The Great Northern Pacific Steamship Company was formed by James Hill on September 30, 1914. The line was to compliment the passenger train service on the Astoria Line and compete with the Southern Pacific trains to San Francisco. The company operated two ships, the S.S. Great Northern and S.S. Northern ... Read More »

from the Marine Salon… The picture above could easily be mistaken for the lounge of a grand hotel in the early 1950s. It’s not. First class passengers are seated in the main lounge of the RMS Queen Mary and they are dressed to kill. A contrast from today’s tennis shoes, ... Read More »

In 1952 the United States Lines advertised the July 3 maiden voyage of the new SS UNITED STATES. First Class fares started at $350 or $70 a night including deluxe accommodations, meals and transportation from New York to Europe. Similar accommodations on any trans-Atlantic ship today would be way over ... Read More »

Canadian Pacific’s EMPRESS OF JAPAN- 193os postcards… In 1930 the Canadian Pacific’s trans-pacific service reached its zenith with the introduction of the magnificent S/S Empress of Japan. She was a very handsome ship and had magnificent interiors that now are associated with the Empress liners of Canadian Pacific. This mighty ... Read More »

“The Cunarders… the Media and Parthia are my favorite ships…” Katharine Hepburn Cunard Line’s all first class RMS PARTHIA and MEDIA Hollywood stars and celebrities like KATHARINE HEPBURN preferred to travel from New York to England via Liverpool on the smaller, deluxe, all-first-class liners like Cunard’s Parthia and Media. They ... Read More »

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 ... Read More »

From the 1960s… home movie crossing the “pond” from New York to Europe and return… Read More »

This site just isn’t about the past… And the following youTUBE video proves the crews are always having more fun. This was shot aboard the Norwegian Sun. All those cruise lines advertise what great times the passengers are having. They’re wrong. You use to be able to hang out with ... Read More »

American Banner Lines 1957-1958 Arnold Bernstein chartered in the summer of 1948 a passenger ship the CONTINENTAL (ex ANCON of 1902) for four round voyages from New York to Plymouth and Antwerp. In 1950-1951 Arnold Bernstein was involved with the Incres Line and their ship the EUROPA (ex MONGOLIA of ... Read More »

The History of 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 ... Read More »