update s.s. Rotterdam
At the end of February, s.s. Rotterdam arrived in Gdansk, Poland, for restoration and to be rebuild into hotel, congresscentre, museum and some more. Since that date, the ship is just there and no work at all has been done yet. It all started with a misunderstanding by the Polish press, which announced that an asbestos-bomb arrived. According to the press, an amount of 2000 tons of asbestos was on board and had to be removed. According to the owners, it was 2000 tons of waste of which only 180 tons of asbestos. First, there was an agreement with the Gdansk Shipyard, but than athe owners were advised it could be done a lot cheaper by leasing the Ore Pier and hiring the workmen themselves. The governor found that some licences were not in order and did not allow to start the work. Besides of that, the pier was too close to a natural park. Two months later, the borderpolice found 500 cubic meter asbestos toxic waste on board which was not reported at arrival. The governor became really mad and ordered the ship to leave Polish waters by 10 July. The shipowners appealed with the Minister of Maritime Economic affairs, who finally ordered that the toxic waste had to be transferred to another ship in international waters. Than, the owners found that swallows (protected birds) had build nests on board and by moving into international waters, it should be too far away from the coast for the young birds. Governor and Minister agreed that the ship could stay untill the birds had flown out. Last week, the nests seemed to be empty, so the order could been carried out. However, the shipowner now claim they cannot leave before Wednesday 9 August. We have to wait till that day to find out more about this Peyton Place story. I will keep you updated.

:shock: :shock: :cry: :cry: Peyton Place, it is. WHAT A MESS :cry: Please, do keep us updated. Aug 9th is coming very soon

Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens next! Thanks for the update, Willem, and welcome back home!!! :)

Polish paranoia! I follow the fate of the beautiful SS Rotterdam on its homepage since long time. Now -this Polish official behavior is hilarious. They even did not recognize that the Rotterdam foundation could proof legal commitment by a German company which was able to dispose of the asbestos in a very professional environment.

As promised, the article from TradeWinds. = = = Poland rejects Rotterdam *Polish authorities have ordered a former transatlantic cruise liner reportedly containing 100 tonnes of a carcinogenic substance which has been docked at Gdansk for five months to leave the country’s territorial waters.* The Rotterdam (built 1959), which last operated as the cruiseship Rembrandt for failed Premier Cruise Lines in 2000, has been moored at a repair yard in Gdansk since March where it was hoped the asbestos would be removed and treated. The Rotterdam (built 1959) is to leave Polish waters. But Poland’s maritime economy minister, Rafal Wiechecki, turned down an appeal from the vessel’s owner and ordered it to leave Polish waters, the country’s radio station Polskie Radio reported on Tuesday. Wiechecki argued that the vessel’s owner, a Dutch non-profit organisation called De Rotterdam, failed to notify Polish authorities of the presence of the harmful substance onboard before the vessel reached Poland. The owner of the Rotterdam will now have to tow the vessel from the yard failing which Polish authorities will undertake the removal at the owner’s expense. Although Wiechecki left the door open for the vessel to return to Poland once the hazardous cargo has been dealt with, he also said that authorities should investigate the possible illegal employment of Polish personnel onboard the ship, the station reported. The Rotterdam was sent to Poland to be converted into a conference centre and hotel to be docked in the Netherlands. Its passage to Poland caused a furore amongst environmental campaign groups including Greenpeace who argued that the work of clearing the asbestos should be undertaken at a specialist facility. At the time of the vessel’s removal to Gdansk a spokesman for the vessel’s owner said that the Polish yard had been chosen ahead of a Dutch facility as it had quoted a price 50% lower than the local competition. Wherever the work onboard the Rotterdam is now to be undertaken, once the hazardous cargo is removed from the ship that waste must remain in that country for treatment, according to regulations. The ship was to have spent six months being restored in Poland before making a grand arrival back in its native country, the vessel’s owner hoping it could have been opened to the public in Rotterdam towards the end of this year. By _Eoin O'Cinneide <mailto:eoin.ocinneide@tradewinds.no>_ in London

Yes, Willem we got to do the entire cruise - we did Transatlantic on Millennium (itinerary not as good as would have been on Star - I really wanted to visit Rotterdam!), and the Star was ready for the Baltic on May 15th! Had a wonderful time! Thank you for asking. One of these days I will get to see the Port of Rotterdam! :D

Willem thank you for your point of view! My source of information was the official website of the De Rotterdam foundation. If you are correct, somebody srewed the authorities in Danzig, knowingly or unknowingly. Now i tend to understand the thing with the protected swallows -the only way to keep the ship in Danzig. If that is so , I apologize for accusing the Polish authorities of being paranoia (although under the Kaczynski brothers there are real examples of paranoia :twisted: ). For the sake of the future development/developing story of this beautiful ship , please keep us up to date with what you know (in order to not rely 100% on the official foundation website!!!!). Thanks again and my apologies 8)

Willem is your post #5 the actual translation of the 3 Dutch articles you mentioned one posting earlier?