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Canadian Pacific Lines in 1972, faced with dwindling passenger numbers on the North Atlantic,  sold the RMS EMPRESS OF CANADA to Micky Aronson’s new Carnival Cruise Lines Ltd. The Empress of Canada, soon to become the Mardi Gras. Aronson was very clever and lucky to select one of the Canadian ... Read More »

The Southern Pacific’s Streamliner Coast Daylight was the West’s finest train into the 1950s, linking Los Angeles and San Francisco in a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless miles. Chair car passengers had full access to the Coffee Shop, ... Read More »

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 on board for the ill-fated travelers. Or at least it would have, were it not for Francis Browne. A short film about the Father Frank ... Read More »

Eastern Steamship Lines operated coastwise overnight passenger services along the Long Island Sound between New York and Boston and to other Northeast Coast ports including Portland, Maine, along with services to Canada and cruises. In 1901, Charles Wyman Morse merged the Boston &. Bangor Steamship Company, the Portland Steam Packet ... Read More »

ALCOA operated three passenger cargo liners to the West Indies.  They were modern post-WW II ships, elegant yet casual service with extensive itineraries. Because of shipping shortages in World War I, Alcoa (formerly the Aluminum Company of America) developed its own shipping line to carry bauxite from its source in what ... Read More »

Sailing aboard North German Lloyd’s magnificent SS Bremen from New York to Bermuda for a 7-Day Cruise in the 1930s. Great images and a wonderful home movie video of the cruise. The SS Bremen was a German-built ocean liner constructed for the Norddeutscher Lloyd line (NDL) to work the transatlantic ... Read More »

The SS City of Cleveland was a night boat operated by the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company, often abbreviated as D&C, was a passenger shipping company on the Great Lakes. The SS City of Cleveland III was a grand lake ship and a First Lady of the Lakes.  The ... Read More »

Pullman trains in Great Britain were mainline luxury railway services providing deluxe service. The Midland Pullman was launched in 1960 as a luxury all-first-class day service using between London and Manchester in a record 3 hours and 15 minutes with First and Second Class Service. The Midland Pullman ran every ... Read More »

For the traveler who couldn’t make a long ocean voyage during the early 1950s, there were still varied trips by water in the USA and Canada. Some were short one-day sails, while others took a week or more and led to some exciting adventures. Most were Canadian flag vessels. From ... Read More »

Today Carnival Corporation is the largest operator of cruise ships in the world with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across ten cruise line brands. However, in 1972, it owned exactly one ship, the RMS EMPRESS OF CANADA, which they renamed the MARDIS GRAS. The EMPRESS OF CANADA of ... Read More »