From 1914 to 1949 the RMS Aquitania crossed the pond between New York, Canada, and Europe carrying celebrities, tourists, businessmen, immigrants, and war brides. The RMS Aquitania was the longest-serving Cunard liner built in the 20th century and to survive service in both World Wars. ARRIVES IN NEW YORK AS WORLD ... Read More »
Author Archives: Michael Grace
Cruise the Past: A look at 1950s fashion onboard cruise ships.
Sailing from New York on board a cruise ship was a fashion statement for many women in the 1950s. Appearance was very important when ladies always looked their best when they stepped outside their homes. Newsreel clip of fashions 1950 onboard the SS Homeric. It didn’t matter whether they were going ... Read More »
Travel the Now: AMERICAN HARMONY is USA’s new modern RIVERBOAT.
The American Harmony has arrived at the Port of New Orleans. The newest ship in American Cruise Lines’ groundbreaking series of 5 modern riverboats, will remain docked in its homeport of New Orleans until it departs on its inaugural Mississippi River cruise this August 17th. New Orleans is monumentally ... Read More »
Cruise the Past: Germany’s fabulous trans-Atlantic liner BREMEN
The great German liner Bremen, which ran a British blockade, ended her career in a scrapyard. After docking in New York on August 28, 1939, only four days before the outbreak of World War II, Captain Adolf Ahrens of Germany’s North German Lloyd shipping line was faced with a decision. ... Read More »
Cruise the Past: Before Amtrak – The Golden Age of American Passenger Trains
Premiere Passenger Trains during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were the finest in the world. With excellent meals, suburb Pullman service, dinner in the diner, club lounges, train secretaries, barbershops, cocktail bars, observation cars… trains like the Super Chief, 20th Century Limited and the California Zypher were world-famous. New ... Read More »
The 1939 MS ST. LOUIS tragic cruise to Cuba.
Six months after the Nazis celebrated Kristallnacht, the German transatlantic liner MS St. Louis sailed on May 13, 1939, from Hamburg Germany. The voyage became a symbol of American and Canadian heartlessness, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. CUBA PROFITED WITH HEAVY FEES FOR VISAS Flags were flapping in the wind and well-wishers ... Read More »
Father Browne’s photos of the RMS Titanic
The Titanic didn’t just send hundreds of its passengers to the bottom of the ocean—it also took all the evidence of what life was like onboard for the ill-fated travelers. Or at least it would have, were it not for Father Francis Browne. Frank Browne’s mother died whilst he was ... Read More »
The SS Andrea Doria never reached New York on her Final Voyage
By the mid-1950s, with the postwar passenger boom at its peak, more than 50 passenger liners sailed the sea lanes between New York and America. Among the most splendid were two new ships of the Italian Line, the Cristoforo Colombo, and the Andrea Doria. Newsreel of the Andrea Doria They ... Read More »
Caviar Always – Cruise Ship Menus from the Past
For first-class passengers aboard ocean liners and cruises, from the 1930s into the 1960s, the menu choices were staggering. On ships like the SS Europa, RMS Queen Mary, and the SS United States, dinner might have had 12 courses, with 8 to 10 options for each course. It is difficult ... Read More »
I Was There! – We Were On the S.S. Simon Bolivar when it struck a mine in WW 2.
One of the most shocking tragedies of World War 2 occurred on November 18th, 1939, when the Dutch liner “Simon Bolivar” struck a German mine in the North Sea, and sank with the loss of over 120 lives, including woman and children. Poignant stories told by survivors are here reprinted ... Read More »