Marco Polo in Helsinki, 31 May 2016

Marco Polo

IMO 6417097
Name history: Alexandr Pushkin, Marco Polo
Built 1965, VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar, East Germany
Tonnage 22 080 GT
Length 176,28 m
Width 23,55 m
Draught 8,17 m
848 passengers (lower berths)
915 berths
2 Sulzer-Cegielski diesels, combined 15 447 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

Obviously, the classic Marco Polo is a ship that has been featured here several times. However, last winter the ship got a slight amendment to its livery, with the turquise stripe on the hull (a hue that had survived for a surprisingly long time as memory of her time with Transocean Tours) repainted white, which tremendously improved the ship's looks if you ask me. Now if they only changed the funnel colours into something else than plain white with the company logo stamped on, the ship would look superb.

As per the usual, I have already covered the ship's history briefly in a previous entry. For those wanting more information, I heartily recommend Richard Clammer's wonderfully detailed monograph Marco Polo - Celebrating Fifty Golden Years of Ocean Travel.

The photos below show the Marco Polo passing though the Kustaanmiekka strait on 31 May 2016, shortly after departing Helsinki Eteläsatama (south harbour). Photographed from Kustaanmiekka. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

While I do like the classic looks of the ship, this photo does betray the fact her superstructure has been radically expanded over the years, not to the improvement of her looks.

Notice the aforementioned white hull stripe.

A common sight in Helsinki for the past five decades, albeit under different names and liveries.

Vallisaari, the island in the background on the right, was opened to visitors this summer. I haven't sampled it yet, but it should be a very good spot to photograph ships departing/arriving in the morning and early afternoon.

The terraced after decks are definitely not bad.

Onwards and outwards (yes, I did run out of things to say).

Next time: I'll be visiting the Meyer Turku shipyard on Monday to tour Mein Schiff 5 for Cruise Business Review, so if all goes to plan the next entry is a tour of MS5.

Marco Polo in Helsinki, 20 May 2015

The summer cruise season in Helsinki actually begun three weeks age, with the Costa Pacifica opening the season on 1 May. For my part, a combination of other commitments and poor weather meant that I did not have a chance to open the photo season until today. But I did it with a fine ship, and managed to get photos of both the Silja Symphony and Mariella in their new liveries in the process. You will get to see those later, as today we take a look at the Marco Polo.

Marco Polo

IMO 6417097
Name history: Alexandr Pushkin, Marco Polo
Built 1965, VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar, East Germany
Tonnage 22 080 GT
Length 176,28 m
Width 23,55 m
Draught 8,17 m
848 passengers (lower berths)
915 berths
2 Sulzer-Cegielski diesels, combined 15 447 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

For a brief history of the Marco Polo, see the first entry on her. For those wanting a more detailed look at this fascinating ship, I heartily recommend the book Marco Polo - Celebrating Fifty Golden Years of Ocean Travel by Richard Clammer. The book is published by Ferry Publications and you can buy it from the Ferry Pubs website (and yes, Ferry Pubs did publish my book too, so this is a bit of an advert).

Anyways, to the photos! Which show the Marco Polo departing Helsinki Eteläsatama (South Harbour) on the afternoon of 20 May 2015, photographed from Lonna. As per the usual, you can see the images in larger size by clicking on them.

The ship was moored bow towards the south and I briefly hoped she would take the more southernly shipping lane, which would have brought her right next to Lonna. Alas, she used the more northernly lane instead.

Which gave quite nice photos too...

...even if the Hanasaari power plant is not perhaps the most pleasant thing to have in the background.

It didn't take long for her to pose in front of a more attractive background.

The Marco Polo is a regular visitor - she's been calling in Helsinki at least since 1966, when she was the Alexandr Pushkin sailing on the Leningrad-Montréal transatlantic run.

You don't see them here, but like last spring, Lonna was filled with Angry Birds - namely, Canadian Geese protecting their nests.

Next time: Either the Silja Symphony or (if I head out to photograph tomorrow) the Arcadia.

Marco Polo in Helsinki, 14 May 2014

We interrupt the advertised programming to bring you these images of the Marco Polo from yesterday. I've decided to at least try to post images this summer in real time (or at the very least, post the most interesting images from each day quickly after the session).

Marco Polo

IMO 6417097
Name history: Alexandr Pushkin, Marco Polo
Built 1965, VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar, East Germany
Tonnage 22 080 GT
Length 176,28 m
Width 23,55 m
Draught 8,17 m
848 passengers (lower berths)
915 berths
2 Sulzer-Cegielski diesels, combined 15 447 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

 For a brief history of the Marco Polo, see the first entry on her.

The photographs below show the Marco Polo departing Helsinki West Harbour in the afternoon of 14 May 2014. Photographed from Kustaanmiekka. Click on the images to see them in larger size.

The lighting was not ideal yesterday, but the clouds were certainly impressive.

It did take some post-photography fiddling to get the clouds to display just right... but I think this turned out quite fine, don't you?

I admit these are quite similar views as on the previous entry on the ship. Well, at least the backgrounds are a bit different with the spring foliage.

Out and about.

Marco Polo in Helsinki, 1. October 2012

We interrupt the regular programming to bring you a bunch of images from this month, showing the autumn foliage as well as ships. We start off with the last visitor of the 2012 summer cruise season, the Marco Polo.

Marco Polo

IMO 6417097
Name history: Alexandr Pushkin, Marco Polo
Built 1965, VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar, East Germany
Tonnage 22 080 GT
Length 176,28 m
Width 23,55 m
Draught 8,17 m
848 passengers (lower berths)
915 berths
2 Sulzer-Cegielski diesels, combined 15 447 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

For a history of the Marco Polo, see the first entry on her. For an account on how the ship's exterior has been altered during her career, see the second entry on her.

As noted above, the Marco Polo was this summer's last cruise visitor to Helsinki (but not the year's last visitor - Fred. Olsen's Black Watch will be calling in late November as the first ship of the short winter cruise season). She called at the South Harbour and, as seems to be standard for CMV, she departed already at 14:30. The weather did not exactly cooperate, the sky being cloudy, but I (and my friend Olli Tuominen) went there never the less to document the end of the cruise season. Of course, as it happens we had both also documented the beginning of the cruise season.

Anyway, yes. The photographs below show the Marco Polo departing from Helsinki's Eteläsatama on 1 October 2012, photographed from Kustaanmiekka. Click on the images to see in larger size.

As is probably evident from the images, I did fiddle quite a lot with the saturation levels to bring out the colours of Autumn foliage.

Classic-looking ship, even if she doesn't really stand out from the background, the sky being about the same shade as the superstructure.

Of course, I could have strated the ship separately from the background - although I suspect that  to get the trees to stand out properly I would have needed to treat the sky separately as well.

It's interesting that CMV have decided to retain the Transocean Tours hull stripe on the Marco Polo - although since Transocean changed their livery at about the same time as the Marco Polo was chartered to CMV there sisn't much chance for confusion... but it's interesting never the less.

Next time: Silja Serenade

Marco Polo, 22 August 2008

Marco Polo

IMO 6417097
Built 1965, VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar, East Germany
Tonnage 22 080 GT
Length 176,28 m
Width 23,55 m
Draught 8,17 m
915 passengers
2 Sulzer-Cegielski diesels, combined 15 447 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

Starting off the new year (somewhat belatedly I admit) with some of my favourite photographs from 2008, namely the Marco Polo's August visit to Helsinki's Länsisatama. New photographs from 2011 will fortcaming once the weather is cooperative with my plan of photographing the local ferries in the ice (ice is not a problem but the lack of good light is).

The service history of the Marco Polo has already been covered in the previous entry about her (him?). This time I will instead be looking at how the ship's exterior has changed over the years.

Originally the Alexandr Pushkin (and other ships of the Ivan Franko -class) were built with fairly unpretentious superstructures. The forward superstructure moderately streamlined, with the lowest superstructure decks terraced. The aft superstructure was similiarly terraced, with what looks like an observation longe between the bridge and the funnel and the decks neatly terraced immediately aft of the funnel (see for instance this postcard from Simplon Postcards). Already during the Soviet era the Alexandr Pushkin's forward superstructre was rebuilt into a more subtantial (and less attractive form). During the her time with the soviets the ship ran with a black hull decorated with a white riband and the usual Soviet funnel colours with white funnel decorated with a red stripe carrying the hammer-and-sicle -emblem. Many of the Alexandr Pushkin's sister recieved white hulls during their later Soviet career, but the Pushkin seems to have carried a black hull 'till the end.

Although the 1991-1993 refit which turned the ship into the Marco Polo left her superficially very similar to the original, closer inspection reveals her to have been radically altered. The large windows that originally adorned much of the superstructure have been replaced by smaller ones, the (presumed) observation lounge after of the bridge has been lost, and most importantly the aft superstructure has been radically extended, turning the originally fairly sleek ship into something much more boxy. Naturally the ship's livery was also altered in addition to the structural changes; the hull was now painted dark blue (without a decorative stripe) and the funnel white with a wide blue and a narrow red band.

The changes that have been made to the ship's exterior after she moved first to Transocean Tours and then to Cruise & Maritime Voyages have been largely marginal. Transocean Tours opted to keep the blue hull (though their other ship run with white hulls) but added a decorative stripe in two shades of turquise familiar from their other ships and naturally their own funnel colours. It also appears they lightened the shade of the hull slightly, though this might be just an optical illusion. Cruise & Maritime Voyages were content just to replace the Transocean Tours funnel symbol with their own.

The photographs below show the Marco Polo departing Helsinki's Länsisatama on 22 August 2008. Click on the individual images to view full size.

Shortly after departing the Hernesaari cruise quay. Why she used that quay is unknown to me; the better-located quays at Katajanokka she has normally used were free at the time as far as I remember.

For some reason, from this point of view and this livery the ship reminds me strongly of Lauro Line's first Angelina Lauro, despite the fact the hull colour is the only real similarity.

Pihlajasaari in the background on the right, as per the usual.

Passing Pihlajasaari slightly further on in quite nice wind (observe the bent trees on the island right of the ship's bow).

Not quite blending into the landscape. Not that a ship should either.

Further on, passing to the not-quite-so-calm waters of the Bay of Finland.

Marco Polo, 6 August 2010

Marco Polo

IMO 6417097
Built 1965, VEB Mathias-Thesen-Werft Wismar, East Germany
Tonnage 22 080 GT
Length 176,28 m
Width 23,55 m
Draught 8,17 m
915 passengers
2 Sulzer-Cegielski diesels, combined 15 447 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 16,5 knots

Marco Polo is a fascinating survivor of a bygone era in many ways. She was built in 1965 in East Germany as the second in a series of five ships for the Soviet Union. Named Alexandr Pushkin, she was set in the Baltic Shipping Company's service linking Leningrad to Montreal via Helsinki, Copenhagen, Tilbury and Quebec City. She was also used for cruises out of Canada and reportedly occasionally for charters to other operators - however her precise movements during the Soviet era are hard to trace due to conflicting information provided by different sources.

What is known for certain is that the Alexandr Pushkin was withdrawn from transatlantic service in 1980 when the United States and British Commonwealth forbade Soviet ships from entering their ports after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. By this time the Pushkin had been one of just four ships in transatlantic passenger service (the others being her sister Mikhail Lermontov in Leningrad-New York service, Polish Ocean Lines Stefan Batory in Poland-Canada service and of course Cunard Line's QE2). After this the Pushkin was used exclusively for cruising, chartered at least to West Germany's Transocean Tours. In 1985 her ownership was transferred from the Baltic Shipping Company to the Far Eastern Shipping Company and subsequently she was chartered to CTC Cruises for cruising out of Australia and the UK.

In 1991 - after a brief lay-up period - the Alexandr Pushkin was sold to Orient Lines, a new destination-intensive cruise line established by Gerry Herrod. After a 2½ year refit the ship finally re-emerged as Marco Polo; her exterior redesign (largely faithful to the original) had been overseen by the Knud E. Hansen maritime archiotecture practice, while her new interiors were largely the work of Michael and Agni Katzourakis. Orient Line with their sole ship was a success, and in 1998 the Norwegian Cruise Line purchased the brand.

The Marco Polo became the sole surviving ship of her class in 2005, when the last of her sisters (the Taras Shevchenko) was scrapped. By this time Norwegian Cruise Line and their owners Star Cruises were experiencing financial difficulties. Resultingly in 2008 the Marco Polo was sold to Global Maritime of Greece. The sale of the Marco Polo also meant the closure of the Orient Lines brand (although an attempt to restore the brand was made later in 2008 but was foiled by the economic downturn of that year). Global Maritime chartered the Marco Polo to Transocean Tours, who took the ship in service without a change of name. Transocean Tours planned to retain the ship until 2012, but due to financial difficulties they gave the ship up already in 2009. The newly-founded UK-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages took her under charter for five years from the beginning of 2010, still retaining the name Marco Polo.

Photographs below are of the Marco Polo departing Helsinki South Harbour on 6 August 2010, photographed from the breakwater of Suomenlinna's boat harbour. Click on the image(s) to view full size.

On Kruunuvuorenselkä.

Turning towards Kustaanmiekka strait, with Laajasalo oil harbour in the backround on the left.

Heading for the Kustaanmiekka strait...

...and entering the strait.