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E NEWS SUPPLEMENT...by Bill Miller

 

April 18, 2011

Greetings!


I introduce this week's edition of our Enews Supplement with a message from our dear friend, Ocean & Cruise News writer and cruise industry veteran, Art Sbarsky.

For the past few years Art has undertaken a project that is very close not only to his heart, but to the hearts of many of our readers, to rid the world of cancer. As part of the WOCLS family we ask you to click on the logo below and if you can afford to help Art with his remarkable efforts, to please do so.
 
Relay for Life"Simply put, I hate cancer.  I hate the word.  I hate what the disease does to people, their family and friends.    I am actively involved in fundraising for the American Cancer Society via our local Relay For Life event here in Weston, Florida, on April 16/17.  It will be one of thousands of such events held all over the country; collectively they are the largest ACS fundraising mechanism.  They help bring communities together in support of those who have survived cancer and honor those who have been lost to this scurrilous disease."
 
If you would like to make a donation, you can do it electronically by clicking on the Relay for Life logo above or by visiting www.relayforlife.org/westonfl and clicking on donate.  Follow the prompts, using my name Art Sbarsky.
 

Thank you so much for joining me in this important battle". 

Yours in cruising 

Art

 

Members please remember we have many "Hosted Cruises" in 2011 or 2012 and are adding more. For full details on these cruises, please contact our sole WOCLS cruise coordinator Beth Schmidt at (800) 828 4813 ext 1009
    
We hope to see you aboard.

 

Thank You!
  
Tom Cassidy 
Ambassadors InternationalMoney troubles!
  
This parent to Windstar Cruises filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.   Operations continued, however, under Chapter 11.
Andrea Doria - Change in plans!Andrea Doria
 
After the great Italian liner sank on Jul 26th 1956 off Nantucket, some of her lifeboats were brought to shore.   One of them, and years later, actually drifted onto the shorefront of Staten Island, New York.   Now, it seems that lifeboat and another from the 29,000-ton Andrea Doria have found their way through purchase to New Orleans.   Just recently, there was a plan to cut off the sterns and rebuild the two craft as fishing boats.  But there were design & structural problems and so the idea of converting the Doria lifeboats has been shelved.

City of BelfastCelebrations! 

The centennial of the Titanic sinking is but a year away (in Apr 2011).   But the City of Belfast, where the 882-ft long liner was constructed by the famed Harland & Wolff Shipyard, is starting early.   Numerous events are scheduled for next month, celebrating the centennial of the 46,000-ton liner's launch on May 31st 1911.

Carnival Cruise Line

Change in plans!   

 

Carnival is dropping its regular cruise service from Mobile, Alabama. ... Return!   Carnival is having its second season in Alaska cruise service, using the 2,124-bed Carnival Spirit. ... Growing family!   Yet another new Carnival ship (they have some 100 cruise ships in the total Carnival empire --- with 14 cruise line subsidiaries) ran her trials in the Mediterranean in March.   She's the 130,000-ton Carnival Magic.   Carrying up to 3,690 passengers, she'll have added amenities such as the Red Frog Pub and a family-style Italian restaurant.

Celebrity LogoBuilding up the forces!

 

Celebrity will have a record 5 of its liners in seasonal European service  in 2012.  European cruising is, it seems, more & more popular with cruising offering excellent value.

Freighters -Get ready!Maersk Logo

    

The huge Danish shipowner Maersk Line has ordered the largest merchant ships of all time, massive container cargo ships that can carry a record 18,000 containers each.   The new ships will be over 1,200 feet in length, longer than the Queen Mary 2 as well as the sisters Oasis of the Seas & Allure of the Seas.    Highly efficient, they will also cut cargo carrying costs by 25%, especially in the very lucrative Far East-Europe trade.

Holland AmericaTrans-Atlantic tradition!

  

It is a celebration of the great history of the grand Holland America Line --- two Atlantic crossings this July aboard the 59,600-ton flagship Rotterdam.    The westbound voyage, from Rotterdam to New York, stops at Southampton;   the return eastward passage stops at Cobh before Rotterdam.   Along with superb marine artist Stephen Card & others, I will be along to give talks on the great Atlantic ocean liners, but about Holland America's rich history & fleet as well.   A lounge aboard the 1,300-passenger Rotterdam will be specially converted to a Holland America Line history museum for the entire roundtrip voyage.  

Jamaica Flag

 

Jamaica - Ribbon cutting! 

The new cruise port at Falmouth was officially opened on Mar 22nd.   The first arrival at the new cruise terminal seemed appropriate --- the world's 2nd largest liner, the 225,000-ton, 6,400-bed Oasis of the Seas. 

Flag of JapanChange course! 

 

Several major freighter companies are following cruise lines and canceling calls in Japanese ports.   Some reports estimate that Japanese export trade is down by as much 75%.

Hearty congratulations!MSC Cruises

 

Cruise industry veteran Rick Sasso, chairman of MSC here in North America, will be added to CLIA's Hall of Fame this year.   CLIA (the Cruise Lines International Association) is a huge promotional consortium of the cruise industry & cruising itself.

NCL LogoGood deed! 

 

NCL has donated $5 million to the City of Miami for help to the homeless.

 

Normandie - A.M. Cassandre 

Ocean Liner Collectibles - Liner Art!

 

The famed poster by French artist Cassandre of the bow of the extraordinary 1930s French liner Normandie sold last March for $14,000.

Song of AmericaOcean Liner history    

 

Thirty years ago, Royal Caribbean was adding the 37,000-ton, 1,500-passenger Song of America.   With Beverly Sills as her godmother, the Finnish-built ship was then one of the largest cruise ships afloat and was, of course, the largest in the Royal Caribbean fleet of 4 ships.

Facelift! P&OLogo

 

The 1995-built Oriana, which cruises from Southampton on England, will be getting a makeover.   The 1,800-passenger ship is becoming an "adults only" member of the P&O fleet this fall and, during a refit, will receive 27 new cabins as well as a new specialty restaurant.
Favorite name! Princess Logo
 
Princess has ordered two 141,000-tonners, each carrying 3,600 passengers, from Italy's Fincantieri Shipyard.   The first, due in spring 2013, will be named Royal Princess.   It is the third time the Company has used that name, beginning with the 1984-built ship, named by Princess Diana, and sailing theser days but as the Artemis. ... Happy birthday!   Gavin MacLeod turned 80 recently with a special Princess celebration (including a birthday cake in the form of the original Pacific Princess, the TV Love Boat).   MacLeod was of course Captain Stubbing on the ten-year series that was instrumental in the 1970s growth of the American cruise industry.  ... Distant waters!   Princess is offering three long cruises.  The Sun Princess will offer a 104-day world cruise, beginning at Sydney in May 2012.   The Dawn Princess follows, that July, with a 75-day circumnavigation of the Pacific cruise. Finally, in Jan 2013, the Pacific Princess will set off on a 107-day world cruise.  
QuarkExpeditionsLong run!
 
Quark has ended its longtime charter of the Russian research vessel/cruise ship, the 107-berth Akademik Ioffe.   Seems the ship is now "too dated" and has been replaced by more modern, modern comfortable tonnage. 
Moving vans!  Seabourn
 
The move of ultra-luxurious Seabourn from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle was completed at the beginning of this month.  Within the great Carnival empire, Seabourn has been moved under the super-efficient umbrella of Holland America. 
TitanicTitanic - Interest mounting!
 
With 2012 being the centennial of the world's most famous & best remembered ship disaster, a special exhibition in Derby in England opened last Feb (and runs thru Jul) and includes the costumes worn by Kate Winslet & Leonardo Di Caprio in the Oscar-rich film Titanic of 1997.   The exhibition has been mounted by the Royal Crown Derby Co, which supplied items a century ago for the 46,000-ton liner's first class restaurant.   The exhibit also includes items from the Titanic's sistership, the Olympic.  ... British-based Miles Morgan Travel has chartered a second ship, the Azamara Journey, for a Titanic commemorative cruise in Apr 2012.   But there's a difference:   this cruise will be from New York and, in 8 days, visit the site of the sinking and then call at Halifax, where many bodies & remains were landed.   Morgan's first venture, chartering the Fred Olsen Cruises' Balmoral, with 1,400 berths, has been a sell-out.   Her voyage is a re-enactment of the Titanic crossing, from Southampton to New York and being at the site of the sinking precisely on Apr 14th.  Both ships will meet at the site in the western Atlantic on Apr 14th-15th.
Ocean & Cruise News

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About Bill Miller  Bill Miller "Mr. Ocean Liner"  

Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships. This includes those great ships of the past, those "floating palaces," as well as the current generation of cruise ships, the "floating resorts".  Called "Mr. Ocean Liner," he has written over 75 books on the subject:  from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to other titles on their fabulous interiors, in post card form and about the highly collectible artifacts from them.   He has done specific histories of such celebrated passenger ships as the United States, Queen Mary, Rotterdam, France, Queen Elizabeth 2, Costa Victoria, Super Star Leo and Crystal Serenity.

 

In all, he has also written over 1,000 articles for newspapers, magazines and nautical journals & newsletters.   He even had his very own ocean liner quarterly, the Millergram.  He has made nearly 350 voyages to date:   Atlantic crossings, tropical cruises, coastal runs and even trips on container cargo ships and exotic banana boats.  He has appeared in some three dozen video & television series, both in the USA, Britain, Europe and Australia, including Castles of the Sea, The Floating Palaces, The Superliners, Inside the World of a Cruise Ship, Disasters at Sea, Deco: Age of Glamour, and Lady in Waiting: The Story of the SS United States.   He has also appeared on The Today Show, CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, NBC Evening News and many other news broadcasts. He has been guest lecturer aboard over 50 different liners, sailing with the likes of Crystal Cruises, Cunard, Carnival, Holland Americ

a, Princess, Radisson-Seven Seas, Saga Cruises and others.  Miller was a public school teacher, in middle school and for social studies, for 32 years.  He was named "Teacher of the Year" in 2002.  

 

A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, the once busy port just across the Hudson River from New York City, Miller was named Outstanding American Maritime Scholar in 1994, received the United States Maritime Preservation Award  and also  the Ocean Liner Council's  Silver Riband Award, both  in 2004.   Also, he has been chairman of the Port of New York Branch of the World Ship Society, serves on the selection committee for the American Maritime Hall of Fame, created the passenger ship database for the Ellis Island Museum and currently serves as Curator of 20th Century Maritime History at Manhattan's South Street Seaport Museum.  He has also organized a 14-week college course on liners, and helped to create & then served as historian at  the US Merchant Marine Museum. His private collection includes 4,000 books on ships, over 15,000 photos and some 1,000 miniature ship models, most of them being passenger ships. 

 

By 2010, Miller had 10 new books in the works, was curator to Decodence (an exhibit at the South St Seaport on the design & décor of the grand French liner Normandie) and himself was the subject of a one-hour film documentary aptly titled Mr Ocean Liner.   (Updated 8/10).

 

 

Follow Bill's look back at ship's of yesteryear..

Heard Along the Boat Deck

 

And his current and past cruise experiences...

Scribblings  

William Miller Books!

 

The presses keep rolling and another new book!  In a joint effort, Brian Hawley & I have penned the history of Cunard's legendary Caronia, the famed "Green Goddess" (yes, a big liner painted in several shades of green) and, in the 1950s, said to be the most luxurious passenger ship afloat.   Happily, the book is very pleasing (you are never, ever sure until the printed copy is before you) and so here's to good sales ahead.  (Some 375 copies reportedly sold in the first week!) It is RMS Caronia:  Cunard's Green Goddess by Amberley Publishing over in the UK.   And more happy news:   several of my own current British books are going into 2nd printings!

 

Ocean liners in words & pictures!  An updated list of my published ocean liner books ... and available thru bmce48@yahoo.com.

 

 

The Last Atlantic Liners

 

 

 

Last Atlantic Liners:  Getting There is Half the Fun  (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011

 

  

 

 

 

Rms Caronia Book

 

 

RMS Caronia:   Cunard's Green Goddess 

(co-authored with Brian Hawley)  The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011

  

 

 

 

 

Floating Palaces

 

 

Floating Palaces:   The Great Atlantic Liners(Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011

  

 

 

 

 

 

Great British Passenger Ships

 

 

 

 

Great  British Passenger Ships  (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010)

  

 

 

 

 

ss Nieuw Amsterdam

 

 

 

 

 

SS Nieuw Amsterdam:   The Darling of the Dutch  (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2010)

  

 

 

Cunard's Three Queens

 

 

 

Cunard's Three Queens:   A Celebration  (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)

  

 

 

 

 

Under The Red Ensign

 

 

 

Under the Red Ensign:   British Passenger Liners of the '50s & '60s  (The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)

 

 

 

 

 

ss United States Speed Queen

 

 

 

SS United States:   Speed Queen of the Seas  (Amberley  Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2009)

 

 

 

 

And yet to come.....

 

Great Passenger Ships 1910-20  (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due Sep 2011)

 

I Was Born in Hoboken:  Memories of the 1950s & '60s  (Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ, due fall 2011)

 

Along the Hudson:   Great Passenger Ships at New York in Photos  (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)

 

The Last Great Dynasty:  The Royal House of Windsor  (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)

 

Great Atlantic Liners of the 20th Century in Color (co-authored with Anton Logvinenko;  Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)

 

Great American Passenger Ships  (The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)

 

The Cunard Yanks (co-authored with Ian Wright;   pending but due 2012)

 

 

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