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A nostalgic look at the SS CATALINA and SS AVALON.

1950s RETRO: THE BIG WHITE CRUISE SHIP SAILS AGAIN TO CATALINA ISLAND! from CRUISINGTHEPAST.COM on Vimeo. A nostalgic look at the SS CATALINA and SS AVALON. They were called the BIG WHITE STEAMERS. These day tourist steamships operated together by William Wrigley Company from 1920 into the early 1950s — ... Read More »

J. Pierpont Morgan’s yacht Corsair IV became a cruise ship to Mexico.

J. Pierpont Morgan Jr. could never have imagined his yacht Corsair IV being converted into a deluxe cruise ship whose short career would end in tragedy but it happened on a sailing from California to Acapulco in 1949. J.P. Morgan Jr. and his legendary business tycoon father, J. Pierpont Morgan, ... Read More »

Website of the month: AIRSHIPS.NET. All about the airship Hindenberg.

Cruising the Past awards Dan Grossman’s AIRSHIPS.NET as website of the month. Grossman’s excellent site tells the story of the airship Hindenburg. She was the fastest way to “cross the pond” during the 1930s. 2 and 1/2 days! And the most expensive way to go! The Airship Hindenburg was the ... Read More »

The MS Angelina Lauro the sister-ship to the famed terrorist high jacked Achille Lauro.

Cruise History – The MS Angelina Lauro was the sister-ship to the famed terrorist high jacked Achille Lauro.  MS Oranje, later known as MS Angelina Lauro, was a passenger liner, a wartime hospital ship and finally a cruise ship that was lost while being towed for scrap. She sank in a storm in ... Read More »

Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Salvador Dali and the Windsors aboard the SS United States

Gary Cooper and family.  From an ad in Holiday Magazine – 1950s. The SS United States, when it came to passengers, had a lot of cruise and social history. The list of celebrities, artists, musicians and heads of state that have sailed this great trans-Atlantic liner in it’s 1950’s heyday ... Read More »

More passenger lives were lost on the 1914 sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland than the RMS Titanic.

Cruise History: More passenger lives were lost on the the 1914 sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland than the RMS Titanic. The story of the Canadian Pacific liner is not well known, since World War I broke out only a month later. Try asking someone, “Have you heard of ... Read More »

1967 British Pathe Newsreel of Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary.

1967 British Pathe Newsreel of Cunard Line’s RMS Queen Mary. Video You Tube footage of her final departure from Southampton to make cruise history for her new home in Long Beach. The RMS Queen Mary sailed October 31, 1967, around South America via Cape Horn, on Final Voyage to Long ... Read More »

Sophisticated New Yorker cartoons on cruising.

Cruise history presents a collection of 1960 cartoons from the New Yorker commenting on Caribbean cruises. We have also included a list of some of the dumbest questions asked by passengers on cruise ships today. The Questions: Will the ship return to sea level when we dock? Does the crew ... Read More »

Video cruise history of the French Line’s SS Normandie.

Video cruise history of the French Line’s fabulous liner SS Normandie. SS Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. When launched in 1932 she was the largest and fastest ship in the world, and she maintains the distinction of being ... Read More »

Part One – Handbook of American-flag passenger ships in 1955.

In 1955 America’s fleet of ocean-going passenger ships was fast diminishing. The year before, Alaska Steamship Lines had gone out of business with the loss of four passenger ships and the Bull Line serving Puerto Rico laid up their last passenger ship.  In examining cruise ship history in 1955, there ... Read More »

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