Captain Albert Schoonderbeek
It turned out to be a beautiful day in Naples. Almost no wind, sunny skies from arrival to departure and temperatures in the mid 70’s. Just the weather that a cruise should have. The Prinsendam arrived as scheduled at 7 am. at the pilot station and as the pilot was already waiting we could just continue directly to the berth. Sometimes the pilot likes to do some work but not today. Which meant that I just continued conning the ship into the harbour and after swinging around docked starboard side alongside the cruise terminal or Stazione Marittima as they call it here.
Certainly impressive if you arrive from the city side.
This terminal was constructed in 1936 with the official reason that there was such an upswing in traffic from the port that a new dedicated passenger terminal was needed. What however played in the background was that Mussolini had started to push for a merger of several Italian passenger liner companies’ in what eventually would become the Italia Line and later Finmare. In the thoughts of the Fascists, this also meant that the terminals from which the passenger liners would depart had to be big and impressive. This resulted in an indeed very impressive terminal here in Naples that can deal with up to 10 smaller passenger vessels. Nowadays as the ships are bigger there is normally room for a maximum of four.
The view from the seaside with the lower level being used for lining up cars for the ferries in high summer.
If you walk around in the terminal, which is not so easy anymore with the current security rules, you can still see the 2nd and 3rd class waiting rooms on the upper level. I have never been able to find the first class one, so I do not know if it still exists. The terminal has been rebuilt several times and now it boasts a congress centre and a shopping mall inside. The outside of the building needs a bit of TLC and according to the pilots that is momentarily “under discussion to take place”. It has been under discussion now for a number of years so it might be awhile before the discussion is concluded. Apart from cruise ships the terminal is also used for ferries. The end of the middle dock can take ships docking with Mediterranean moor. (E.g. nose sticking out with two anchors and the stern towards the dock to lower the car ramp) On a yearly basis it handles about 1.5 million guests, out of a total (including the ferry terminals) of 6 million for the whole port.
At the sea side both ends of the terminal have a bronze rearing horse on the top, while the city side only has clocks.
To the west of the terminal are the departure docks for the ferries to Capri and to the right, the docks for the ferry’s that connect Naples with Sardegna, Corse and all the numerous small islands along the coast. Each arrival, or departure with a ship from Naples that I have made, there was always at least one ferry coming in or going out. This morning we had two ferries ahead of us going in and on departure we had a fast ferry from Capri approaching.
By 17.35 hrs we had all our guests on board and the ship left the terminal. Most guests were on the aft deck where the hotel department had set up a pizza-sail-away party. That almost sounded like carrying coals to Newcastle, as Naples is considered the birth place of the pizza. If my history knowledge does not betray me, the pizza was invented in prison so that the inmates could eat food without the need of knife and fork. Sailaway from the Naples is always nice on a sunny day with Vesuvius looming large over the town and the Amalfi coast to the South.
As it had been a nice and fairly warm day, the Amalfi coast could only be seen through a thick haze and unfortunately thus not clearly visible. Tomorrow we are in Elba, where Napoleon was exiled to for a short period. After Waterloo they did a better job by exiling him to St. Helena from where it was much more difficult to return to France. So he did not.
The port tomorrow is Portoferrario and is the major town on the island with numerous ferries connecting the island to the rest of the world. We will be at anchor and run a tender service into the town. The place is very scenic so the tender ride should add something extra to the enjoyment of the day. Weather is predicted to be very good again.
To access Captain Albert’s historical writings on Holland America Line as well as photos and additional information about Prinsendam and his sailing schedule, click here.
May 21, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Captain Albert,
So glad you are finally blogging again. I discovered your blog on Avid Cruiser just before HAL transferred your blog to their own web site. I started at the beginning and read all your blogs from 2007 to the present. They were so fascinating that I had to look for other cruise blogs when you were on vacation. And when we took our recent cruise from San Diego to Alaska on the Ryndam, I copied the most informative ones on the ports we were going to since they were the same ports that you went to last year on the Veendam.
While in Skagway, I searched for your name on the ships rock as we were docked alongside it. I thought I found it when I saw Captain Albert with the Zaandam logo, but I couldn’t remember the plumbers name as I had your blog on the Ryndam. Then I spotted it with A. Schoonderbeek and the plumber Ben at the bottom–I believe it was the old Noordam you were on.
Looking forward to reading more of your blogs. Please keep us posted as to your assignments as I would love to cruise with you some day. I have been mentioning HAL’s blog (and especially you) to those who love to cruise. And have also suggested that more staff from other ship also submit entries. The blogs help those of us who love to cruise with HAL to select future destinations.
So thanks again for all your daily words that you send out into cyberspace not knowing whether anyone is interested. We definately are, even if we don’t comment on each entry.
Sharon