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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 »

More than a century after the Titanic sank in April 1912; few new stories surface from the wreck. When documentary filmmaker Arthur Jones and his team started work on “The Six” — their film about the ship’s six Chinese survivors — in 2012, they kept expecting to find that someone ... Read More »

The Oakland Long Wharf, later known as the Oakland Pier or the SP Mole was a massive railroad wharf and ferry pier in Oakland, California located at the foot of Seventh Street. Southern Pacific and the Western Pacific trains arrived and departed from the SP Mole in Oakland. Passengers then went ... Read More »

Swedish American Line’s (SAL) trans-Atlantic route played an important part in the 20th-century for emigration from Scandinavia to North America, as well as for business and recreational travel. The company and its ships were the pride of the nation, and the youngest of the liners were always the flagship of ... Read More »

The RMS Aquitania was the longest serving Cunard liner built in the 20th century and survived service in both World Wars. Originally the ship was planned to cooperate on the North Atlantic service alongside the Lusitania and Mauretania. The contract to build the ship went to John Brown & Co, ... Read More »

Greta Garbo was a Swedish actress during Hollywood’s silent film period and part of its Golden Age. Regarded as one of the greatest and most inscrutable movie stars ever produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the Hollywood studio system. She traveled many times onboard the Swedish America Line from New York to Sweden ... Read More »

For the European traveler during the early 1960s with more time than money, an unusual variation of the Atlantic crossing was sailing from USA west coast ports via the Panama Canal to Europe. The Johnson Line offered the finest services for 12 passengers from aboard its fleet of eight deluxe ... Read More »

In October 1959, Ruth and Harry Hotz boarded the SS Homeric in New York and sailed south on a seven-day voyage that would turn out to be one of the last cruises to the island. SS Independence, SS Homeric, SS Constitution docked in New York.  Bob Hotz, their son, recalled ... Read More »