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The Birth of the Cruise Ship Industry, Part 2
Copyright 2012, Ric Hajovsky
As the passengers disembarked, all the ship’s crew, including the indentured rowers, lined up along the quay with their drinking mugs held out to receive a tip. They often reminded disembarking passengers that they were the same crew who would be manning the galley on the return voyage, not without a hint of things to come if a decent tip didn’t fall into their mug. It was expedient, the guide books said, to drop something into every cup.
Once on shore, the tourists were forced to form a line and give their names to the clerks of the Emir, who wrote each one down and gave the corresponding passenger a ticket, which they were admonished to keep safe at all costs. This ticket would be periodically required by local authorities to verify the bearer’s name against the master list. After the names were taken and the tickets handed out, the vendors were allowed access to the tourists and all hell broke loose. Shouts and cries urging them to buy this trinket or that snack rang throughout the once empty city. For a while, the bedlam seemed insurmountable, but eventually the last penny was squeezed out of the bewildered visitors for the day and the vendors were made to retreat. The passengers were herded together once more, now burdened with souvenirs and “saints’ relics” and ushered into their quarters for the night. It had previously been a stable, but now served quite well as a “tourist quality inn.” John Poloner’s Description of the Holy Land, written for the traveler of 1421, warned that no one should attempt to break the rule prohibiting anyone from leaving the inn unaccompanied. The Saracens, he stated, were fond of catching the wayward traveler on one of these illicit strolls and demanding a payment from him to avoid being thrown in jail for the offense.
In the morning, the guide books warned that it was advisable to get up early “for and ye come by tyme ye may chese the beste mule… for ye schal pay no more fore the best then fore the worst.” Once mounted and all the baggage loaded, the entire shipload of passengers headed in single file towards the next destination; Ramleh. Here, the ships’ captains, who acted as the “G. O.” or gentile organiser, of the trip, lined the passengers up and laid down the rules for the rest of the shore excursion of the trip:
1. One should never go out without an official guide.
2. Hands off the Saracens’ womenfolk.
3. Do not drink alcohol in the presence of a Saracen; but if you must, ask that “yore comrade stand afore hem and cover hem withe his cloke.”
4. Refrain from scratching or painting names or coats-of-arms on monuments, as well as from chipping off pieces of holy places or making any marks on them.
5. Finally, do not forget to tip your guide each day.
Marjorie Kemp, an English woman who made the trip from Venice to the Holy Land in 1413, described the whirlwind tour in her biography, later translated from her medieval English into our modern version and renamed Memoirs of a Medieval Woman. Marjorie’s account is a blur of countless stops, all designed by the Saracens to extract the maximum amount of money from each traveler. To touch the actual crib that baby Jesus slept in cost an extra two pennies. A hair from the mummified head of John the Baptist was an extra three. To stay inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher overnight, priceless.
The Early Cruise Ships of Cozumel
The first cruise ship to call on Cozumel was the Ariadne, in 1961. The 239-passenger ship was built in 1951 as a ferry to travel between Gothenburg and London and was launched as the SS Patricia. After being renamed the Ariadne, she only made a couple of trips to the Cozumel from Miami.
Above: Ariadne
Back then, Cozumel had no cruise ship piers. The passengers had to be ferried to the municipal pier on the ship's tenders.
Above: Passengers disembarking at the municipal pier.
The MS Bolero called on Cozumel from 1973 to 1976. In March of 1974, she dragged anchor during a storm and went aground on the banks north of Cozumel. Her 354 passengers had to be airlifted to Miami and the ship scratched Cozumel from her itinerary after that.
Above: Bolero
In 1977, the 555 passenger MS Odessa and her sister ship the MS Kazakstan began carrying passengers on trips from New Orleans that included a stop in Cozumel. Built and operated by the Soviet Union’s Black Sea Shipping Company, the cruise stopped off at Havana before reaching Cozumel, on what was named the “Balalaikas and Bongos” Cruise. I remember going aboard when it called on Cozumel to eat at the ship's buffet, back when it was not so hard to go aboard and visit a cruise ship at port, like it is today.
Above: The Odessa and the Kazakstan in a photo I took from the top of the Hotel Sol Caribe (today’s Park Royal) while the hotel was under construction. The old Hotel La Ceiba (before its tower was built and name changed to El Cid) is in the foreground.
Copyright 2012, Ric Hajovsky
As the passengers disembarked, all the ship’s crew, including the indentured rowers, lined up along the quay with their drinking mugs held out to receive a tip. They often reminded disembarking passengers that they were the same crew who would be manning the galley on the return voyage, not without a hint of things to come if a decent tip didn’t fall into their mug. It was expedient, the guide books said, to drop something into every cup.
Once on shore, the tourists were forced to form a line and give their names to the clerks of the Emir, who wrote each one down and gave the corresponding passenger a ticket, which they were admonished to keep safe at all costs. This ticket would be periodically required by local authorities to verify the bearer’s name against the master list. After the names were taken and the tickets handed out, the vendors were allowed access to the tourists and all hell broke loose. Shouts and cries urging them to buy this trinket or that snack rang throughout the once empty city. For a while, the bedlam seemed insurmountable, but eventually the last penny was squeezed out of the bewildered visitors for the day and the vendors were made to retreat. The passengers were herded together once more, now burdened with souvenirs and “saints’ relics” and ushered into their quarters for the night. It had previously been a stable, but now served quite well as a “tourist quality inn.” John Poloner’s Description of the Holy Land, written for the traveler of 1421, warned that no one should attempt to break the rule prohibiting anyone from leaving the inn unaccompanied. The Saracens, he stated, were fond of catching the wayward traveler on one of these illicit strolls and demanding a payment from him to avoid being thrown in jail for the offense.
In the morning, the guide books warned that it was advisable to get up early “for and ye come by tyme ye may chese the beste mule… for ye schal pay no more fore the best then fore the worst.” Once mounted and all the baggage loaded, the entire shipload of passengers headed in single file towards the next destination; Ramleh. Here, the ships’ captains, who acted as the “G. O.” or gentile organiser, of the trip, lined the passengers up and laid down the rules for the rest of the shore excursion of the trip:
1. One should never go out without an official guide.
2. Hands off the Saracens’ womenfolk.
3. Do not drink alcohol in the presence of a Saracen; but if you must, ask that “yore comrade stand afore hem and cover hem withe his cloke.”
4. Refrain from scratching or painting names or coats-of-arms on monuments, as well as from chipping off pieces of holy places or making any marks on them.
5. Finally, do not forget to tip your guide each day.
Marjorie Kemp, an English woman who made the trip from Venice to the Holy Land in 1413, described the whirlwind tour in her biography, later translated from her medieval English into our modern version and renamed Memoirs of a Medieval Woman. Marjorie’s account is a blur of countless stops, all designed by the Saracens to extract the maximum amount of money from each traveler. To touch the actual crib that baby Jesus slept in cost an extra two pennies. A hair from the mummified head of John the Baptist was an extra three. To stay inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher overnight, priceless.
The Early Cruise Ships of Cozumel
The first cruise ship to call on Cozumel was the Ariadne, in 1961. The 239-passenger ship was built in 1951 as a ferry to travel between Gothenburg and London and was launched as the SS Patricia. After being renamed the Ariadne, she only made a couple of trips to the Cozumel from Miami.
Above: Ariadne
Back then, Cozumel had no cruise ship piers. The passengers had to be ferried to the municipal pier on the ship's tenders.
Above: Passengers disembarking at the municipal pier.
The MS Bolero called on Cozumel from 1973 to 1976. In March of 1974, she dragged anchor during a storm and went aground on the banks north of Cozumel. Her 354 passengers had to be airlifted to Miami and the ship scratched Cozumel from her itinerary after that.
Above: Bolero
In 1977, the 555 passenger MS Odessa and her sister ship the MS Kazakstan began carrying passengers on trips from New Orleans that included a stop in Cozumel. Built and operated by the Soviet Union’s Black Sea Shipping Company, the cruise stopped off at Havana before reaching Cozumel, on what was named the “Balalaikas and Bongos” Cruise. I remember going aboard when it called on Cozumel to eat at the ship's buffet, back when it was not so hard to go aboard and visit a cruise ship at port, like it is today.
Above: The Odessa and the Kazakstan in a photo I took from the top of the Hotel Sol Caribe (today’s Park Royal) while the hotel was under construction. The old Hotel La Ceiba (before its tower was built and name changed to El Cid) is in the foreground.
