Voyage to Murmansk: a convoy of memories

Take a 16 year old cabin boy with the New Zealand Shipping Company who became a 60s pop singer and party animal capable of leaving the Rolling Stones standing.

Add a sprinkling of veterans of the World War II Arctic Convoys, a ship called Discovery and a patron saint of lost things and navigators.

Then throw in the navies of two countries, 7 Russian TV crews, a Russian-speaking Scottish veteran, disbelieving dignitaries from the British Embassy in Moscow and more inexplicable, if not supernatural, coincidences than you’d dare invent.

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Dear Maritime Memories Friend

Why should you come to sea with us? Well, I'll tell you why!

To start with, we are not your normal commercial cruise operator whose only main interest is getting "bums-on-seats" at any cost. No, we are a handful of people, mostly working for the love of it, just trying to give us all something truly special and memorable to really enjoy.

Something special that gives us the chance to be free and to break away from the computerised world of modern travel; a chance to sail again on a real ship with wide open, teak-lined decks that allow you all the space in the world and where you can just sit out in the evenings and enjoy the sounds of the passing sea instead of being herded aboard a huge floating block of flats and being one of thousands.

When you sail with Maritime Memories, you become very much a part of us and the ship becomes part of you. It's "our" ship and, as we used to years go, we treat her with pride, a pride that is enhanced by the way the whole ship is run, right down from her captain to her crew. You know, when we're about to board and they hoist all those old company house flags up the masts, about fifty of them, that this is going to be a jolly old voyage!

So why should you come to sea with us? Well, a lot of the people who came with us on that very first Maritime Memories Voyage are still with us, which says so much. On every Maritime memories voyage we try to recapture and to experience for one more time that pleasure, excitement and adventure of ocean travel as it used to be during the golden age of shipping. Now so many people want to be part of this that we just can't stop.

An exciting development for me is that on this "Around Britain" voyage, we plan to make a very important television documentary, telling the story of our once great maritime past and how, not so very many years ago, we had the greatest merchant navy and shipbuilding industry in the world.

You can expect special receptions waiting for us in every one of the ports we visit and in Belfast and Liverpool we will arrange something truly spectacular with top officials, mayors, civic dignitaries and other prominent people joining military bands on the quayside to greet us. Royal Naval escorts in and out of harbour, water displays from accompanying tugs and an exciting fly-past by the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm.

In short, this is a chance for all of us to do and take part in something that is truly special; whilst celebrating our maritime past and being part of a television programme that will ensure that the stories of the past will never, ever be forgotten. But remember, we are on a real ship of just 20,000 gross tons with only 650 passengers, so you must call us straight away to book if you want to make sure you are going to be part of this great occasion. Oh, and by the way.... it will be a fantastic cruise as well!

Give us a call on: 0845 017 1891

Special 'Around Britain' voyage of Maritime Memories

Just a quick line to let you know that in the summer of 2010 we will do a special 'Around Britain' voyage of Maritime Memories, which should be fun, especially as we are going to sail into .... LIVERPOOL!  That should bring back some fond old memories to a lot of us .... What was I doing that night in Lime Street!!?

This voyage will be out of Harwich and back to Harwich, and I'm sure it will be very popular with the Maritime Memories crowd .... sounds like a party all the way to me!

Maritime Memories Hot News

Hot off the press.  Because so many of you have asked us if we could do another Maritime Memories Christmas Cruise, for Christmas 2010 and New Year 2011, we're going to do just that.  Yes, it's going to be one hell of a Christmas, with so much laughter and fun as well a fantastic food (No washing-up!) and we'll also have the special moments...Christmas Trees, Carol singing and all the best things about Christmas and New Year. 

Added to all this will be the pleasure of being able to enjoy our Christmas and New Year in the best company in the world...all of you.  Those of you who sailed with us on the South American Christmas Cruise will remember only too well just what a wonderful time we all had...I remember our poor old Captain having to make a special announcement when we arrived in Buenos Aires. “I’m sorry all you wonderful Maritime Memories passengers, but you really do have to leave us now as we have to continue on our cruise”.  So many, so very happy people on that voyage.

Well, this time we’re heading for Central America and those fascinating countries such as Belize, Costa Rica and Honduras, countries that have hardly changed from the days when we used to sail into them all those years ago.

We will also call in to some of the less tourist trodden Caribbean Islands such as Aruba and Curacao, which is actually the very first overseas land my little feet ever trod on and, the first place my lily white body experienced the luxury of swimming in a warm. Blue sea…fantastic!  Mind you, not one person on the bloody ship bothered to warn me about the sharks…which is probably why I now have so much grey hair!

The other good news is for all of you who nag me about arranging a voyage with lots of sea days to enjoy, which is so difficult these days because modern passengers on those great big modern ships aren’t quite like us…they seem to have no interest in the sea at all; much preferring to be in a different port every day…sounds terrible to me.

Anyway, in July 2011 we will once again to that wonderful voyage back to the UK from the Caribbean, sailing from the Bahamas to Grand Turk and then out into the wonderful blue of the Atlantic – every Maritime Memories crossing we’ve done has been in wonderful weather – where we will have all the time in the world to enjoy the wonder and excitement of the open sea…just lounging about on deck with a drink or two, a little visit every now and again to the bridge, just to make sure we’re on the right course and, if you really want, then I’m sure we can arrange for you to put the old overalls on, grab a can of Castrol and pop down below to help the Chief keep his engines running!

But not only are we able to enjoy the sights and sounds of the ocean again, we also have so much time for us all to be together and have a lot of fun.  We’ll have some great talks  and, I’ll even do quite a few myself … Okay, II did say great talks, that’s true, but I promise, we will have some great maritime talks and events including special showings of more rare archive film, often material that’s never been shown in public before.

What else will we have? Well, as with the Christmas/New Year cruise, we’ll have the complete series of “The Great Liners” broadcast to every cabin.  We’ll have special dinner menus taken from the great old ocean liners of the past such as the Canberra, Normandie, United States, Dominion Monarch, Queen Mary, Oriana, Kenya, Pendennis Castle and so on…in short, these voyages will be very, very special and a whole lot of fun plus, you have all the normal onboard entertainment as well including great cabaret, classical concerts, dancing, cinema, bingo…Bingo!!  Who needs bingo when you’ve got so much else to do…oh well, it’s there if you want it, but me, I really look forward to those wonderful moments when you can just sit out on the deck on a warm, tropical evening and, with a little drink in hand, just sit back and enjoy the wonders of a tropical sky at night, orchestrated by that so relaxing, happy sound of the passing ocean… now that is something I miss and something that is so very special.

So as always, we can only take a limit number because as you know, our ship is small compared to the giant floating blocks of flats of today, so it will be a case of ‘first come, first served’.  If we had our way, then we’d just wave a magic wand and have you all come with us…if only!  But we do so enjoy your company and even though these voyages haven’t been officially announced as yet, just give us a call on:  00 44 (0) 1273 585391 and we will arrange everything for you, and yes,  all our Maritime Memories passengers get a special fare and…and a badge…that’s not bad is it!

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

Best wishes,

Ulla and Des.

Relive the Classic Days of Shipping

Join us on the mv Discovery for another classic Maritime Memories sailing. From Istanbul bound for Harwich on this exciting 29-day voyage that incorporates historic ports of the Black Sea with a journey across the breadth of the Mediterranean before heading north and homeward from Gibraltar. We’ll enjoy calls at 20 ports and have seven full days at sea – time to meet and discuss the bygone days of shipping with your likeminded Maritime Memories passengers, and of course to enjoy all the functions, parties, and presentations from the Maritime Memories team.

Celebrate the shipping companies of yesteryear
on our 9th Maritime Memories Voyage from Istanbul
to England via the Black Sea and Mediterranean.