The End of an Era

Photographing Pacific Explorer as she departed Fremantle for the final time yesterday was a bittersweet experience. She has become a familiar sight in Fremantle for several years and thousands of Western Australians have cruised on her.

The Fremantle Shipping News has had a long history with her and, in April 2024, we attended the launch of A Photographic History of P&O Cruises onboard and afterwards were taken on a tour of the ship. You’ll find that story and so many others about the Pacific Explorer and P&O Cruises right here on the Shipping News.

Pacific Explorer was the first ship to sail back to Australia after the 2 year Covid cruise ban was lifted and helped bring Australians home.

At 6pm, yesterday, 7 February 2025, she slowly pulled away from the harbour wall, escorted by two tugs, Falcon and Emma, her white hull casting reflections on the water.

We will miss her familiar hull art: her famous ‘Sailing Stars’ design. In 2017, she was the first P&O cruise ship to debut hull art. The art resembles the Southern Cross, a symbol widely used in both Australia and New Zealand. The Southern Cross constellation has guided seafarers for generations.

The ship’s horn echoed several times across the harbour, a final salute to Fremantle. She then made her way through the heads, past the lighthouses on South and North Moles towards the open ocean and vanished into the setting sun.

Her final voyage under the P&O banner is an 11-day cruise to Singapore visiting Lembar, Lombok; Pulau Langkawi Island, Malaysia and finally Singapore. More than 2,200 guests are on board. In Singapore she will be dry docked for a US$50 million refit and be renamed as Star Voyager, for the Asian market with Resorts World Cruises.

On shore, large crowds manned with cameras and phones gathered at Victoria Quay and on both Moles to record her final departure. There was a sense of nostalgia as passengers and onlookers waved. She has sailed in Australian waters for almost a decade. This is the end of an era, and the beginning of the end for the 92-year-old P&O brand.

A ship leaving port for the last time mirrors a relationship ending. The ship sails toward new adventures, filled with excitement, while the ones left behind stand on the shore, content with how things were but saddened by the departure. One onlooker told me his father had worked for P&O all his life and would be turning in his grave with P&O’s departure from Australia.

Star Voyager, the ship Pacific Explorer is destined to become, is not scheduled to visit Fremantle during the 2025 or 2026 cruise seasons.

Farewell Pacific Explorer!

* Story and photographs by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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