Floating Paradise Lost: MV ACHILLE LAURO, Part Two: ACHILLE LAURO Decked! (a top to bottom tour) 

We sailed on her three times, 1966, 1969 and 1972. Always have a soft place in my heart for that lovely ship.

An amazing 5 weeks of my childhood in 1971 (Sydney - Perth - Singapore - Cape Town - Southampton)

Thank you so much for the extensive trouble of putting this together, in such detail. I can't remember such details from January 1969, but wonderful to be reminded of a time when my world awaited in front of me. And everyone my age travelled by ship to Great Britain.

I loved seeing the in inside of the ship although there had been quite a few changes from when we sailed on her. Dinner used to be quite a big deal for the adults when we were sailing on her. I remember there was an early session for the children and adults went down later. My parents used to 'dress for dinner' in formal wear and I remember them commenting on the amazing food and the interesting ways it was served including things like ice sculptures. I also remember ordering food when my parents had gone down to dinner and the steward telling them that their son would grow 'big and strong' LOL, well the big part was right. I also vividly remember having a dream about the ship sinking. This was well before she actually sank. In the dream I was making my way aft through one of the lido deck passages leading to the pool and the ship was slanting sideways. Wow, these videos have awakened so many memories that I doubt I would have ever recalled otherwise.

I sailed on Achille Lauro from Durban South Africa to Mauritius and the Seychelles when I was 10 years old. It stared à love affair with ships that has had me sailing for 40 + years now.Your video brought back a flood of memories, thank you

Thanks for the New Vid!

hiya peter , so happy to have found your channel , i remember watching your videos with late dad back in the 90 s , he loved vistafjord and was lucky enough to sail aboard her , i love empress of scotland as my late great uncle spent the early years of world war two aboard her , , please say hello to us in wigan , lancashire , regards from nick and tracy

Brought back good memories of my voyage from Cape Town to Tilbury in 1986.Thank you!

Very enjoyable as always.

Marvelous. My feet were tapping to the music. My sense of humor enjoyed the vibrating metallic art. Thank you.

Worth the wait, part two is excellent. If she hadn't caught fire & sank. I'm sure you would have rescued all you could from the breakers. Such a great, thorough video Peter, BRAVO & thank you for your hard work. Can't wait to see the next video.

I vividly recall my 14 night cruise on the Achille Lauro in the mid 1970's, but it didn't end well. I was one of only a handful of English speaking guests and we were "cared for" by a representative of the Swiss travel company, Kuoni. The cruise had been recommended by a Partner in the executive search firm (which I had retained at the New York Times to fill business side positions) who had been President of the short lived Time Life Travel. I should have known the cruise would go downhill when at the first meeting with the Kuoni representative she advised us of the importance of never leaving valuables in the cabin, due to widespread theft by crew members. However, at the time, I was looking forward to the two day call at the port of Beirut, which allowed me to tour Balbeek, do some shopping and tour the beautiful city just as fighting and bombing was about to break out. I recall, too, the guests expressing some concern over the ancient fire safety conditions, with which even the Hotel Director recognized when he introduced himself to me on the second day out of Genoa, from which the cruise embarked (rather than from Naples, the company headquarters). The cabin drinking water was, of course, not potable and each cabin was supplied with a pitcher containing potable water. On the last morning of the cruise, as I drank from this pitcher, nearly emptying it, I noticed that the bottom of the pitcher was filled with curly, black human hair. I nearly threw up, but disgusted (and concerned for my health) I took the pitcher down to the Hotel Director's office and dumped the remaining contents on his desk (while he knew I was working, albeit as an advertising department executive, for the New York Times, I had paid full fare for the cruise). About 15-20 minutes later when I returned to my cabin to pick up the remaining belongings before disembarkation, I had to step over my cabin steward who was writhing on the floor of the corridor outside the pantry, having been seriously beaten up. One of Lauro lines officers/crew had clearly taken justice into their own hands. I often wondered whether Lauro Lines ownership had some connection with organized crime, particularly many years later as I was working at V. Ships.

Wonderful ..Thank you .

Thank you, I sailed home from Australia in 1970 befriended by the then captain I was oftentimes on the bridge & was there when we sailed into Southampton. Once again thank you 🙏

Hi Peter, another wonderful report on this beautiful vessel - thank you! I still have my Nautilus certificate from crossing the equator (when one of the crew, while we were in the swimming pool during the ceremony, stuck a dead fish in my bathing suit -- lots of fun!). When you showed the children's room, a memory popped up: in 1959 we had a pingpong table around there and it was extremely popular (especially during rougher weather, when we'd be running from one side of the table to the other, trying to get the ball back over the net!). :-)

Very well done. Thank YOU.

You were really lucky to be able to experience classic oceanliners. I was born in ‘94 so by the time I was old enough to go on a voyage all of them were gone. Only the ugly floating condo blocks remain. Have you ever had a chance to visit the United States in Philadelphia?

Thanks for continuing this video; noting your comments about '' diesel smuts " ... In 1986 we saw sparks from the funnels!! She should've been re engined year's before....

I only saw her once and it was in her last year of service! She was in Turkey anchored near the Cunard Princess.

Once again, thank you Peter for this fascinating tour of this certainly quirky but charming ship. Although I visited her once you have showed much of her that I did not remember but then, it was so very long ago.

Really great content Peter!

THANK YOU SO MUCH! (The Bridge footage is TRULY INCREDIBLE! and surprisingly rare, once again thank you and AMAZING work!)

If she had stabalizers then those rallting noice would go away would it and I look forward to your videos every time you post them thanks for making them

Once again, Peter, THANK YOU for this outstandingi presentation: so well produced and has so much spoken and visual information. Untill seeing your videos I had the impression the Willem Ruys had been downgraded to the Achille Lauro but now I see how good the ship was in her second phase. I had no idea there was so much artwork on board and how good the ship's interior was overall. She went from being an excellent Dutch liner to an excellent Italian liner. This may be just speculation but much longer do you think the Achille Lauro would have remained in service had the fire not taken place? My recollection is that new SOLAS rules went into effect in 1997 and I wonder if the Achille Lauro would have been retired in '96 or '97.

ohhhhh, is so good to remember :D....i know this big and great ship. In 1983, me and my family went in a "voyage" to mediterrain, it was amazing... i whant so badly to see some passengers of that great summer....i lost contact. so sad, two years after my voyage, Aquille Lauro was hijacking.... some extremistes....Palestinians... so sad... I knew the Portuguese boy, who worked there in that time.... he helped the American, that died in that day. Its so incredible the coincidences... before the name Aquille Lauro, the ship`s name was ".... Ruys", my father name was "Rui" ahahahah its amazing. THANK YOU, FOR THIS MEMORY, thank you :D

Thank you Peter for this detailed report about a ship that has interested me a lot since I was a child. Yes, the Italians could do that! Take an old rusty bathtub and a "magic stick" in the shape of an Italian shipyard and it quickly became a beautiful swan - inside and out. The best examples were the FLAVIA and AURELIA by Cogedar, SYDNEY, ROMA, ACHILLE LAURO and ANGELINA LAURO by Flotta Lauro as well as FAIRSEA; FAIRSKY and FAIRSTAR from Sitmar. I'm really looking forward to the third part.

Lovely ship.... always was....Great to see some detail of her interior. But the amount of "smoke" she made would give dear little Greta a heart attack! Fabulous Video. To be lost as she was is a tragedy. (I mean Achille Lauro...not Greta....)

Looks like it was a tough old stinky barge with those black clouds of diesel

All was not well down below- the eight oily original diesels were a lot of work for the staff. That's a lot of moving parts! Interestingly she suffered from a "critical" vibration- it only occurred at certain speeds which were sometimes the moderate ones needed for a cruising schedule. It didn't bother her at high or low speeds.

I wanna go in her so bad no ships like her anymore): I was born to late

Achille Lauro made substantial money from the arms trade linked to the colonial expansion of Italian Fascism, which culminated in the conquest of Ethiopia in 1933. Flotta Lauro and the Lauro businesses blossomed with the help of influential members of the Fascist National Party, which Achille Lauro also formally joined in 1933. He had the support for many years in the 1920s and 1930s of the Ciano shipowning family, and became national counsellor to the Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni. Galeazzo Ciano was none other than the son-in-law of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Has the wreck ever been found and photographed?

Those brass panels are disguising fire doors too bad they didn't help during her fire 1994

They should have kept the original furniture from the Iraqi lounge

How deep is she in the ocean? Does someone know of her exact location?

Would a ship like that be considered carbon neutral today ?

I don't know why but I am just not feeling this ship. She sure is a heavy smoker lol. Guess I was spoiled by working on the Olympia/Caribe 1