Cruise ship housing students to move to different location in Amsterdam

DutchAmsterdam.nl — The cruise ship Rochdale One, currently anchored in the Westerpark area of Amsterdam, this summer will sail across the IJ estuary to Amsterdam-North, where it will moor at one of the quays near the NDSM wharf.

The ship, which is home to 190 students, must make way for planned housing construction. With Amsterdam housing in high demand and short supply, student housing especially is difficult to find.

Nearly 200 Amsterdam students make their home on board this converted cruise ship
© Copyright DutchAmsterdam.nl. Want to use this photo?

Creative solutions include housing students in converted shipping containers, on board the converted cruise ship, or in cabins formerly used by asylum seekers.

The ship is managed by student housing organization DUWO under a temporary arrangements that started in 2004 and is scheduled to end later this year.

At its new location the Rochdale One will join an odd collection of ships. The quays near the former NDSM wharf were at one time slated to become Amsterdam’s second maritime museum quarter.

Among the ships currently moored there are:

• Pollux – a former maritime training ship, now housing a restaurant
• Sirius – one of the ships belonging to Greenpeace
• Foxtrot – a 1956 Zulu class submarine built in Riga
• Blommendal – used by the Royal Dutch Marines until 2000 for hydrographic work
• LV 94 Lighthouse – served at various location off the British coast
• Mahu – a wooden minesweeper

By 2006 the Maritime Quarter was supposed to house some 40 historic ships. However, by November, 2005, the Amsterdam North town council withdrew its support for those plans — in favor of plans by a commercial developer for a luxury yacht- and pleasurecraft harbor. In addition those plans, known as ‘Amsterdam Waterfront’ call for further commercial development of the area: 40% housing, 35% office space, 15% retail and leisure, and 10% culture.

Converted shipping containers housing students in Amsterdam
© Copyright DutchAmsterdam.nl. Want to use this photo?

The area already is home to MTV Networks, IDTV and the Discovery Channel — as well as some 100 brightly-colored shipping containers converted into student housing.

According to the DUWO website, the Rochdale One was built in 1977 under the name Ayvazovsky at a yard in France. At first it sailed between harbours in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Later she also ventured onto the Atlantic and made voyages to the west coast of Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

Since 1992 she spent the summer in the Baltic Sea and around Scandinavia. In the winter she sailed through the Middle East and in the Indian Ocean heading towards Singapore.

As late as the summer of 2001 the ship sailed the Mediterranean Sea, since 2000 under the name ‘Primexpress Island’

In 2003 the ship was given a new name: ‘Rochdale One’. After a thorough renovation in the Greek port of Piraeus, the ship came into temporary use as student accommodation in the autumn of 2004.

An onboard crew keeps the ship and its engines in top shape. However, it is unlikely that the ship will make the ‘five-minute’ trip to its new birth straight across the water from its current location under its own steam.

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