Jump to content

Anyone Remember The Bremen???


Recommended Posts

I first noticed the Louis Pasteur when I was serving with the RAF in Aden 1952 to 1954 and she was the largest ship calling at Aden in those days. Most of the time the Pasteur was carrying Foreign Legion troops to and from Indo China. As non medical staff at the RAF Hospital I was often called upon to act as a stretcher bearer and it was in this capacity that I went on board sometime in 1953. The troop decks were on the upper decks, compartments with hammocks and a dripping tap on one support. It was a very different ship that I saw in October 1962 when I was working for Thos. Cook & Son Ltd in London and was sent with a group of other travel agents on board the Bremen from offshore Southampton to Bremerhaven and return a few days later. As to be expected the troop decks had all been changed into cabins and I was even treated to a stateroom on the return voyage.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Callum,

 

Sorry I was late seeing this. Wow! 1952!! Yes the Pasteur had been a trooper from 1939 onwards. I think she also made some voyages to Vietnam. She survived the war and got an entire overhaul in order to sail as TS Bremen in 1958. It was an incredible overhaul as Bremen was gorgeous once she was in service. The Germans were very proud of her and everyone who sailed on her remembers the luxurious atmosphere and outstanding service that echoed back to the gilded era on the Atlantic.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone reading this takes the time to read this entire thread you will be treated to a trip down Nostalgia Lane. You will find lots of wonderful memories with some ironic and some funny stories...well worth your time. If any of you out there can remember anything pertinent to the TS Bremen please feel free to contribute your thoughts and experiences here on this thread. These memories are all we have left of that proud and wonderful ship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Everyone,

I'm so happy that CGTNORMANDIE started this thread. He has so many great stories to tell. We are friends of his who sailed with him and his wife in 2005, and plan to have a reunion cruise with him and other friends from the same sailing in September. I'm enjoying reading about all of your memories, as they make the cruise come to life. It is great that many of you have kept your souvenirs over the years, too. I have kept many of mine, including the pin CGTNORMANDIE presented to our group at the start of that 2005 voyage. Trevor and I are way behind all of you in our cruising experiences, only starting in 1998 (although, he was on the Flavia in 1974), never getting out of the Caribbean islands. LOL. However, I believe that we are all in the same cruising "club".

 

The ships today have their own personalities, as well, but none compare to the ships of old. The special attention given to each passenger is no longer there and so many traditions have ceased to exist.

 

Take care for now, and let the memories continue. Lynne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Hi All,

 

So very glad to have found this blog started by CGTNORMANDIE. Reading the entries brings back so many wonderful memories of the Bremen. I crossed on the Bremen, Bremen/New York, in 1970 having crossed from New York to Southampton the previous year on the QE2. I was transporting back to the US a recently purchased VW Beetle that was used to tour Europe and North Africa the previous 10 months.

 

 

Discovering the Bremen for the return trip was pure serendipity. The ship at first seemed like the elderly, but gracious, aunt compared to the QE2, but soon had warmly welcomed me with her charms, from the wonderful creaking of the wood panels as she made her way westward to the crew who treated me like family and daily hoping that the journey would last much longer than scheduled.

 

A high point of the journey was meeting a nun returning from Rome and becoming life-long friends. We actually closed down the wonderful Pine Room several evenings drinking, singing, dancing and becoming great friends. I remember quite clearly one of the stewards who in the wee hours did a fantastic impression of Marlene Dietrich singing Lili Marleen.

We also saved one of the wine bottles, put a note in it with our names and addresses, and tossed it overboard the next morning hoping to one day receive a reply, which never happened.

I also remember touring the engine room and taking a picture and when the flash attachment went off there was a small panic among the crew thinking it was an explosion!

I still have all the Bremen menus, brochures, daily news reports, etc. and occasionally run across them and remember fondly what a wonderful journey that crossing proved to be.

That was all in another, less stressful era and I cherish that it was truly kismet.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi LC,

 

In a word, serendipity. A special moment in your life framed by a classic liner that became a cocoon at sea. How wonderful that you had that experience and made a great friend too. You recaptured that time perfectly. Your words brought back my own experience on Bremen and for just a few moments I was back onboard that wonderful ship. The crew really did make that ship special. Thank you LC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
On 8/15/2010 at 10:13 AM, CGTNORMANDIE said:

HELLO DEEP WATER!

 

Sorry I did not see your post sooner...very busy lately.

 

AHHHH...the joys of the BREMEN! I, too, have that wonderful beer stein on my dresser. What great memories...the Lowenbrau beer for 25 cents...cocktails for 50 cents and a wine list that would be the envy of any grand hotel. I remember gala dinners in the dining room with complimentary bottles of Henkel champagne at each table. The string quartet also played at tea time...and what wonderful tea times they were. The BREMEN was a class act and you will never see the likes of her again. How wonderful that you were able to talk your parents into cruising on her. Back in those days very few people could be convinced to take a cruise. Do you remember the brass port holes in the dining room? They were gorgeous. I was on my honeymoon, in 1971...and I can still remember the cabin stewardesses...quietly saying "di honeymoonen"...which meant "the honeymooners". 39 years later, and we still have great memories...and a few good pictures of our honeymoon on the BREMEN.

I have a double deck of playing cards (one is the Bremen, the other is the Europa), I have the lidless version of the beer stein, but I do have an *Unopened* bottle of schnapps from the *First Bremen* from between 1929 - 1939, it is still labeled, corked and still filled after all these years. I hope enjoy the photos. I am including the photo of the bottle from the 1930's too.

bremen_and_europa_playing_cards_by_wildelf34_d8ta3w9-fullview.jpg

d8sojpk-306cbfd6-167b-4cce-a889-0f4c746046f7.jpg

norddeutscher_lloyd_bremen_souvenir_bottle_by_wildelf34_d9ycb0v-fullview.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW NB...I wonder what the schnapps would be worth in Germany today??  You might have something that would be very valuable to someone from Germany.  They would probably want to drink it!  The Germans were extremely proud of the Bremen (pronounced “Braemen”) when she debuted in 1958.  They took a 20 year old French ship and rebuilt it to a very high standard and made one of the most comfortable and charming vessels to sail the Atlantic.  Thank you for sharing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Hi Everyone -- My parents crossed from NY to Cherbourg on the Bremen in April of 1960 at the start of their honeymoon, and I am trying to geotag a picture of theirs.  Any idea from what pier in Manhattan she sailed?  Pier 88?

 

Thanks for any info or educated guesses!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, ClipperinSFO said:

Hi Everyone -- My parents crossed from NY to Cherbourg on the Bremen in April of 1960 at the start of their honeymoon, and I am trying to geotag a picture of theirs.  Any idea from what pier in Manhattan she sailed?  Pier 88?

 

Thanks for any info or educated guesses!

 

I am fairly certain that it was from Pier 88.  I visited the S. S. France prior to her sailing one evening.  North German Lloyd's Berlin was at dock on the other side of the pier.  Prior to a sailing on the Rotterdam, I was having breakfast at the Sheraton Motor Inn that was across the street from these piers.  The Bremen arrived and I am fairly certain it was across the street from the hotel which was Pier 88.  

 

As an aside to your question, the most recent time I was in New York, that hotel is now a Consulate of the People's Republic of China.  

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/28/2022 at 4:49 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

I am fairly certain that it was from Pier 88.  I visited the S. S. France prior to her sailing one evening.  North German Lloyd's Berlin was at dock on the other side of the pier.  Prior to a sailing on the Rotterdam, I was having breakfast at the Sheraton Motor Inn that was across the street from these piers.  The Bremen arrived and I am fairly certain it was across the street from the hotel which was Pier 88.  

 

As an aside to your question, the most recent time I was in New York, that hotel is now a Consulate of the People's Republic of China.  

I do believe that Pier 88 is correct.  

  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, ClipperinSFO said:

Thank you @CGTNORMANDIE and @rkacruiser for the confirmation and added information!

 

You are welcome.  The Bremen is one of the ships of the past that I regret not being able to have experienced.  For my first cruise, my choices came down between the Bremen and Rotterdam V.  Without any regrets, I chose Rotterdam V.  But, I have wondered for many years, what would that first cruise experience been like if I had selected to sail on the Bremen.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, rkacruiser said:

 

You are welcome.  The Bremen is one of the ships of the past that I regret not being able to have experienced.  For my first cruise, my choices came down between the Bremen and Rotterdam V.  Without any regrets, I chose Rotterdam V.  But, I have wondered for many years, what would that first cruise experience been like if I had selected to sail on the Bremen.  

 

Well in hindsight, the Rotterdam V sailed on for many many years more, so had one known that you could have done both easily. I smile on Rotterdam V and wish I had taken more pictures.  I remember some of her public rooms were gorgeous in that classic MCM way!  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, ClipperinSFO said:

Well in hindsight, the Rotterdam V sailed on for many many years more, so had one known that you could have done both easily. I smile on Rotterdam V and wish I had taken more pictures.  I remember some of her public rooms were gorgeous 

 

That first sailing on Rotterdam V hooked me on HAL for three of my first four sailings.  Another cruise on Rotterdam V, then a cruise on Home Lines' Oceanic, followed by a cruise on Statendam.  Then, I went "off the HAL ranch" and  began exploring other cruise lines.  The night that I visited the S. S. France's sailing and saw North German Lloyd's Berlin at dock, I walked the pier and saw as much as I could of her.  An older vessel, but, she intrigued me.  I wish I could have sailed on some of those classic type ships such as Bremen, Berlin, Homeric, and others.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, ClipperinSFO said:

 

Well in hindsight, the Rotterdam V sailed on for many many years more, so had one known that you could have done both easily. I smile on Rotterdam V and wish I had taken more pictures.  I remember some of her public rooms were gorgeous in that classic MCM way!  

If we could only go back in time.  I wrote an extensive response of some of the old liners but as usual CC swallowed it up by asking me to sign in in the middle of my response…UGHHH!!!  

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

 I wrote an extensive response of some of the old liners but as usual CC swallowed it up by asking me to sign in in the middle of my response…UGHHH!!!  

 

Thanks for trying!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Thanks for trying!  

I had written what a typical at-sea day onboard Bremen was like.  It was quite a contrast to today’s ships.  While the current ships offer a high intensity activity level the Bremen offered incredible comfort and top notch service, dining, etc.  Back in those days it was up to the pax to create their own enjoyment.  Evenings were spent dancing to a live orchestra in the main lounge.  The main entertainment was the conversation between the pax as friendships were forged.  Of course the never ending rounds of drinks aided greatly in this endeavor.  In those days it was not uncommon to stand a round of cocktails for a friendly group of ten or more.  If you had 5 couples…ten people…that would equal 5 rounds of drinks over the course of an evening…more than enough to make for a fun time.  The snack buffet at 11:30 PM helped immensely to level the playing field…so to speak…lol.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, CGTNORMANDIE said:

I had written what a typical at-sea day onboard Bremen was like.  It was quite a contrast to today’s ships.  While the current ships offer a high intensity activity level the Bremen offered incredible comfort and top notch service, dining, etc.  Back in those days it was up to the pax to create their own enjoyment.  Evenings were spent dancing to a live orchestra in the main lounge.  The main entertainment was the conversation between the pax as friendships were forged.  

 

I wish I still had the daily activity programs from Rotterdam V for 1970 and 1971.  I remember little of what was activities were available, but, I do remember that there was a Cruise Director.  Movies in the two story theater, Dutch Night with a small Dutch Fair in the Club Room and a Dutch cuisine themed menu with a late night Dutch buffet and some of the crew dressed in Dutch costumes (Captain Laagay circulated among the guests that evening), deck sports and contests, skeet shooting off the fan tail, and lots of deck chair time and swimming for those who wished to do so are things that I remember.  Dancing with a nice sized band in the Queen's Lounge and in the Ritz Carlton Lounge are the only music that I recall.  

 

I am still looking for a menu from 1971 that I think I still have.  If I ever find it, maybe there will be a daily activities program with that.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I wish I still had the daily activity programs from Rotterdam V for 1970 and 1971.  I remember little of what was activities were available, but, I do remember that there was a Cruise Director.  Movies in the two story theater, Dutch Night with a small Dutch Fair in the Club Room and a Dutch cuisine themed menu with a late night Dutch buffet and some of the crew dressed in Dutch costumes (Captain Laagay circulated among the guests that evening), deck sports and contests, skeet shooting off the fan tail, and lots of deck chair time and swimming for those who wished to do so are things that I remember.  Dancing with a nice sized band in the Queen's Lounge and in the Ritz Carlton Lounge are the only music that I recall.  

 

I am still looking for a menu from 1971 that I think I still have.  If I ever find it, maybe there will be a daily activities program with that.  

The daily activities were very limited.  Onboard the Bremen at sea you would start with a great breakfast then up on deck for exercise.  There were calisthenics (pre aerobics) then sometime around 9:00 AM there was the ship’s Omm Paa Paa band made up of crew members.  This was really unusual and fun.  Then came the bouillon on deck.  You had the usual card games and trivia with bingo.  There were always complimentary dance lessons offered.  Then came the pre luncheon cocktail hour.  This was called the Neapolitan Cocktail Hour on some ships.  Lunch was another major affair featuring German specialties as well as the usual haute cuisine.  After lunch came the usual afternoon activities along with a movie.  Most of the afternoon was spent in a deck  chair resting up for the evening activities.  Late afternoon brought skeet shooting and bingo.  The focal point was afternoon tea.  This was a formal affair with white glove service, Viennese pastry and violins.  Somewhere around 5:00 PM there would be a radio newscast in one of the public rooms followed by organ music in The Black Forest Room.  Then came the pre dinner cocktail hour followed by an incredible dinner.  The rest of the evening was spent dancing or taking in a movie.  The dancing went on into the wee hours when the Taverna opened at 11:30 PM.  There were snacks around Midnight.  It was not unusual to stay up past 2:00 AM.  

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/3/2022 at 4:43 PM, CGTNORMANDIE said:

The dancing went on into the wee hours when the Taverna opened at 11:30 PM

 

Is my memory correct?  This was a Lounge located very far down in the ship's interior.  

 

During my first two cruises on Rotterdam V, I don't recall attending Tea.  Probably was available, but, probably my traveling companions and I were out on deck using the deck chairs that we had reserved (and payed rent to use).  We booked two sets.  Chairs on the deck near the Swimming Pool; chairs in a sheltered and at least partly covered area of a deck.  The nicest of those were on the deck aft of the balcony level of the Ritz Carlton Lounge.  Some shade with a view overlooking the pool and the stern of the ship.  

 

Was it needed on the Bremen to rent deck chairs?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Is my memory correct?  This was a Lounge located very far down in the ship's interior.  

 

During my first two cruises on Rotterdam V, I don't recall attending Tea.  Probably was available, but, probably my traveling companions and I were out on deck using the deck chairs that we had reserved (and payed rent to use).  We booked two sets.  Chairs on the deck near the Swimming Pool; chairs in a sheltered and at least partly covered area of a deck.  The nicest of those were on the deck aft of the balcony level of the Ritz Carlton Lounge.  Some shade with a view overlooking the pool and the stern of the ship.  

 

Was it needed on the Bremen to rent deck chairs?  

Renting a deck chair was de rigeur.  If someone was sitting in your deck chair all you had to do was tell the Deck Steward.  He would ceremoniously evict the interloper.  It was a great system.  This actually happened to me one time.  The lady that was sitting in my deck chair was stunned that she had been caught.  She had to go none the less.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Hello everyone!

My grandmother took me on the Bremen during the summer of 1965 from NY to Bremerhaven.  I was 15 years old at the time.  My Granny had sailed on numerous occasions aboard the Bremen to where she had made friends with the Captain.... I believe his name was Captain Rossing?  We had an adventurous passage in that we were caught in a storm during the first couple of days.  It was the worst because, as you all might suspect or otherwise know, there is no escaping from it.  I spent a good deal of time out on the deck with my head over the rails.  I recall that my Grandmother came looking for me one afternoon.  She was so excited that the Captain had invited us to tea in his quarters.  She must have had a stomach of steel because the motion of the ship did not affect her one iota.... For me though I couldn't bear the thought of going indoors and she was horrified telling me what an honor it was to be invited by the Captain and couldn't I please pull myself together!  She felt if I did not show up that the Captain would be insulted.  In the end though, she went and described my situation which he totally understood.  Throughout the crossing we were honored to be invited to sit at the Captain's table for dinner, at times when I was otherwise not seasick.  I had to wear a long formal dress for the occasion!

 

After we had made it through the storm I recall that we had received word of a freighter that had had a terrible accident or some sort of explosion on board that injured a few of their crew members.  Since the Bremen was the closest ship with a 'hospital' on board they'd asked if we could rendezvous with them to take the injured on board with us.  Our Captain agreed and I can fully recall as if it happened yesterday (I'm 72 now) seeing the freighter approaching us in the distance through the dark.  The sea was still a bit rough so exactly how they were going to accomplish this had the decks filled with passengers witnessing the feat.  The freighter approached and began to make, for lack of a better description, a U turn only their ship didn't have enough room to accomplish it and the nose of their ship scraped alongside the hull of the Bremen for what seemed a lifetime. The noise was horrendous with people running and screaming and crew members  dishing out life jackets.  

 

It wasn't until we got to port in Bremerhaven that we were able to see the damage.  There were a couple of fairly large holes in the hull right above the waterline.  Had we had that accident during the time we were waiting out the storm I would probably not be here typing this out right now.  When we were finally able to see the damage, it was being hurriedly covered up with large tarps.

 

In retrospect now, I have a feeling that the stress of this unfortunate incident weighed heavily on Captain Rossing and may have contributed to his demise on the return trip to NY following our crossing.  My Granny was very upset after having learned that he'd passed as she was looking forward to sailing with him again on our return trip at the end of the summer.  Such memories.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...