I joined the "Blenheim" of Fred Olsen Lines in Millwall Dock, London (now Canary Wharf) in December 1970 and made ten cruises in her to Madeira, Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. She carried general cargo out and tomatoes and new poatoes plus 500/600 passengers. They were 13 day cruises, London back to London, and sailed every other Thursday from London. The other ship on the run was the "Black Prince", which we see in Dover occasionally. They were near sisterships.
In those ten trips I made we obviously crossed the Bay of Biscay twenty times and I can only remember one occasion when we encountered weather that has been described in the previous posts. We had a few windows cracked and a watertight door damaged which let some water in. Passengers were seasick (some of them pig sick) but they soon got over it. I never remember being late or missing ports out. Maybe we were lucky.
The "Blenheim" was a lot smaller than the "Balmoral" so maybe she rode the waves better rather than banging into them.
Blenheim........Net Tonnage= 5640 Gross Tonnage= 10,419
Balmoral.........Net Tonnage=34,242 Gross Tonnage= 43,537.
She always had a full pasenger list.
Howard, with regard to the "Black Death", I think that you will find that most of the big companies like P&O, Cunard, Norwegian Line etc. have had their fair share of "galloping gut rot" as you describe it. Did "Fred" ever offer you a complimentary cruise.? He came aboard the "Blenheim" once with his daughter in Madeira. He was a very nice man. I'll tell you a story the next time I see you around the town.
PaulB, I think that you will find that Fred Olsens are no better or no worse than any other shipping company. I would say better in fact having worked for them. The "Blenheim" was one of the best ships I sailed in, decent accommodation, best of food and good money.
Mind you, all this was nearly forty years ago, maybe standards have slipped since then.
In contrast to these passenger ships I crossed the Bay of Biscay many times in small coasters of 700 net. tons carrying phosphate from Casablanca, Morocco, to Cork, Londonderry and Whitehaven. You knew you were at sea on these small ships in bad weather.