Ortelius

Ortelius is a great expedition vessel for 100 passengers with lots of open-deck spaces and a very large bridge which is accessible to the passengers. She offers a comfortable hotel standard, with two restaurants, a bar/lecture room and a sauna.

Carrying 11 zodiacs of which 9 are in use and 2 on reserve, flexibility assures maximum wildlife opportunities. Voyages are primarily developed to offer passengers a quality exploratory wildlife program, trying to spend as much time ashore as possible.

The ice-strengthened construction provides possibilities to adventure remote locations such as the Ross Sea in Antarctica and Franz Josef Land in the Arctic. She holds the highest ice-class notation (UL1 equivalent to 1A) and is therefore very suitable to navigate in solid one-year sea ice and loose multi-year pack ice.

Ortelius was built in Gdynia, Poland in 1989, was named Marina Svetaeva, and served as a special purpose vessel for the Russian Academy of Science. The vessel has been re-flagged and renamed Ortelius after the Dutch/Flemish cartographer who published the first modern world atlas in 1570.

Ortelius offers 45 cabins with a range of options. There are 5 quadruple cabins with bunk beds and shared facilities (these can also be used as triple or twin cabins) and 14 twin cabins with 2 lower single berths and shared facilities.

The remaining cabins all have private toilet and shower. There are 9 twin cabins with portholes and 2 single lower berths, 10 twin cabins with windows and 2 single lower berths, 6 superior cabins with double beds and a separate day room, and 1 suite with a double bed and a separate day room.

All cabins are spacious outside cabins with a minimum of two portholes or windows per cabin.

Antarctica
Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands are some of the last truly unspoiled regions of the world. The mysterious White Continent, with its multi-colored ice caps, glistening glaciers and towering snow-capped mountains, offers unparalleled scenery and photographic opportunities. Enormous numbers of penguins, whales, seals and seabirds congregate in the food-rich waters along the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic shores.

This small, specially designed expedition ship journeys south, taking full advantage of the long hours of daylight during the austral summer, the ice-strengthened hull allowing safe navigation through the pack ice and narrow waterways. Zodiac excursions, guided by foremost Antarctic experts, offer the freedom to explore remote locations and observe Antarctica's abundant wildlife.

Arctic
The Arctic, the land of the midnight sun, of snow and ice, offers some of the finest scenery and wildlife experiences in the world. Visitors to the region can witness enormous colonies of seabirds thronging the cliffs and shores, and enjoy the thrilling antics of whales at sea, and seals and walruses hauled out on rocks and ice-floes. The proximity of the pack-ice offers spectacular cruising between ice-floes. The lucky may even encounter the very symbol of the Arctic - the Polar Bear.