Before we meet in Rotterdam I think I should post this picture taken at my home town. It's the COLUMBUS C at the Wilhelminakade, of Holland America Line fame. When HAL moved to the USA only foreign-flagged cruise ships used the pier. Calls shrank during the eighties to nil in 1993. There's a new cruise terminal now, which attracts about twenty ships each year.

The ship was built in 1953 at De Schelde, Vlissingen, The Netherlands (yard nr 273) as KUNGSHOLM for Svenska Amerika Linjen, Göteborg, Sweden. 183 x 23.5 x 14 m. 21164 GRT. 802 passengers. 1965 EUROPA (Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, Germany, since 1970 Hapag-Lloyd). 1981 COLUMBUS C (Costa Armatori, Genoa, Italy), Panamanian flag. 1984 collided with breakwater at Cadiz, Spain. 1985 demolished in Spain.

Pictured at Rotterdam, 1982. Scanned from a colour slide (dia). Please credit Photo Fleet File Rotterdam when you save the scan to your computer.