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French Line’s famous SS NORMANDIE in color films.

February 15, 2012 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

French Line NORMANDIE – Part One

French Line NORMANDIE – Part Two

French Line NORMANDIE – Part Three

These are probably the finest video available of trans-Atlantic liner service in the late 1930s. Excellent color footage of the French Line’s famous SS NORMANDIE.

SS Normandie was an ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. She entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; she is still the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built.

Her novel design and lavish interiors led many to consider her the greatest of ocean liners.Despite this, she was not a commercial success and relied partly on government subsidy to operate. During service as the flagship of the CGT, she made 139 transatlantic crossings westbound from her home port of Le Havre to New York and one fewer return.

Normandie held the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing at several points during her service career, during which the RMS Queen Mary was her chief rival.

During World War II, Normandie was seized by the United States authorities at New York and renamed USS Lafayette. In 1942, the liner caught fire while being converted to a troopship, capsized and sank at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal. Although salvaged at great expense, restoration was deemed too costly and she was scrapped in October 1946.

Filed Under: STEAMSHIP LINES Tagged With: atlantic, Cruise History, CRUISE LINE HISTORY, cruise ship history, CRUISE SHIPS, cruising the past, CUNARD LINE, FRENCH LINE, HOLLAND AMERICA LINE, New York, ss normandie, Titanic, united states lines, VIDEOS NORMANDIE, world war 2

FRENCH LINE’S SS NORMANDIE – The tragedy of the world’s greatest passenger ship.

December 28, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

If anything, the French Line’s SS Normandie was too beautiful. She was never as popular as Queen Mary because SS Normandie was like a floating art gallery that overwhelmed? the passengers, whereas Queen Mary was more traditional and felt like a home to the passengers. It’s a disgrace what happened to SS Normandie. To think such a revolutionary, innovative, and dazzling vessel was destroyed due to sheer stupidity breaks the heart.

Filed Under: Cruise History Tagged With: Cruise History, CRUISE LINE HISTORY, cruise ship, Cruising, cruising the past, CUNARD LINE, FRENCH LINE, Liner History, liners, loss, Love Boat, MATSON LINES, RMS TITANIC, SOCIAL HISTORY, ss normandie, Titanic, world war 2

SHIPS IN PORT during the 1960s… Le Harve, Halifax, New York and Cobh…

December 27, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

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.

SAILING UP THE AMAZON on the HILARY

December 26, 2011 By Michael L. Grace 1 Comment

Cruise and Liner History: THE BOOTH LINE from LIVERPOOL SHIPS.

The HILARY sailing up the Amazon.

The Booth Steamship Company’s HILARY of 1931 operated the Booth Line service from Liverpool to Manaus, 1,000 miles up the AMAZON.

Ordering the passenger-cargo liner HILARY at the height of the depression was a mark of considerable faith by the Booth Line, and the placing of the order locally on Merseyside was much appreciated.

The HILARY in her original form with a black hull and a funnel without the houseflag…

The HILARY was launched on 17th April 1931 and was completed by August. She sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Para and Manaus on 14th August, The new HILARY could easily be recognized by her distinctive three-note triple-chime steam whistle.

Passengers on the promenade viewing the Amazon.

CUNARD CHRISTMAS 1928

December 26, 2011 By Michael L. Grace

Staff magazine of the Cunard Steamship Company, Christmas 1928

The Cunard Line has a long and fascinating history. It was created in 1839 when Samuel Cunard won the Admiralty’s tender to provide a transatlantic mail service to be carried by steamships between Great Britain and North America. The service was inaugurated in 1840 when the steamship Britannia made the first crossing to Halifax and then Boston.

Cunard’s ‘ocean greyhounds’ soon faced stiff competition from other American, British and especially German companies, who all wanted a share in the profitable business of ferrying mail, European emigrants and wealthy passengers across the Atlantic.

Review: OCEAN LINER POSTERS… A FIVE STAR BOOK.

December 23, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Ocean Liner Posters is a wonderful book telling the story of shipping companies and their ships through the art they produced – their posters. For a century, ocean liners were the only way to travel from one continent to another. Millions of passengers travelled on transatlantic routes: millionaires, occupying luxurious suites with dream decors, signed by the best artists of the time, and emigrants in search of a future, meager savings in hand, huddled in third class – all sharing their journeys with tourists, soldiers and traders on the largest form of transportation ever built. This book charts the evolution of ocean liner posters from the first ship poster reproductions of the latter part of the nineteenth century, when the vessel’s image appeared alongside information about the routes taken, through the Art Nouveau era, when the image of the ship began to take a key role in terms of visual importance. The Art Deco period allowed masters of poster art such as Adolphe Mouron Cassandre to create enduring works for the likes of Normandie or the Atlantique. The book continues tracing the timeline of these posters, through the postwar period until the demise of transatlantic routes, through to the sixties, which saw the poster being modernized.

The MS WILHELM GUSTLOFF was the worst maritime disaster in the history of the world, with more fatalities then the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

December 17, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Cruise history and liner history: The MS WILHELM GUSTLOFF was the worst maritime disaster in the history of the world, with more fatalities then the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

August 1, 1936 at Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg. Robert Ley, head of the DAF and KdF drove in the ceremonial first bolt.

The MS WILHELM GUSTLOFF

The MS Wilhelm Gustloff was a German KdF flagship during 1937-1945, constructed by the Blohm & Voss shipyards. It sank after being torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 on 30 January 1945. The ship was named after Wilhelm Gustloff, the assassinated German leader of the Swiss Nazi party. It was requisitioned into the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) on 1 September 1939 and served as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940. Beginning on 20 November 1940, it was stripped of medical equipment and repainted from its hospital ship colors (white with a green stripe) to standard naval grey. The Wilhelm Gustloff was then assigned as a floating barracks for naval personnel in the port of Gdynia which was located in Nazi occupied Poland (renamed during German occupation to Gotenhafen), near Gda?sk, Poland.

PEARL HARBOR – THE SS LURLINE WAS HALF-WAY FROM HONOLULU TO SAN FRANCISCO

December 7, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

SS Lurline Departing Honolulu with 442nd RCT, 1943

Youtube video – Sailing day on the SS LURLINE from Honolulu, Hawaii… memories now vanished.

Cruise History and Liner History: The SS Lurline was half way from Honolulu to San Francisco on 7 December 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. She made her destination safely, travelling at maximum speed, and soon returned to Hawaii with her Matson sisters Mariposa and Monterey in a convoy laden with troops and supplies.

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.

Lurline departing Hilo, Hawaii – 1960s

SS LURLINE arrrival scene – Honolulu – 1941 – Months before Pearl Harbor

RMS TITANIC – Centennial may be last chance for the super rich to visit watery grave.

December 5, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Cruise and Liner History: RMS TITANIC – Centennial may be last chance for the super rich to visit watery grave.

Down, down, down you go, for 2 1/2 hours, jammed with two other people in a tiny submersible, all the way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean — and all for a glimpse, through a 5- or 8-inch porthole, of the ravaged remains of the once-grand ship where the Astors and the Strauses played, dined and, in some cases, died.

The trip is not for the claustrophobic, nor the 99 percent: A two-week cruise that includes one dive, lasting eight to 10 hours, costs $60,000.

But for fans of the Titanic, no price or privation is too great — especially with the 100th anniversary of the sinking coming up on April 15.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Renata Rojas, a banker in New York City, said of diving more than 2 miles down to the muddy seabed. “I’ve been obsessed with the Titanic since I was 10 years old.”

Only existing film footage of the RMS TITANIC…

Centennial fever

With the centennial in mind, at least 80 people are expected to take the plunge to the wreck, according to the company that runs the trips, Deep Ocean Expeditions.

The ROTTERDAM IV – Holland America Line History

November 27, 2011 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Excellent video on the ROTTERDAM

Cruise and Liner History – The ROTTERDAM IV – Holland America Line History

Harland and Wolff, Belfast built Holland America Line’s ROTTERDAM IV in 1908. She held 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.

Pool – Ziegfeld Chorus Girls…

The ROTTERDAM was one the finest, largest and most popular ships crossing the Atlantic and cost about $5,000,000 to build. She became famous because of her exceptionally attractive features, so that many discriminating travelers choose her in preference to many other Atlantic steamer. In luxurious appointments, in extraordinary size of rooms, averaging much larger than on any of our ships on previous Cruises, as well as in her extreme steadiness, almost eliminating seasickness, she was unsurpassed. She had 56 suites and rooms with brass bedsteads and private baths, and over 100 single rooms, together with a beautiful Palm Court, Verandah Cafe, Elevator, Social Hall, Library, 3 Smoke Rooms, a glass enclosed Promenade Deck, electrically forced ventilation of hot and cold air, etc. Most of the outside staterooms had two, and in some cases three, windows or portholes, some being fitted with a device that admits fresh air freely, even when the porthole was closed. One of her most attractive features was an immense Dining Saloon, seating nearly 500 people at small tables, where all of her passengers took their meals, and where an orchestra of artists of high merit played during lunch and dinner, as well as in the Social Hall in the evening.

French Line’s famous SS NORMANDIE in color films.

SHIPS IN PORT during the 1960s… Le Harve, Halifax, New York and Cobh…

The MS WILHELM GUSTLOFF was the worst maritime disaster in the history of the world, with more fatalities then the Titanic and the Lusitania combined.

PEARL HARBOR – THE SS LURLINE WAS HALF-WAY FROM HONOLULU TO SAN FRANCISCO

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