Cruising The Past Cruise News

Edwin writes: “Killing a little while on this tub…” on this postcard… postmarked 1919 The “tub” – S.S. Jefferson – Photo side of postcard. Alaska Steamship’s SS Jefferson at salmon cannery dock, Port Nellie Juan. The SS Jefferson was built in 1904 and scrapped in 1925. History: Alaska Steamship Company, ... Read More »

Liner History – Newfoundland’s RED CROSS STEAMSHIP LINE World War I – D Company, First Newfoundland Regiment, lining rails of S.S. Stephano, ready to leave for overseas, March 20, 1915. From the late 1800s until 1929, the main passenger and freight-carrying service between St. John’s, Newfoundland and New York (via ... Read More »

William Matson had first come to appreciate the name in the 1870s while serving as skipper aboard the Claus Spreckels family yacht Lurline (a poetic variation of Loreley, the Rhine river siren) out of San Francisco Bay. Matson met his future wife, Lillie Low, on a yacht voyage he captained ... Read More »

Ocean Liner History: SS NORMANDIE and RMS QUEEN MARY during World War 2 Video of the SS Normandie The war found the French Line’s elegant trans-Atlantic ocean liner SS Normandie in New York. Soon Cunard’s RMS Queen Mary, later refitted as a troop ship, docked nearby. Then the RMS Queen ... Read More »

Peter Knego at Alang (India) in 2005 with the former RMS WINDSOR CASTLE. Photo by Kaushal Trivedi, copyright MidShipCentury.com 2005. Peter Knego is a top authority on passenger maritime history along with being a major cruise travel journalists. His excellent stories on ships are featured regularly on the Maritime Matters ... Read More »

Hotel Review: London’s elegant historic Hotel Athenaeum is our choice for the best in London. A boutique FIVE STAR PLUS gem with a link to the past. One can never capture the feeling of cruising the past in most hotels today.  That chic traveling public is gone.  Clients arriving from ... Read More »

Great YOUTUBE video from www.shipgeek.com of the S.S. AMERICA: taking a final break from her trans-Atlantic service on a cruise to Bermuda in 1963. The following year one of the last American flag liners would be sold off for immigrant travel from the UK to Australia. UNITED STATES LINES: S.S. ... Read More »

In 1964, former SS United States purser Jim Green returned to the ship as a passenger for a West Indies cruise along with his beloved wife Frieda. Here, set to the music of the ship’s own orchestra, is a nostalgic journey back to cruising the past. Beating the odds, a ... Read More »

Social History: Contemporary portrait artist Juan Bastos carries on the tradition of  John Singer Sargent. “A number of Juan Bastos’ portraits remind me of [John Singer] Sargent.” Gore Vidal YouTube video on the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (originally titled Portraits d’enfants). A painting by John Singer Sargent. (Left: Gore ... Read More »

American social history: Locke-Ober… the grand French restaurant in Boston. The Brahmin city is so lucky.   Jack’s in San Francisco and Perino’s in Los Angeles are gone.   So are most of the wonderful American traditional restaurants.  These were dining establishments that would have never permitted some parvenu wearing ... Read More »