THE FIRST CRUISE SHIP WAS A “PRINCESS”: – The Prinzessin Victoria Luise was the world’s first cruise ship.
The Prinzessin Victoria Luise was the world’s first cruise ship.
Cruise Ship History and Cruising The Past – The Prinzessin Victoria Luise was the world’s first cruise ship. Built for the Hamburg America Line, she was launched on June 29, 1900 and served as a cruising passenger ship until December 16, 1906 after being accidentally grounded off Jamaica.
SOCIAL HISTORY: THE LOS ANGELES TIMES – FROM THE CHANDLER FAMILY TO SAM ZELL – THE DECLINE AND FALL OF A GREAT NEWSPAPER IN THE CITY OF THE ANGELS UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF A “FOREIGNER” FROM OBAMA’S CHICAGO…
NORMAN CHANDLER (THE FAMILY THAT FOUNDED THE LOS ANGELES TIMES) ON THE COVER LIFE – WHEN THE LA TIMES WAS A GREAT NEWSPAPER
1939 – FDR AND HIS DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION REFUSED TO TAKE 900 JEWISH REFUGES FROM THE MS ST LOUIS – THEY HAD BEEN DENIED ENTRY INTO HAVANA AND THE CAPTAIN TRIED TO LET THEM FIND FREEDOM BY DOCKING IN MIAMI. THE US GOVERNMENT’S ACTIONS SENT MANY TO THEIR DEATHS – MAKING SO-CALLED AMERICAN “COMPASSION” A BLATANT HYPOCRISY UNDER FDR AND HIS GOVERNMENT.
SURVIVING GERMAN-JEWISH PASSENGERS – WHO WERE QUITE YOUNG AT THE TIME – FROM THE 1939 “VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED” AS SEEN IN MIAMI LAST DECEMBER AT 70TH YEAR REUNION. Under America’s backward embargo against Cuba, these people would still not be able to disembark in Havana. Not because Cuba wouldn’t welcome them but because the USA wouldn’t permit it. As FDR refused to let them land in the USA – in 1939. Seventy years after the MS St. Louis was turned away from the United States, the surviving passengers of the ill-fated voyage may be reuniting for the last time near where their chance at freedom was denied. Thirty-three of the 75 survivors — ranging in age from 71 to 91 are seen above. They signed a U.S. Senate proclamation issued earlier this year marking the first time the United States officially acknowledged the suffering of those aboard the ship when FDR refused entry into the USA.
On Suicide Watch – Small boats surrounded the MS ST LOUIS in Havana Harbor to prevent refugee passengers from committing suicide when denied landing in Cuba.
Many American flag steamship lines — APL, Matson, Moore-McCormick, Grace, etc. — faced a similar fate as Panama Pacific Lines did when the US withdrew their mail and operating subsidies to carry military personnel in the 1960s. The same fate happened to the American railway system in the late 1960s when the US withdrew railway post offices. The result was that the USA has no real American passengers ships, is stuck with a struggling rail service called Amtrak and the mail continues to decline in service. So much for progress.
Cruising in the 1930s…df
From the May 9, 1938 issue of TIME MAGAZINE
PANAMA PACIFIC LINES OUT
SS California – Transiting the Panama Canal – 1930s…
When the S.S. California was built for the Panama Pacific Line in 1928, she was the largest (17,833 tons) commercial ship ever constructed on U. S. ways, the largest in the world with electric propulsion.
Flappers of the 1920s– Joan Crawford
HAVANA CRUISE – 10 TO 17 DAYS – $160 – April, 1928 Ad in Travel Magazine
he New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company, commonly called the Ward Line, was a shipping company that operated from 1841 until liquidated in 1954. The company’s steamers linked New York with Nassau, Havana, and Mexican Gulf ports. After a series of disasters in the mid 1930s, the company changed its name to the Cuba Mail Line. In 1947, the Ward Line name was restored when service was resumed after World War II, but rising fuel prices and competition from airlines caused the company to cease operation in 1954.
The Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight – America’s most beautiful train! When First Class was First Class and not Amtrak.
First Class Parlor Car Travel aboard the Southern Pacific’s COAST DAYLIGHT – when the passengers dressed to kill. Woman in Parlor Car during the late 1940s – going from San Francisco to Los Angeles. A total image of the past. Social History like this is over… no longer class or style. America face it – its over.
The Daylight had its inaugural run on March 1, 1937 and was hauled by GS-2 steam locomotives. It was the first of the Daylight series that also included the San Joaquin Daylight, Shasta Daylight, Sacramento Daylight, and Sunbeam. The Coast Daylight ran behind steam from March 1937 until it was dieselized on January 7, 1955. After dieselization, the train continued to run until May 1, 1971 when Amtrak took over service and rerouted their Coast Daylight to Oakland.
A second train known as the Noon Daylight ran on the same route between 1940 and 1949, with a suspension during World War II. The original Coast Daylight was informally known as the Morning Daylight during this time.
In 1949, the Noon Daylight was replaced by an overnight train known as the Starlight using the same equipment. In 1956, coaches from the Starlight were added to the all-Pullman Lark and the Starlight was discontinued in 1957. Amtrak later revived the train name for its Los Angeles to Seattle service known as the Coast Starlight.
Chasing the Daylight by William Phillips – I’ll Hold You in My Dreams – SP GS-4 locomotive 4443 by Americana artist William Phillips
On August 26, 1999: The United States Postal Service issued 33-cent All Aboard! 20th Century American Trains commemorative stamps featuring five celebrated American passenger trains from the 1930s and 1940s. One of the five stamps featured an image of a GS-4 steam locomotive pulling the red-and-orange train along the California Pacific Coast. [Read more...]
