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Scrapping The Old Luxury Liner Berengaria (1938)

Scrapping The Old Luxury Liner Berengaria (1938)

Newsreel footage of scrapping the great Cunard Line’s BERENGARIA (1938).

It was a glorious time, a time when the high seas of the North Atlantic were alive with behemoths of steel designed by men of vision and built by men of iron. The great ships of the post dawn 20th century, the ships of Cunard, White Star, Nordeutscher Lloyd, and Hamburg Amerika became the epitome of their breed; from which all others that followed would be fashioned and compared; though rarely surpassed. It was the era of the legends, of the greatest and most luxurious ocean liners to ever sail the seas…

To read more please CLICK HERE for a complete history of the SS Imperator / RMS Berengaria. You will be directed to a terrific website dedicated to this great ship.  Photos and stories are brilliant.  One of the best websites devoted to a famous liner on the internet.

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Royal Weddings and Royal Yachts

Social History – Royal Weddings and Royal Yachts

Video – Royal Weddings and the Palace Balcony

Video – BRITANNIA – the British Royal Yacht

This magnificent ship has played host to some of the most famous people in the world. But, above all, she was home to Her Majesty The Queen and the Royal Family. Now in Edinburgh you are welcome on board to discover the heart and soul of this most special of royal residences.

Visit the BRITANNIA at the official website – click here.

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A QUEEN CHRISTENS A QUEEN – CUNARD’S NEW LINER QUEEN ELIZABETH

Cunard’s much-awaited new ocean liner, the 2,092-passenger Queen Elizabeth, was christened today by HRM Queen Elizabeth today in Southampton, England.

(Left: Queen Elizabeth christens the Cunard Liner Queen Elizabeth.) Great Britian’s HRM Queen Elizabeth II today christened the historic Cunard Line’s third ship to bear the Queen Elizabeth name in a rousing dockside ceremony along the Southampton waterfront.

“I name this ship Queen Elizabeth,” the monarch said after taking the podium in front of 1,600 invited guests, uttering the traditional words delivered at so many ship launches. “May God bless her and all who sail in her.”

Dressed in a teal blue coat and matching teal hat, the 84-year-old monarch then watched with the crowd as a jeroboam of 2009 Baron Philippe de Rothschild wine was sent smashing against the 2,092-passenger vessel — the successor to the famed QE2 and one of the year’s most anticipated new ships.

As Cunard managing director Peter Shanks had noted just moments earlier during official remarks, the Queen was reprising a roll she played in 1967 at the launch of the QE2, which was retired in 2008.

[Read more...]

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PULLMAN IN BRITAIN – LUXURY DAY TRAVEL

Few people know that George Pullman’s hands stretched across the pond.

The Pullman name existed in the United Kingdom for many years.

Cruising the past looks at this famous British company, their Pullman trains and a video of the Brighton Belle.

Youtube video of the final run of the PULLMAN BRIGHTON BELLE in 1972…

The British Pullman Car Company was formed in 1882 and named after the Pullman concept pioneered in the United States by the American railroader George Pullman. The company entered into contracts with the railway companies to operate Pullman services over their lines. [Read more...]

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Cruise Line History: Three great videos of newsreel footage of Cunard Line’s RMS QUEEN MARY’S. Her launching, first voyage, final voyage and departure from Southampton in 1967.

There great videos featuring newsreel footage of the RMS QUEEN MARY.

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The great liner RMS Queen Mary sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line (then Cunard White Star Line).  Built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, she was designed to be the first of Cunard’s planned two-ship weekly express service from Southampton to Cherbourg to New York, in answer to the mainland European superliners of the late 1920s and early 1930s.  World War II started before the RMS Queen Elizabeth could join  the Mary.

After their release from World War II troop transport duties, the RMS Queen Mary and her running mate RMS Queen Elizabeth commenced this two-ship service and continued it for two decades until Queen Mary’s retirement in 1967.

The ship is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is permanently berthed in Long Beach, California serving as a museum ship and hotel.

The Queen Mary celebrated the 70th anniversary of her launch in both Clydebank and in Long Beach during 2004, and the 70th anniversary of her maiden voyage in 2006.


Video of the RMS Queen Mary launching, film of her first crossing and arrival in New York.  Includes the British Liner Song: Horatio Nicholls’ “Queen of the Sea”, 1936.


Video newsreel footage of the RMS Queen Mary arriving in Southampton for the last time from New York.  Her 1001st Atlantic crossing final trans-Atlantic voyage.  She was a triumph of British shipbuilding.  


Video newsreel footage showing departure on the final voyage of Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary from Southampton on October 31st 1967. The greatest merchant vessel ever built.

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27th May 1950: British-born actress Elizabeth Taylor aboard the SS Queen Mary during her honeymoon with her first husband, hotel heir Nicky Hilton. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

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Cruise Ship History – Mothers and Children head for the Suez Canal in 1948 aboard the Orient Line’s SS OTRANTO to be with their soldier husbands.

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Orient Line’s SS OTRANTO…

British Service dependents, mothers and children, sailed in January 1948 aboard the Orient Line’s “SS Otranto” from Southampton to Egypt and the Suez.

Their husbands were already in the Suez Canal for conflicts at that time.

The mothers, along with their children, and possibly for the first time in their lives, set off alone to be with their soldier fathers.

It was a great adventure and the photographs tell the story.

Service Families on board Orient Line’s SS Otranto bound for Port Said Jan 48…

SS Otranto docks in Valletta Harbor enroute…

SS Otranto’s program for a Children’s Party… 

 
Baggage Label and Drinks Card…

SS Otranto leaving Suez in 1952 for the United Kingdom…

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