The Hanseatic Nature and the Bremen met recently in the Arctic.

The Hanseatic Nature debuted for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises earlier this year, offering a luxury expedition product for 230 guests. She is the first of three newbuildings for the German brand and targeted toward German-speaking guests.

Later this year the Hanseatic Nature follows, and will offer a bilingual product aboard, also targeting English-speaking markets.

A third ship, the Hanseatic Nature, targeted to the German-speaking source markets, follows in 2021.

The Bremen was launched in 1990 and is on its final tour with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, and will move to Scylla in 2021. Scylla will then charter the ship out, much like it does with its riverboat fleet. The vessel will be renamed Seascape and Polar Latitudes will add the ship to its fleet for the 2021-2022 Antarctica season.

The 155-guest vessel can be considered the original purpose-built expedition cruise ship. The Bremen has been with Hapag-Lloyd since 1993, and was originally built in Japan by Mitsubishi as the Frontier Spirit.

The ship was built through a joint partnership at the time between Salen Lindblad Cruises, NYK, Hapag-Lloyd and Mitsubishi, sailing her first cruise under the Frontier Cruises banner from Guam in late 1990.

Unique at the time, the ship was built to expedition specs, with a double bottom hull, strengthened propeller shafts and bow, and extra ice protection on the rudders.