Catherine's Travel Concierge, 140 S Lake Ave, Ste 280, Pasadena, CA 91101, US

Freighter World Cruises ( FWC ), Cal. Reg. #1018027-10, was initiated in 1975 and is a travel agency that specializes in placing passengers on freighter ships. Travel by freighter has been both a method of transportation as well as cruising for nearly a century, and in the past 2-1/2 decades has become an increasingly popular option for ocean travel as more cabin space has been made available by the shipping lines. FWC spent a considerable effort in accomplishing the growth of cabin space available by contacting ship owners directly and forging agreements to become their North American General Agent for promotion and sale of the cabin space on their particular ships. Although modern freighters were built in conformance with a tradition of including at least an Owner's Suite and perhaps cabins for a few passengers, many freighters were designed without passenger accommodations. However, in the 1980s the increase in available technology to ship operation led to a requirement for fewer professional crew per ship, much as commercial airliners now have fewer personnel in the cockpits. FWC was successful in making more cabin space available by convincing shipping companies that officers' quarters that were no longer occupied because of crew reduction could become profitable if passengers were carried in them. The freighter itineraries we handle vary in duration from two to three weeks for local area sailings through 40 to 60 days for voyages among two or three continents to 80 to 120 or more days for voyages that run completely around the world. On some of the longer voyages, passengers can cruise in one direction and fly in the other, but most clients prefer full roundvoyage trips. FWC incorporated in June, 1977 and moved headquarters to Pasadena in September of that year. At present, FWC handles over 35 different shipping lines that operate on more than 55 different service itineraries. We offer cabins on most of these ships for individuals sailing through travel agents in North America as well as making direct bookings with our clients. We do all of the publicity, marketing, reservations, ticketing and manifesting of passengers in most cases. FWC employs 4 staff members and we like to visit most of the ships on which we place passengers. We send about 1200 clients per year on these cruises, and have a client base of several thousand who subscribe to our Freighter Space Advisory newsletter that we compose and publish twice monthly. The items in the newsletter change from issue to issue and are written to allow clients to be informed well ahead of time on new ships and itineraries, changed services, on cabin availability on the many services for different sailings, for detailed descriptions of the cabins and ships' public areas, and for the fares for the upcoming months.

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