Three Classics from the Archive

To go through my photography off-season from my grey and dull outset in the northern hemisphere, I browsed my archives and found these. All joyful memories experienced in high temperatures in equal high lux levels under the Mediterranean and Aegean summer sun.

What made the experience even better were the ships of choice. Even considered the fact that I started way too late to prioritise travelling on old passenger lines and first-generation cruise ships, luckily, I have managed to sail on a few before it suddenly was too late.

While FUNCHAL still exist, but regrettable in an inoperative state despite a complete upgrade a few years after I travelled on her, the two other ships found in my archive are both long gone.

The FUNCHAL voyage was in September 2010 out of Lisbon via Gibraltar into the Med visiting among others Malaga and the Spanish North African enclave Ceuta.

The ship was absolute wonderful, but our trip was seriously affected by a road accident where 8 of FUNCHAL’s passengers were killed and further 14 injured when their tour bus drove of a mountain road in Morocco. Link to news article

A truly disaster for our Portuguese fellow passengers, who mainly travelled in huge family groups, why many lost relatives that day in Ceuta.

The other two encounters with classic passenger tonnage found in the archive are only associated with happy times.

My very first of unfortunately only a handful former passenger liners; IVORY in August 2006 – and the first-generation purpose-built cruise ship PERLA in July 2007. Both where on cruises operated by Louis Cruise Lines (today Celestyal Cruises) respectively out of Limassol and Piraeus.

FUNCHAL, originally T/S, but M/S from 1972