CRUISE VIGNETTES 26, Stefan Batory

FIRST, FIND A SHIP
In 1985 we had tried to find a ship that would take both us and the 1978 Dodge Transvan RV from Europe to the United States. We had purchased this RV from an US Army Major, near Stuttgart, Germany, in 1983, traveled a few months, parked it in a garage of a neighbor of one of Emmy’s cousins, in Mettlach, Germany, for 20 months, then traveled around Europe a few more months in 1985. Now we wanted to take it home, and we wanted to be on the same ship.

Cousin Monika’s husband Henri, who was a Harbor Master in Le Havre, France, could find no ship that permitted both the vehicle and the people on board for a trip to the USA, and we got the same answer in Antwerp, and from several other places that we asked. However, in a campsite in Strasbourg, France we met a Canadian who had brought his VW Van from Canada on the “Stefan Batory,”
and would return the same way.

He gave us the ship name, and some phone numbers, and we asked daughter Linda to find the ship and book us in late summer or early fall, and she did. While we were in Vienna, and later in Hamburg, we visited travel offices and got a little more information, and we arrived in Rotterdam the night before we were scheduled to sail. (Why do they call it “sail” even though they use an engine?) They permitted RVs to camp for the night, right near the harbor.

The ship’s home port was Gdynia, Poland, and in the 1970s and ‘80s it made round trips from Gdynia, to Rotterdam, then London, and on to Montreal, then returned to Gdynia. By 1985 the Stephen Batory had made 131 Atlantic sailing and 136 cruises, but was taken out of service in March 1988. In March 2000, the ship was cut up as scrap in Aliaga, Turkey. We visited the ship’s home dock in Gdynia in 1991, but the ship was not there.

As we approached Rotterdam, we stopped at a rest stop to buy a map of the city. As we neared downtown Rotterdam it sure came in very handy. Since we had the map, I confirmed that without a doubt, that we had missed our off-ramp. Without the map, we would not have been so sure, but we found the port, finally.

At the dock in Rotterdam, we saw a VW camper that looked familiar. Sure enough, the man, and girlfriend, who had told us about this ship, were on their way home. Instead of the one-year camping trip, they had been sick and tired of camping after a couple of weeks. I can do this forever. Emmy? Maybe.