Holland America Blog
Safety Officer
Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
In order to facilitate a quick clearance of the ship, the ms Rotterdam arrived early at Southampton. The pilot came on board at 07.00 hrs. and then the ship followed the winding way up to the berth. There are a few almost 90o turns in the fairway with a lot of current running and that makes* sailing in and out of Southampton always an interesting affair.* Southampton is the major cruise port for the United Kingdom and that could be seen today as the Ventura from P&O and the Celebrity Eclipse were also in port.* They sail regular cruises from Southampton while for us it was just a stop on the way to give our 400 British guests the chance to board without having to fly. Southampton has been a port of call for Holland America Line ships since May 1923 when the company decided to change Plymouth for Southampton. *One of the reasons was the better train connection from this port.* By the mid-thirties of the 20th. Century it was THE port for the Big Transatlantic Liners to sail from.* Big names such as the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, the Normandie and our own Nieuw Amsterdam called here after coming from and returning to their home ports, or in case of the Queens having their home port here. The arrival of the air plane changed all of this. Not only for the North Atlantic trade but also for all the other routes to and from outposts of the British Empire. Famous names such as Union Castle, P&O, British India, drastically reduced their Passenger Liner activities. Some made the change to cruising such as Cunard and P&O but some completely disappeared such as Union Castle and British India. Holland America stopped calling here when our Transatlantic service came to an end in 1971. It was not until we brought the ms Rotterdam to Europe that we eventually*returned. Dover and Harwich were our regular change over ports but when the option came to call at Southampton as a secondary embarkation and disembarkation port for British Guests, we came back again. We […]
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In order to facilitate a quick clearance of the ship, the ms Rotterdam arrived early at Southampton. The pilot came on board at 07.00 hrs. and then the ship followed the winding way up to the berth. There are a few almost 90o turns in the fairway with a lot of current running and that makes* sailing in and out of Southampton always an interesting affair.* Southampton is the major cruise port for the United Kingdom and that could be seen today as the Ventura from P&O and the Celebrity Eclipse were also in port.* They sail regular cruises from Southampton while for us it was just a stop on the way to give our 400 British guests the chance to board without having to fly. Southampton has been a port of call for Holland America Line ships since May 1923 when the company decided to change Plymouth for Southampton. *One of the reasons was the better train connection from this port.* By the mid-thirties of the 20th. Century it was THE port for the Big Transatlantic Liners to sail from.* Big names such as the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, the Normandie and our own Nieuw Amsterdam called here after coming from and returning to their home ports, or in case of the Queens having their home port here. The arrival of the air plane changed all of this. Not only for the North Atlantic trade but also for all the other routes to and from outposts of the British Empire. Famous names such as Union Castle, P&O, British India, drastically reduced their Passenger Liner activities. Some made the change to cruising such as Cunard and P&O but some completely disappeared such as Union Castle and British India. Holland America stopped calling here when our Transatlantic service came to an end in 1971. It was not until we brought the ms Rotterdam to Europe that we eventually*returned. Dover and Harwich were our regular change over ports but when the option came to call at Southampton as a secondary embarkation and disembarkation port for British Guests, we came back again. We […]
Click here to view the article.
