Cruise and Liner History: A wonderful selection of liner photos during the 1960s of the FRANCE, SANTA ROSA and NIEUW AMSTERDAM.
French Line SS FRANCE at Le Harve, France.
Grace Line SS SANTA ROSA arriving in New York Harbor.
SHIPS IN PORT during the 1960s… Le Harve, Halifax, New York and Cobh…
December 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Le Cirque’s famous owner Sirio Maccioni started as a waiter “crossing the pond” aboard the Home Lines SS ATLANTIC.
September 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Home Lines SS ATLANTIC…
Le Cirque’s famous owner Sirio Maccioni started as a waiter “crossing the pond” aboard the Home Lines SS ATLANTIC. After achieving success, he sailed trans-Atlantic years later as a first class passenger aboard the Italian Line’s SS GIULIO CESARE. In June 2004 Maccioni published his biography, Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque with restaurant critic Peter Elliot.
Sirio Maccioni (born 1932 in Montecatini Terme, Italy) is a restaurateur and author based in New York City. He is known for Le Cirque, his award-winning flagship French restaurant and other ventures in New York, Las Vegas, the Dominican Republic and Mexico City, which are run with his wife Egidiana “Egi” and sons Mario, Marco and Mauro. A restaurant in London is scheduled to open in 2009.
To order Maccioni’s biography click here for a link to Amazon.
In his biography, Maccioni tells his story to American co-author Peter Elliot, food critic for Bloomberg radio and winner of the James Beard award. Peter Elliot does a wondrous job piecing together Sirio’s autobiography along with interviews of Sirio’s friends, family, and New York notables and a sound history of each landscape visited in Sirio’s journey from Montecatini, Italy to New York City.
He is the ultimate American success – a small town boy who makes good.
His experiences working as a waiter aboard Home Lines S.S. Atlantic and S.S. Homeric are a highlight.
He signed on the S.S. Atlantic to work as a waiter with other young men in the mid-1950s. They had been pitched by Home Lines to work for the steamship company because of their experience. The multilingual crew were called “the chosen” because of their experiences as waiters.
American family in first class aboard the S.S. Homeric sailing from Europe to New York. Photo was taken in First Class dining room. Waiter could have been a contemporary of Maccioni at that time.
But Maccioni and his colleagues boarded the ship to have their passports taken by a monstrous purser and found themselves hired as waiters/cheap labor. [Read more...]
Messageries Maritimes – Passenger liner arriving from Vietnam.
September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The French passenger liner SS La Marseillaise is seen arriving in Marseillaise from Vietnam during the 1950s. She was the largest and most luxurious ship operated by by the steamship company Messageries Maritimes. La Marseillaise operated between France and the Far East. The elegant vessel was launched in 1944 in the name of Marshal Petain (who was a French general who reached the distinction of Chief of State of Vichy France during the Nazi occupation). SS La Marseillaise had the distinction of sinking on two occasions, the first time in France before being completed during WW II, and the second time after an explosion and fire off the island of Grenada when she had been sold off for Caribbean cruises. La Marsillaise, like many liners after WW II, had many careers with various names.
HISTORY OF THE GRACE LINE
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Social History and Cruise History – The Grace Line ad in Holiday Magazine 1956 – Cruising was much different in the 1950s. Looking at the photos, in comparison to today’s ships, you could say it was much more civilized.
Cruise History – THE GRACE LINE – In the mid 1800s, the Irish-born Grace brothers, William Russell and Michael, established a commercial and shipping business in Callao, the port of Lima, Peru. They prospered, especially in the exporting of guano from the Chincha Islands to the United States, where this fertilizer was in considerable demand.
In 1865, leaving Michael in charge of their interests in Callao, William established the firm of W.R. Grace & Co., in New York. By 1880 he had become a leading citizen and was twice elected Mayor of New York, despite opposition from Tammany. In the 1890′s the company entered the steamship business with a line of freighters running from New York to the South American west coast via the Strait of Magellan flying the British flag.
Grace’s original British-flag ships had black hulls, white painted masts and booms, and a green stack with a black top. After the First World War successors were painted grey, with masts and booms of the usual mast color. Hulls became black again in 1928 and masts and booms reverted to white in 1932. (about 1959-60 Grace passenger ships again turned to grey hulls).
HISTORY OF THE HOLLAND AMERICA LINE
August 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
History of the Holland America Line – Holland America Line Cruises…
The HAL liner NIEUW AMSTERDAM in the 1950s with the SS UNITED STATES
Liner History would not be complete, without studying the venerable Holland America Line. One of the last lines to offer Trans-Atlantic crossings on a regular basis before the Jet took the fun out of crossing the pond.
The Holland America Line was founded in 1873 as the Dutch-America Steamship Company (Dutch: Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij), a shipping and passenger line. Because it was headquartered in Rotterdam and provided service to the Americas, it became known as Holland America Line (HAL). Its headquarters are now in Seattle, Washington.
HOLLAND AMERICA LINE HISTORY – BOAT DAYS FROM NEW YORK IN THE 1950s and 1960s
August 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
HOLLAND AMERICA LINE HISTORY – BOAT DAY: Sailings from New York aboard the Holland-America Line’s SS Nieuw Amsterdam & US Line’s SS United States during the glamor period of trans-Atlantic crossings from the 1950s.
ANOTHER BOAT DAY: The gorgeous mid-century ship TSS ROTTERDAM sailing from New York on May 23, 1966.
The end of a full schedule of trans-Atlantic crossings would be heading into its last decade.
The videos are from www.shipgeek.com – visit this great site.
HOLLAND AMERICA LINE – CRUISE REVIEW
May 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
HOLLAND AMERICA LINE CRUISES REVIEWS – LOOKING AT A GREAT MARITIME TRADITION – HAL HAS A GREAT PLACE IN SOCIAL TRAVEL HISTORY
(LEFT – FAMOUS STAR GARY GRANT WAS A BIG FAN OF HOLLAND AMERICA LINE) Holland America Line has enjoyed a distinguished record of traditional cruises, world exploration, and transatlantic crossings since 1873all facets of its history that are reflected in the fleet’s multimillion dollar shipboard art and antiques collections. Even the ships’ names follow a pattern set long ago: all end in the suffix “dam” and are either derived from the names of various dams that cross Holland’s rivers, important Dutch landmarks, or points of the compass. The names are even recycled when vessels are retired, and some are in their fifth and sixth generation of use.
Noted for focusing on passenger comfort, Holland America Line cruises are classic in design and style; however, with an infusion of younger adults and families on board, they remain refined without being stuffy or stodgy. Following a basic design theme, returning passengers feel as at home on the newest Holland America vessels as they do on older ones.
Entertainment tends to be more Broadway-stylish than Las Vegas-brash. Colorful revues are presented in main show lounges by the ships’ companies of singers and dancers. Other performances might include a range of cabaret acts: comedians, magicians, jugglers, and acrobats. Live bands play a wide range of musical styles for dancing and listening in smaller lounges and piano bars. Movies are shown daily in cinemas that double as the Culinary Arts Centers.
“Darling of the Dutch” – Holland-America Line’s trans-Atlantic Liner SS Nieuw Amsterdam on Youtube.
March 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Steamship Liner S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam was a Dutch ocean liner built in Rotterdam for the Holland America Line.
This Nieuw Amsterdam, the second of three Holland America ships with that name, is considered by many to have been Holland America’s finest ship.
To this day SS Nieuw Amsterdam is still regarded as one of the most beautiful ships to be built. With her stunning silhouette she was a well balanced ship. Her elegant lines were highlighted with her black hull, as well as her two perfectly proportioned funnels and two tall masts. At the time, she was also the largest Dutch ship to be built.
Originally she was to be named Prinsendam, however during construction, Holland America Line (HAL) decided to name their new flagship Nieuw Amsterdam, in honor the settlement of the Dutch in Nieuw Amsterdam, today’s City of New York. Nieuw Amsterdam was also given the honor of being the Dutch “Ship of State.” Unlike other ships of her time being built (especially British and American ships) her design did not include any military ingredient, despite the threateningpolitical situation of the day. SS Nieuw Amsterdam was launched by HRH Queen Wilhelmina on April 10, 1937 and was completed on March 21, 1938.
Holland-America Line History – SS NIEUW AMSTERDAM – THE MOST GRACIOUS OF ALL THE TRANSATLANTIC LINERS.
February 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Holland-America Line History – SS NIEUW AMSTERDAM – THE MOST GRACIOUS OF ALL THE TRANSATLANTIC LINERS.
Queen Wilhelmina launches the Nieuw Amsterdam in the late 1930s. Video includes newsreel footage of the pre-war liner. Along with a trans-Atlantic crossing from Holland to New York. Then shots of the ship during WW II. Newsreel of cruising after the war from a Holland-America Line promo film.
(Left: Cary Grant was a big fan of Holland-America Line.)
The Nieuw Amsterdam, of all the Depression era ships of state, led a charmed existence. Introduced in recessionary 1938, her prewar service life consisted of a single brilliant year and can be seen as the final elegant flourish of the golden days day of travel before the war, postwar austerity and jet travel permanently altered the way people traveled. Neither the largest nor the fastest, the Nieuw Amsterdam earned her place in liner history by being the ultimate combination of elegance, comfort, and practical design in a three class ship.
Newsreel footage of Holland-America Line’s TSS Rotterdam 1915 and SS Nieuw Amsterdam 1938
January 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Cruising the Past: Newsreel footage of Holland-America Line’s TSS Rotterdam 1915 (seen above) and SS Nieuw Amsterdam 1938.
These are great scenes of Holland-America Liner’s TSS ROTTERDAM and the SS NIEUW AMSTERDAM.
The ROTTERDAM IV – 1908 – 1940. - Built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, the ROTTERDAM IV featured service for 530 First, 555 Second and 2,124 Third Class passengers. She was a liner with two funnels, Holland America’s first, 650 feet in length and 77 feet wide. Her registered tonnage was 24,170 and displacement of 37,190 tons. She traveled at an average of 16.5 knots. She was sold in January of 1940 to Dutch breakers.
[Read more...]
