Marco Polo

[Ivan Cloherty]

How ungrateful they are forgetting that the Captain and crew got them safely back to port despite the severe weather encountered, don't recall anyone mentioning that, and if the ship was so unsafe why the bluddy hell did she spend 42 days on it. the old addage 'Good news is no news'

[Ivan Cloherty]

Oh forgot, she said her father made paint, she recognised rust, so she was a shipping expert!

[robpage]

Ships corrode , they always have and always will , at least it is steel construction , I think that is far more substantial than alloy . Passengers need to blame someone , we are in a litigant society , the poor widow , will of course sue . I believe that in my time on passenger vessels , people did not all have lawyers , maybe that was a better day . I believe that no AB would ever paint over rust without chipping it , but as we all know rust blows paint for a hobby . The glass was toughened , you can tell by the breakage pattern , It was either Flawed , previously damaged ., or took a huge unpredictable force , either way .

There is an excellent review http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/review....cfm?ShipID=48

[Ivan Cloherty]

Keith I think it was more a question of being apprehensive and resigned to what may happen, rather than scared, but anyone who wasn't a little nervous about how our floating home was going to react to the next green one may have been deluding themselves, nothing makes you more apprehensive than a 60 foot (and more) green wall of water weighing hundreds (if not thousands) of tons coming towards you, even more so when you are on a ship on its maiden voyage which has never been subject to that weather. However we kept going back for more and even though apprehensive in a repeated situation we considered it more of an inconvenience as much as anything, it also kept the mate crying into his gin as he saw all that overtime for painting becoming rust streaks, nothing like a good watering to make the weeps grow into full redheaded blossoms....................oh happy days!!

[John Arton]

I recall seeing the Marco Polo a few years ago and from not too far away she seemed to be a ell maintained ship.
According to the info I had the ship was bound for the U.K. from madeira at the end of her cruise. If that was the case with the gales and seas being predominately SW'ly that would have meant the seas were coming from the stern or quarters, so how did that sea crash on board?, did she poop in which case if the window that smashed was an aft facing on then perhaps its construction was not as tough as nay forward or side facing window. Maybe my info is wrong and she was steaming down Channel towards Madeira.
Another thing.
I have seen toughened glass in portholes shatter due to a combination of cold and vibration so that may be an explanation as to how the wave managed to shatter the window in question, especially so if it already had a small crack or scratch in it
rgds
JA

[cappy]

I think she may be german owned now but havnt checked as said earlier was in good nick wheni cruised in her 10years ago and w ork on deck constant but inobtrusive .......to be fair the weather was unkind to say the least.....it wouldn't be the first timesuch happenings as you will be aware more than most ......some win some lose

[Louis the fly]

No matter how hard we try Mother Nature will not be beaten.

The captains of cruise liners are under great pressure from the owners to maintain schedules. Perhaps slowing down may have helped, but it is impossible to fight the force of the sea.

[robpage]

MS Marco Polo is a cruise ship owned by Global Maritime, under charter to UK-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages, having been previously operated by Transocean Tours, Germany.She was built in 1965 by Mathias-Thesen Werft, East Germany as Aleksandr Pushkin for the Soviet Union's Baltic Shipping Company. After major alterations and additions, the ship sailed as Marco Polo for Orient Lines from 1993 to 2008.

Marco Polo cruise ship which was on its way to Tilbury in Essex after touring the Amazon in South America and the West Indies.

So she was in the Channel West to East , the wind was from the South West , but I have seen and experienced some freak waves , when there is a South West Wind against a East to west strong current . those conditions whip the sea up quite well off the Island . I have had a couple of moments when a Brown Boiler suit was needed approaching Nab Tower