Explorer, author and film-maker, Tim Severin, joins Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ Vistas programme

Explorer, author and historian, Tim Severin, is the latest illustrious name to join Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ Vistas programme as a speaker, http://www.fredolsencruises-vistas.com/. Perhaps best known for his Viking Series of historical novels, Tim’s new association with the cruise line is especially appropriate given the company’s Norwegian heritage.

Tim Severin was born in 1940 and educated at Tonbridge School and Oxford University. Throughout his fascinating and varied career, Tim has specialised in recreating legendary journeys to test whether they were actually achievable. For example, he has: retraced the footsteps of Sindbad the Sailor, sailing from Muscat to China; steered a Bronze Age galley to seek the landfalls of Jason and the Argonauts and Ulysses; ridden the routes of the first Crusader knights across Europe to the Holy Land; travelled on horseback with nomads in Mongolia to research Genghis Khan; traced the origins of Moby Dick amongst the aboriginal sea hunters of the Pacific; and sailed a leather boat across the Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland, recreating the route taken by Irish monk St. Brendan the Navigator. One of his most recent quests has been to identify the ‘real’ Robinson Crusoe.

Several of these excursions have been the subject of award-winning TV documentaries. Tim holds the ‘Gold Medal’ of the Royal Geographical Society for his research into early voyages, and the ‘Livingstone Medal’ of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and has been awarded several honorary doctorates for his work.

This eminent explorer and author will no doubt delight and fascinate his Vistas audience with his talks on ‘East of Suez: History and Culture’. Tim will be joining guests aboard a sector of Black Watch’s 2012 ‘World Cruise’, W120112. Departing from Southampton on 11th January 2012, this 32-night sector covers the cruise as far as Singapore. Ports of call are Gibraltar, Ceuta (Spain), Valletta (Malta), Port Said (Egypt), then a transit of the Suez Canal, Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) and Safaga (Egypt). Tim will be joining in Safaga (Egypt), and will be aboard while Black Watch visits Salalah (Oman), Mumbai (India) – for an overnight stay – Cochin (India), Port Blair (Andaman Islands) and Singapore.

Prices start from £2,379 per person, based on two adults sharing an outside, twin cabin, Grade ‘D’. The cost includes return flights from Singapore to London and transfers, accommodation and all meals and entertainment on board, as well as port and airport taxes. There is no extra charge for taking part in Vistas activity.

Fred. Olsen’s Vistas enrichment programme, http://www.fredolsencruises-vistas.com/, won the cruise line the accolade of ‘Best Educational Cruise’ in the ‘Cruise International Awards 2011’, voted for by readers of the prestigious magazine, who also named Fred. Olsen as ‘Cruise Line of the Year’.