1930s

Known as “white Flyers of the Pacific,” the sister ships each made four sailings a week. The Yale and Harvard carried 565 First Class passengers at an average speed of 23 knots between the two major California cities. The fast coastal ships provided an overnight cruise on the Pacific. They ... Read More »

On April 13, 1962, America’s last night boat service ended as the Old Bay Line’s steamers made there final voyages on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay ending service between Baltimore and Norfolk. Known officially as the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, which had come to be known as the Old ... Read More »

MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German transport ship that was sunk on January 30, 1945, by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea. The former cruise liner was evacuating German civilian refugees from East Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, and military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) as the Red Army advanced. By ... Read More »

Pianist, gossip columnist, TV star, and above all a giver of great parties, Elsa Maxwell was famous for being herself. She was most likely far more interesting than the celebrities she covered. Elsa Maxwell first worked as a theatre pianist after leaving school at the age of 14 and before ... Read More »

In December 1934, the refurbished Earl Carroll Theatre located on the south-east corner of 7th Ave and 50th Street, New York City, opened as the French Casino. This glittering supper club was described by Fortune magazine as ‘a vast scarlet and silver restaurant which, in terraced rows of tables, seats ... Read More »

After the WW II war, the MS BATORY returned to the Transatlantic trade following a refit in Antwerp in 1947. Beginning in May 1949 and lasting through January 1951, the BATORY of the Polish Ocean Lines was the subject of a series of political incidents relating to the Cold War ... Read More »

Poland’s Gdynia America Line (GAL), two 14,000-tons passenger ships, the BATORY, and PILSUDSKI were the pride of the fleet. They began their trans-Atlantic run from Europe to America in the mid-1930s. Built-in Cantieri Riuniti del’ Adriatico Shipyard, Triest-Monfalcone (Italy), the twin liners were 526 feet (160,3 m) long and could ... 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 »