Catching up on the Costa Concordia news, hoping to hear the ringtone which apparently exists of Gregorio de Falco saying “Ritorni a bordo, cazzo,” I noticed that this ship was over ten times the size of the one I took to Europe long ago.
When I rode on the M.S. Aurelia it took ten days to sail from New York to Southampton, and part of another day to reach Le Havre. This speed had first been attained by the S.S. Pacific in 1850, so the Aurelia was not revolutionary.
I see that the Aurelia started out sailing as the M.S. Huascarán in December, 1938. She was German then, from Hamburg, and she served as a repair ship throughout World War II — after which she was seized by the British and refitted for the first of several times. All in all, she sailed for about 59 years, having burned near Cyprus while cruising in 1997.
My parents had sailed to Europe before, on an economy steamship, the S.S. Maasdam, which pitched and rolled. They returned on the rapid S.S. United States. I knew that last was a famous ship, and I knew my grandparents had sailed on other famous ships.
I did not know the ship I sailed upon was famous as a small ship — or that it had been built originally for the trip from Hamburg to Lima and back — or that it had been part of the Kriegsmarine.
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The ship I want to go on does not look like it but is apparently three and a half times the size of the M.S. Aurelia. It can go from Seyðisfjörður to Tórshavn in 19 hours, and if I have done the fare calculation right a round trip ticket, with a couchette, at midsummer is 291 Euros.
The Norrøna was built in Spain. Here it goes in heavy wind. Here it is cruising to land; I see now that it is in fact quite large. Even the ferry we used to take across the North Sea without thinking of this as a sea voyage since it was a mere ferry ride, was almost as large as the Aurelia and is a ship.
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I would also like to go from Reykjavík to Greenland, where you can go on hiking tours, walking from house to house as in Guatemala, or hike the Arctic Circle Trail. I will go from Trømsø, also on the Arctic, to Finnmark and then on to the Svalbard Islands. I will go to the Arctic archipelago of Lofoten.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Fascinating. Wish I had time to comment a greater length.
It’s raining and I’m tired and although I ought to do something anyway, I’m vegetating while fantasizing about sea voyages. The largest cruise ship now is something like 250K tons, and you can go the North Pole on this Russian nuclear icebreaker, the 50 Let Pobedy.
OK. If I go on the Noronna, which I don’t count as a ship since it’s a ferry but should count as one … that will be two ships I’ve been on. Meanwhile I think I’ve been on a third, the M.S. Winston Churchill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Winston_Churchill … another one I didn’t count since it was “just a ferry,” but it made a 17 hour crossing of the North Sea so I am counting it.
I think that is all the ships I’ve been on unless you count the Channel ferries, Victoria BC ferries … I have realized I am a fanatic of old fashioned ships and I want to count all those I have been on or even seen.
The catamaran Mendocino, that goes from Larkspur to SF, is a “motor vessel.” It’s 143 feet long, which makes it twice as long as the Santa Maria! But, there were 15th century ships as long as the Mendocino then and longer.
16 photographs of and related to Aurelia, here. http://philadelphiariders.com/gallery3/index.php/PCH-Pics/Non-Moto/album67/album162/postcardback
Here we have more pictures of the Aurelia.
http://www.ssmaritime.com/aurelia2.htm