AS THE LINERS DISAPPEARED – LEARNING THE JOYS OF OFF-BEAT CRUISING
Presented by Theodore W. Scull
March 18, 2016 @ 6:00 pm
After his first crossings over and back aboard French Line ships LIBERTE and FLANDRE in July 1958, Ted Scull developed a decades-long habit of sailing on liners, though dwindling choices made it increasingly difficult. It was not until 23 years later that he embarked on his first cruise aboard a ship that he had traveled on as a liner – P&O’s ORIANA. Cruising soon turned out to be the way to continue sailing on the types of ships he loved, discovering new ones and matching them with winsome destinations.
During an old-fashioned slide lecture, Ted shared several of his favorite ships and cruises, none of them exactly mainstream, why he chose them, and what he experienced. We joined Ted aboard Turkish Maritime Lines’ handsome AKDENDIZ along Turkey’s coast during one of Europe’s hottest summers; HEBRIDEAN PRINCESS, a 49-passenger, one-of-a-kind ship cruising the Scottish Isles, and Queen Elizabeth II’s twice-chartered yacht; the venerable 1927-built DELTA QUEEN on a four-rivers cruise in 1985; and Swan Hellenic’s chartered ORPHEUS from Greece to Turkey, two ports in Syria (with overnights ashore), Port Said, through Suez to Safaga, Sharm-el-Sheikh, and finally Aqaba, Jordan, including an unanticipated boarding by Multi-National Forces shortly after the First Gulf War.
Since becoming a travel journalist in 1980, Ted has generated well over one thousand newspaper, magazine, and website features, guide books on cruising and New York, and specialized topics such as personal travel on ocean liners. In October 2015, he co-founded and launched QuirkyCruise.com, an information guide to small-ship cruising.