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Cruising the Past: The Hindenburg. Color video of the great airship. Memories of the fastest way to “cross the pond” during the 1930s. 2 and 1/2 Days. And the most expensive way to go!

March 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cruising the Past: The Hindenburg. Color video of the great airship. Memories of the fastest way to “cross the pond” during the 1930s.  2 and 1/2 days!  And the most expensive way to go!

The Airship Hindenburg was the last great passenger zeppelin.

1937 Video of the Zeppelin Hindenburg – new color footage of the airship, including the Hindenburg burning.

We would like to thank Dan Grossman for permitting us to use many of the photos from his excellent website on the Hindenburg. Click here to visit his fascinating story of the great air ship.

The fastest and most comfortable way to cross the Atlantic in its day was the great airship Hindenburg.

The great airship is better remembered today for the film of its fiery crash at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and for its association with the Nazi regime, than for its technological achievements.

Passengers disembarking from the great airship in New Jersey after trans-Atlantic flight.

Though it would probably have been made obsolete within a few years by the advancing technology of heaver-than-air flight (Pan Am Clipper flying boats were crossing the Atlantic by 1939) it was a remarkable achievement for its time. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Air Ship, Cruise History, CRUISING THE PAST VIDEOS, VIDEOS Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Cruise News: P&O cruise ship passengers revolt over ‘prison’ conditions aboard World Cruise. Bad luck for ship where champagne bottle did not break as liner was blessed. A bad omen?

March 30, 2009 By

Cruise News: P&O cruise ship passengers revolt over ‘prison’ conditions aboard World Cruise.  Bad luck for ship where champagne bottle did not break as liner was blessed.  A bad omen?

The Aurora has suffered a string of bad luck since its naming ceremony went awry.

Holidaymakers compared their round-the-world voyage on the Aurora to being in prison after engine problems forced the travel operator to cut five stops.

More than 600 passengers on the 93-night cruise attended an emergency meeting and formed a protest committee after missing three ports in New Zealand and two Pacific Islands. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: P & O Line, Peninsular and Occidental Steamship Company Tagged With: , , ,

CRUISE HISTORY: MATSON LINE’S SS LURLINE IN SAN DIEGO

March 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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The SS Lurline docking at San Diego’s Broadway pier in the 1930s.

The SS Lurline was the third Matson vessel to hold that name and the last of four fast and luxurious ocean liners that Matson built for the Hawaii and Australasia runs from the West Coast of the United States. Lurline’s sister ships were SS Malolo, SS Mariposa and SS Monterey. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: MATSON LINES Tagged With: , , ,

Cruise History: 50 BELLBOYS ABOARD THE RMS TITANIC DIED SMOKING AS WOMEN FILLED BOATS ESCAPED THE DOOMED WHITE STAR LINER

March 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

April 21, 1912 – Among the many hundreds of heroic souls aboard the fatal RMS TITANIC who went bravely and quietly to their end were fifty happy-go-lucky youngsters shipped as bellboys or messengers to serve the first cabin passengers. James Humphries, a quartermaster, who commanded lifeboat No. 11, told a little story today that shows how these fifty lads met death.

Humphries said the boys were called to their regular posts in the main cabin entry and taken in charge by their captain, a steward. They were ordered to remain in the cabin and not get in the way.

Through-out the first hour of confusion and terror these lads sat quietly on their benches in various parts of the first cabin.

Then, just toward the end, when the order was passed around that the ship was going down and every man was free to save himself if he kept away from the lifeboats in which the women were taken, the bellboys scattered to all parts of the ship.

Humphries said he saw numbers of them smoking cigarettes and joking with the passengers. They seemed to think that their violation of the rule against smoking while on duty was a sufficient breach of discipline.

Not one of them attempted to enter a lifeboat.

Not one of them was saved.

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Filed Under: CUNARD LINE, UK STEAMSHIP AND CRUISE LINES, WHITE STAR - CUNARD LINE Tagged With: , , ,

Cruise History: Is the QE2 headed for the Dubai scrapyard? Rumors are floating around the former Cunard Line ship is going to be scrapped because the Dubai economic bubble has gone bust.

March 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cruise History: Is the QE2 headed for the Dubai scrapyard?  Rumors are floating around the former Cunard Line ship is going to be scrapped because the Dubai economic bubble has gone bust.

The QE 2 on her last voyage.

The Business Insider website is reporting the QE 2 is being scrapped.

Last year, once the world’s fastest liner in the world, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was sold by Cunard Lines to Dubai investors.  On her last cruise, she sailed to the Middle East for Dubai and arrived in a grand procession
In classic Dubai style, the plan was to turn the famous ship into a floating hotel.

Fast forward to now and according to Business Insider editor Joe Weisenthal the dream is dead.  His insider mole in Dubai states the QE 2 is being dismantled. He claims there’s no business for the hotel, and the idled ship is just sitting there, costing money and polluting the water. Hence, workers are actively pulling it apart, a sad end for such a grand ship.

A youtube video of Brits saying their final goodbyes to the possibly now doomed liner QE2.

Business Insider is looking for pictures of the dismantling.

Problems with Weisenthal’s story it could be just the beginning of the conversion.

But, it true, the QE 2 will end up like her predecessor.  The first RMS Queen Elizabeth is seen below being hacked apart in Hong Kong harbor following a devastating fire.


1970s – Workmen with cutting torches have begun dissecting the great iron corpse of what had once been the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth, now a rusting hulk in the shallow waters of Hong Kong harbor.

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Filed Under: CUNARD LINE, FRENCH LINE, FRENCH STEAMSHIP AND CRUISE LINES, STEAMSHIP LINES, UK STEAMSHIP AND CRUISE LINES, WHITE STAR - CUNARD LINE Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cruise Ship History: Battle continues on fate of relics from doomed ship RMS Titanic. The tragic story of the famous liner just gets more tragic.

March 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cruise Ship History: Battle continues on fate of relics from doomed ship RMS Titanic. The tragic story of the famous liner just gets more tragic.

The Titanic was one of the largest passenger ships at its time in 1912. It was captained by Edward John Smith. It left England on April 10, 1912 and docked in France and Ireland before setting sail for New York. There were many immigrants on the ship from Ireland who were leaving for New York.  The ship struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 15, 1912.  She was hit on the side of the ship and she started to fill up with water. During this time, women and children are put into life rafts. The bottom of the interior of the ship filled up fast and tipped the boat vertically. It sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 at 2:20am.

The only existing footage of the RMS TITANIC is seen on this excellent youtube video from Aaron1912.

Nearly a century after the Titanic struck ice in the North Atlantic, a federal judge in Virginia is poised to preserve the largest collection of artifacts from the opulent oceanliner and protect the ship’s resting place.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, a maritime jurist who considers the wreck an “international treasure,” is expected to rule within weeks that the salvaged items must remain together and accessible to the public. That would ensure the 5,900 pieces of china, ship fittings and personal belongings won’t end up in a collector’s hands or in a London auction house, where some Titanic artifacts have landed. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: STEAMSHIP LINES, WHITE STAR - CUNARD LINE Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Cruise history: The GOLDEN BEAR II – California Maritime Academy’s third training ship started as a cargo-passenger vessel. The Delta Line’s DELORLEANS served briefly on the “banana” South American run just before World War 2. But her destiny was great. Training 1000s of American student cadets.

March 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Cruise history: The GOLDEN BEAR II – California Maritime Academy’s third training ship started as a cargo-passenger vessel. The Delta Line’s DELORLEANS served briefly on the “banana” South American run just before World War 2.  But her destiny was great. Training 1000s of American student cadets.

The DELORLEANS leaving New Orleans for South America in 1941.

The California Maritime Academy’s GOLDEN BEAR II – and later the ARTSHIP.

The DELORLEANS, later to become the California Maritime Academy’s GOLDEN BEAR II, was originally built as a combination first class passenger-cargo ship just prior to World War II. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: DELTA LINE, STEAMSHIP LINES Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Cruising the Past in the 1920s: Travel and society in the twenties. The “Lost Generation” aboard ships, trains and hotels. Getting there for Americans was “half the fun”!

March 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A great youtube video of Flappers…

They sailed and cruised aboard foreign flag liners that sold booze…

They crossed America aboard great trains…

They stayed in famous hotels…

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Filed Under: Cruise History, Cruise Memorabilia, CRUISING THE PAST VIDEOS, PULLMAN, SOCIAL HISTORY, TRAINS, YACHTS Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Cruise History: Cunard Line’s RMS CARONIA. With Caviar the norm – known as the “Green Goddess” – she was the most deluxe ship ever built for cruising.

March 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A Cunard Line advertising film, the cruise of the ship Coronia thru the Mediterranean with stops and side trips to many of the major cities with quick shots of interesting sights and maps showing route as the tour progresses.

The Caronia arriving in Long Beach, California, on her 1955 World Cruise.

RMS Caronia was a 34,183 gross register tons (GRT) passenger ship of the Cunard Line (then Cunard White Star Line). Launched on 30 October 1947, she served with Cunard until 1967. She was nicknamed the “Green Goddess” by the people of Liverpool because her livery resembled that of the local trams, also known as “Green Goddesses”.

She is credited as one of the first “dual-purpose” built ships. After leaving Cunard she briefly served as SS Caribia in 1969, after which she was laid up in New York until 1974 when she was sold for scrap. While being towed to Taiwan for scrapping, she was caught in a storm on 12 August. After her tow lines were cut, she repeatedly crashed on the rocky breakwater outside Apra Harbor, Guam subsequently breaking into three.

RMS CARONIA TIMELINE website. This truly is a lovingly created site and one of the best sources of maritime history devoted to a single ship online. If you are someone who has ever admired, or even sailed on, Cunard’s beautiful “Green Goddess” – the RMS Caronia, then this wonderful website is for you.  It provides details and forums on this great ship.  Please visit by clicking here.

“The Green Goddess”

At 715 feet in length, “R.M.S. Caronia”– a name long popular in Cunard’s history– was the first and largest ship built in the post-war period with the exclusive purpose of “cruising”.

Her maiden voyage was in 1949 and her profile was distinguished by her clipper-like bow, single mast and impresive funnel as well as her cruiser stern and absence of rigging.

Caronia’s sleek design and air-condiitoning, offered supreme comfort; and as a result she was referred to as the “Millionaire’s ship”.

Rather than the traditional black and white livery of CUNARD, Caronia was painted in a pale green livery of varying shades, earning her the nickname of the “Green Goddess”.

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Filed Under: Cruise History, Cruise Memorabilia, cruise reviews, CRUISING THE PAST VIDEOS, CUNARD LINE, UK STEAMSHIP AND CRUISE LINES Tagged With: , , , ,

Cruise History: Nostalgia will rule the waves on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. New ship will honor the first liner by the same name. Stepping on board Cunard’s latest cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth, will be like walking onto the set of Poirot.

March 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Cunard Line revealed itinerary and design plans for its newest ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth, which is scheduled to enter service on 12 October 2010, giving one of the oldest names in shipping the strength of operating the youngest fleet in the industry.

Queen Elizabeth will be the third new ocean liner to be introduced by Cunard in six years and the second largest Cunard ship ever built.  She will be a living testimony in style and grace to cruising the past. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Cruise History, Cruise Memorabilia, CRUISE SHIP REVIEWS, CRUISING THE PAST VIDEOS, CUNARD LINE Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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