Family-owned small ship cruise operator Blount Small Ship Adventures has ceased operations. The cruise line, founded in 1966 by Luther Blount as the American Canadian Line and headquartered in Warren, Rhode Island, had hoped to restart operations in 2021.
Marcia Blount, president of Blount Boats, told WorkBoat magazine that the company was exiting the cruise business and would concentrate on its shipbuilding operation. “It was really just the requirement that all the cruise lines had to shut down for COVID-19, and at this point, we decided not to start again,” she said.
The cruise line was a present operator in the Great Lakes, East Coast and Canadian Maritimes, Southeast, the Caribbean and beyond.
Luther Blount, who died in 2006, received patents for a number of designs including retractable pilothouses, bow ramps, adjustable pitch props and water-conserving marine toilets. The retractable pilothouse design enabled them to cruise under low bridges where others might not be able to go.
Blount’s three American-flagged ships are for sale: the 98-passenger Grande Mariner, the 100-passenger sister ship Grande Caribe, and the 76-passenger Niagara Prince, all built by Blount in the 1990s.
