Viking announced it has taken delivery of the company’s newest ocean ship, the Viking Vela®. The delivery ceremony took place when the ship was presented at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, Italy. Classified as a small ship, as are all Viking ocean ships, the Viking Vela has 499 staterooms that can host 998 guests. The Viking Vela joins the company’s growing fleet of award-winning ocean ships and will spend her inaugural season sailing itineraries in the Mediterranean and in Northern Europe.

“We are proud to welcome the newest sister ship to our award-winning ocean fleet,” said Torstein Hagen, Chairman and CEO of Viking. “Together with Fincantieri we have built the world’s most elegant small ocean ships. With the arrival of our newest vessel, we look forward to introducing even more curious travellers to the Viking way of exploration.”

Viking is working on a project for a partial hybrid propulsion system for future ocean ships based on liquid hydrogen and fuel cells, which could allow the company to operate at zero-emission in the Norwegian Fjords and other sensitive environments. While the Viking Vela has a traditional propulsion platform, she is considered hydrogen-ready and can be retrofitted in the future.