What’s in a name? Maybe we are wrong to hold our breaths and be excited about what a new ship will be called, and then disappointed when the name is uninspiring. But actually, if you are building a series of ships you don’t want any one name to stand out. I had half hoped that Seabourn might expand on the seven deadly sins theme they began with Seabourn Pride – Seabourn Gluttony would be quite an appropriate name don’t you think? But it is clear that whilst the Naming of Cats, according to TS Eliot, is a difficult matter, It isn’t just one of your holiday games, the naming of ships is less creative. So Seabourn’s new vessel is to be called Seabourn Odyssey.

Seabourn’s new 450-passenger, all-suite ship will come into service in Venice in mid-2009. And whilst that may seem a long way off, remember we are already booking Seabourn through to March 2009, so bookings will open in the near future (probably September or October of this year).
Talking about the new name, Seabourn’s president and ceo Pamela Conover said the company considered hundreds, and invited its Seabourn Club members to guess the one chosen before it was announced, with the incentive of winning a free cruise. Thousands of entries were received. More than 50 divined the correct name and the winners, John and Hazel Coleman of Monaco, were drawn at random.

The keel was laid at San Giorgio di Nogaro in Italy on July 12th, in a ceremony steeped in age-old tradition . Pamela C. Conover placed an un-circulated 2007 U.S. Silver Eagle dollar coin in the keel as the first section of the hull was joined to it. Marco Bisagno, president of T. Mariotti S.p.A., contributed a newly minted Italian one-Euro coin to complete the ceremony, which traditionally solicits good fortune for the vessel during its construction and throughout its seagoing life. The U.S. coin is decorated with an allegorical image called “Walking Liberty,” depicted as a female form striding across the earth in flowing raiment. The Italian Euro coin depicts Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Vitruvian Man,” symbolically fitting an ideal human form into a well-ordered and geometric universe.

The hull of Seabourn Odyssey is being constructed at CI.MAR, which is a new alliance between Mariotti and Cimolai Group, which specialises in sophisticated steel fabrication. Once completed, it will be transferred to Mariotti’s shipyard at Genoa where they will fabricate the ship’s superstructure.