MARCO POLO Aground In Northern Norway

| November 1, 2014 | Shipping News | 3 Comments
MARCO POLO aground near Gravdal in northern Norway, November 1, 2014. Photo provided by Royal Norwegian Air Force.
A Norwegian coast guard vessel arrived in Gravdal, northern Norway, today to assist the grounded 1965-built, 22,080 gt liner MARCO POLO.  The ship, with some 800 mostly British passengers, is said to be undamaged and no injuries were reported.  A pilot was on board MARCO POLO and two tugboats were attempting to free the ship by pushing from starboard.  The passengers have left the vessel to take part in their planned excursions.

MARCO POLO is chartered by Britain-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages and was originally Baltic Shipping Company’s ALEXANDR PUSHKIN, built to cross from Leningrad via Bremerhaven and London (Tilbury) to Montreal.  It was reported that the same ship previously ran aground in a nearby archipelago in March 2013.

For a sampling of what life is like aboard the classic MARCO POLO, check out Peter Knego’s

MARCO POLO Cruises In The Wake Of Triumph and Tragedy
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mcox

MARTIN COX - Founder and publisher of MaritimeMatters, inspired by maritime culture and technology growing up in the port of Southampton. He works as a photographer in Los Angeles, and his works has been exhibited in LA, San Francisco, New York, London and Iceland. Martin is the co-writer of the book “Hollywood to Honolulu; the story of the Los Angeles Steamship Company” published by the Steam Ship Historical Society of America. The Los Angeles Maritime Museum has commissioned artworks and collected his photographs.

3 Comments
  1. Peter Newall

    Panic over as she is now free with no apparent damage. Great news as she is one of my favourite ships. Next year we shall be aboard for 36 nights for her amazing transatlantic celebratory voyage to Canada.

  2. Geir Svendsen

    I have posted an album om my facebooksite from the grounding of the Marco Polo yesterday.

  3. Carl Teeling

    I remember her as the ALEXANDR PUSHKIN when she ran transatlantic to Canada in tandem with MIKHAIL LERMONTOV to New York, when I worked for the North America agents March Shipping Passenger Service in the ’70s.
    The MARCO POLO is the last of the five IVAN FRANKO class liners built in East Germany in the ’60s and ’70s. All named for Russian poets.

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