013 to fill a market gap in Australia, but the ship was ultimately sold at auction in October 2020 for $1,710,000 and scrapped in Turkey by March 2021.

The ship also saw a high-stakes moment in 2008. While sailing in the Gulf of Oman, the German Navy's frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern intercepted pirate speedboats attempting to attack the vessel. The intervention was so precise that the passengers on the Astor were reportedly unaware of the threat.

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