Did the MS Melody ship ever call in at Southampton?

For nearly four decades, one resilient vessel sailed the world's oceans, a chameleon of the seas adapting to the shifting tides of the cruise industry. 

Launched in 1982 as the Atlantic, she would later be known as StarShip Atlantic, the globally roaming MS Melody, and finally, the ill-fated Qing. 

Her long career was marked by changing owners, diverse itineraries, and one particularly dramatic night that thrust her into the international spotlight: a brazen pirate attack off the Horn of Africa. 

Yet, alongside this tale of high-seas adventure lies a more elusive thread – her connection, or lack thereof, to the maritime hub of Southampton.

The ship's journey began at the Constructions Industrielles de la Méditerranée (CNIM) shipyard in La Seyne, France, emerging in 1982 as the Atlantic for Home Lines. 

With a design that some considered a touch dated for the era, featuring a traditional mast and crow's nest but lacking a then-fashionable magradome-covered pool, she was initially deployed on the popular New York-Bahamas-Bermuda circuit. 

Home Lines' earlier vessel, the SS Oceanic, had been designed with a transatlantic route including Southampton in mind. However, by the Oceanic's delivery, these plans had been shelved, and there's no concrete evidence to suggest the newer Atlantic ever made scheduled calls to any UK port during her Home Lines tenure. Her operational focus remained firmly on the North American market.

In 1988, a new chapter began. Acquired by Premier Cruise Line, the Atlantic was reborn as the StarShip Atlantic, instantly recognisable in her striking "Big Red Boat" livery. 

She became a fixture in the family cruise market, famously partnering with Walt Disney World for popular cruise-and-theme-park packages out of Port Canaveral, Florida, primarily sailing to the Bahamas. 

While Premier Cruises, especially under later ownership, did establish marketing agreements with UK tour operators like Thomson Holidays, specific records or itineraries confirming that the StarShip Atlantic herself made UK port calls, including Southampton, remain elusive. Her vibrant red hull was a common sight in Floridian and Caribbean waters, not the Solent.

The vessel's longest continuous period of service under one identity began in 1997 when she was acquired by Mediterranean Shipping Cruises (MSC) and renamed Melody (later marketed as MSC Melody). 

Under MSC, her horizons broadened considerably, undertaking global itineraries that would eventually lead her into perilous waters. 

MSC Cruises has a significant and growing presence in the UK market, including Southampton, where they are even partners in a modern cruise terminal. However, despite this general corporate connection, specific evidence of the MS Melody making regular, scheduled calls to Southampton or other UK ports during her 16 years with MSC is conspicuously absent from available records. Her operational life with MSC, while extensive, seemed to bypass the UK as a primary embarkation or destination port. 

But it was during one of her far-flung repositioning voyages for MSC that the Melody would face her sternest test.

The night of April 25, 2009, etched itself into the ship's history. 

The MSC Melody, carrying approximately 1,000 passengers and 500 crew, was on a repositioning cruise from Durban, South Africa, to Genoa, Italy. 

As she navigated the waters some 300 kilometers north of the Seychelles and about 1,000 kilometers off the Somali coast – a notorious hotspot for piracy – a small, white speedboat carrying six pirates launched an audacious assault under the cover of darkness, around 11:25 p.m. local time.

The pirates opened fire on the cruise ship with an automatic rifle, targeting the bridge, before attempting to board using a ladder equipped with hooks. 

Commander Ciro Pinto, the master of the MSC Melody, later recounted the terrifying moments: "They started firing like crazy at the ship... It felt as if we were at war". 

The ship's crew and security team responded swiftly. 

Initial attempts to repel the attackers involved using the ship's powerful fire hoses. 

As the pirates persisted, the vessel's embarked Israeli private security detail, reported to be a team of 12 experienced ex-commandos, engaged the assailants with pistols. 

Some dramatic media reports even suggested that passengers, in a moment of desperate courage before security fully mobilised, threw deck chairs and tables at the would-be boarders. 

The decisive gunfire from the security team ultimately forced the pirates to abandon their boarding attempt and retreat, though they continued to fire at the Melody for another ten to twenty minutes as they sped away.

Remarkably, all passengers and crew, who had been instructed to take shelter in their cabins, emerged unharmed. 

The MSC Melody sustained only slight damage from the gunfire and was able to continue her voyage. 

The Spanish auxiliary military vessel Marques de la Ensenada, scheduled to escort the Melody through the even riskier Gulf of Aden, only rendezvoused with the cruise ship the afternoon after the attack, highlighting the vulnerability of vessels even when precautions are in place. 

The pirates, however, did not escape justice; they were pursued and captured by the Spanish frigate Numancia two days later and handed over to authorities in the Seychelles.

The incident sparked debate. While MSC Cruises and Commander Pinto were praised for their handling of the crisis , some maritime officials, like Kenyan piracy monitor Andrew Mwangura, criticised the use of firearms on a passenger vessel, suggesting it endangered passengers and that non-lethal deterrents should have been prioritised. This successful, armed defense of a major cruise liner became a significant case study in the ongoing discussion about maritime security protocols in pirate-infested waters.

Throughout these varied chapters of service, the question of the MS Melody's connection to Southampton remains intriguing largely due to its absence. 

Despite the port's historical significance and its role as a major UK cruise hub, it appears that even across all her identities as Atlantic, StarShip Atlantic, and MS Melody, there’s no direct, substantiated evidence of regular or scheduled stops - not even a one-off one. 

Her primary deployment areas consistently pointed elsewhere. North America and the Caribbean under Home Lines and Premier, and more global itineraries, often focused on the Mediterranean and other regions, during her MSC tenure. 

While an unscheduled call or a one-off charter can never be entirely ruled out without exhaustive historical logs, Southampton simply does not appear in her documented service history.

The final act for the MS Melody began in January 2013 when MSC Cruises announced her retirement and put her up for sale. 

Later that year, she was sold to Sahara India Pariwar and renamed Qing, with plans to convert her into a floating accommodation vessel in Goa, India. 

This new life, however, was not to be. On June 29, 2016, while docked in Goa, the Qing partially sank, a victim of heavy monsoon rains and apparent neglect. 

After being refloated in June 2018, her fate was sealed. The ship that had begun her career with a nod to classic design and had bravely faced modern pirates was sold for demolition, ultimately beached at the ship-breaking yards of Alang, India, in mid-2019.

She served diverse markets, wore different liveries with pride, and became an unexpected symbol of defiance in the face of maritime crime. Her nearly forty-year odyssey across the world's oceans, culminating in that dramatic encounter off the Somali coast, ensures her a unique and memorable place in the chronicles of the sea.