S.S. ROTTERDAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS: SHIP SPOTTING IN NORTHERN EUROPE
Presented by Tom Rinaldi
May 31, 2019 @ 6:15 pm
In the summer of 2018, PONY Branch member Tom Rinaldi plotted a course across Northern Europe involving as many interesting passenger ships as could be squeezed into one week, including the retired Holland America liner S.S. ROTTERDAM. Europe’s complex geography has sustained large-scale passenger shipping of a kind that New York harbor hasn’t seen in decades. Some of Europe’s modern ferries are larger than the transatlantic liners that once frequented Manhattan’s west side piers, even though these ships seldom cover distances greater than a few hundred miles. Tom’s course traversed more than 2,000 miles by rail and sea, and included one of Europe’s longest ferry crossings, from Germany to Finland, and a transit of one of the world’s most heavily trafficked sea lanes, between Finland and Sweden. Stops along the way included an overnight stay at the preserved ferry BORE (ex-KRISTINA REGINA, 1960) before wrapping up with a long-anticipated visit to the S.S. ROTTERDAM (1959), now preserved as a hotel ship at her former home port in the Netherlands.
(Photo: Tom Rinaldi)