HAMPSHIRE workers spent 50,000 man hours refitting the cruise ship Balmoral, it has emerged.

Staff of Southampton maintenance and refurbishment company CLC transformed the old Norwegian Crown into the Balmoral for Fred Olsen Cruise Line in a German shipyard.

The job, in January this year, was complicated by work to extend the vessel by 30 metres as part of a massive £86m project, which boosted the ship's capacity by 186 to 1,360 passengers and created space for luxury new facilities.

CLC Marine Services had a rolling team of up to 110 employees working on board on a range of jobs but primarily to convert the existing space into a new restaurant called Spey & Avon as well as creating new cabins and other work.

An international band of joiners, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, carpet layers and painters from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland and Australia racked up the impressive hours total.

Nick Hilton CLC's sales director said: "We were really pleased to carry out this work. It utilised all our skills and was a mammoth task. We have enormous pride and job satisfaction in its completion."