I cruised the Caribbean in June 2000, visiting St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands, within site of the British Virgin Islands) St. Martin (an island shared between France and the Netherlands, who call it Sint Maarten) and a Norwegian Cruise Line private island in the Bahamas.

Our cruise liner was S.S. Norway which began life as S.S. France and was constructed at Saint Nazaire in 1962.    She remained the longest passenger liner ever built until construction of the Queen Mary 2 in 2004.

S.S. France was purchased by Norwegian Cruise Line in 1979 and rechristened S.S. Norway.   

On 9th September 2001, the Norway sailed early from Manhattan, bound for Greenock. Her passengers would learn of the terrorist attacks 2 days later, in mid-ocean.

On 25th May 2003, while docked in Miami, the Norway suffered a serious boiler explosion which killed eight crew members and injured seventeen. The incident was very little reported at the time because the World was pre-occupied with the Iraq War.   Repair attempts eventually failed and scrapping of the Norway (renamed the Blue Lady) began at Alang in India in 2006.    The tip of the bow went on display in 2009 at the Paris Yacht Marina.

September 2017: The island of St. Martin was hit early in the month by a devastating hurricane, Hurricane Irma, which is reported to have destroyed 70% of buildings on the island.