CRUISING THE PAST Travel and Social History

David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), who starred in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, had a long-standing fear of flying. Bowie sailed aboard Cunard’s QE 2, the Italian Line’s Leonardo da Vinci, P&O-Orient Line’s Oronsay and Canberra along with many other ships.   So while ... Read More »

The first postwar cruise ships with their spacious cabins signaled no return to the painless light-happy wardrobes of 1939. The fashion point of view, like everything during the long hiatus in travel, had changed. Modern travelers in 1947 were thinking in terms of versatility and packability into a single suitcase. ... Read More »

EARLY CRUISING The earliest ocean-going vessels were not primarily concerned with passengers, but rather with the cargo that they could carry. Black Ball Line in New York, in 1818, was the first shipping company to offer regularly scheduled service from the United States to England and to be concerned with ... Read More »

The Cap Arcona was considered one of the most beautiful ships of the time, launched in 1927, was the largest German ship on the South American run. In 1940, the Cap Arcona was taken over by the Kriegsmarine (the German Navy), painted overall gray and used in the Baltic Sea as ... Read More »

First as the trans-Pacific record holder liner, then serving during World War 2, followed by being renamed the Empress of Scotland on the trans-Atlantic run and then finally sailing under the German flag. It was ironic, the allied ship used during WW 2 to fight the Nazis, was sold to ... Read More »

Why it’s time for Carol Reed’s Berlin-set thriller The Man Between to come out of the shadow of The Third Man. Starring James Mason and Claire Bloom, the film captures many scenes of post-war Berlin. The Man Between (1953)? When reviewing Carol Reed’s postwar thrillers, it’s usual to dismiss The Man Between (1953) ... Read More »

The award-winning travel promotional film for Delta Line’s ships often called the “M” Ships. These were built in the early 1960s and operated by The Grace Line. They were the “Santa Maria,” “Santa Magdalena,” “Santa Mariana,” and “Santa Mercedes.” AWARD-WINNING VIDEO The Grace Line cargo-passenger vessels operated out of New ... Read More »

As the RMS Titanic was sinking beneath the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, and survivors were thrashing about in the iceberg-clotted waters, what books might they have turned to with which to fashion a homemade life preserver or, in the case of some sturdy Theodore ... Read More »

In 1985 crowd of 50,000 welcomed the cruise ship Pacific Princess, star of television’s “The Love Boat,” which arrived to make San Diego it’s home port. The arrival marked a new era for the city in the multi-billion dollar cruise-ship business. Here is the story from The San Diego Tribune, ... Read More »