The delivery ceremony took place at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, Italy.

While identical to Viking’s other ocean ships, Viking is testing the innovative on-board power system to see how hydrogen fuel could be used at a larger scale in future new builds.

Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking, said it marks a significant advancement in testing hydrogen as a future fuel. It is the 15th vessel to join the fleet, in its 25th anniversary year.

The Viking Neptune will spend her inaugural season sailing itineraries in the Mediterranean before embarking on the company’s 2022-2023 Viking World Cruise, a journey from Fort Lauderdale to London that spans 138-days, 28 countries and 57 ports, with overnight stays in 11 cities.

UK-based SEA-KIT International yesterday revealed it has secured funding from the UK Government to design a hydrogen-powered, zero-emission uncrewed surface vessel (USV).

With backing from the Department of Transport’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) Round 2, SEA-KIT will continue working with Bramble Energy to implement outputs from a successful CMDC Round 1 project to marinize Bramble’s Printed Circuit Board (PCB) hydrogen fuel cells.

According to SEA-KIT, its H-Class USV design is based on operation data and feedback from its existing vessels. Over the course of the project the company’s design work will be carried out in accordance with the Lloyd’s Register Approval in Principle (AiP) process to ensure that the resulting technology will satisfy regulatory requirements as far as possible.