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E NEWS SUPPLEMENT...by Bill Miller
| June 13, 2011 |
Greetings!
To address some sporadic mailing problems that have been dogging some memmbers for months we are changing mailers with hopes a change will help.
Stay tuned!
Sincerely! Tom Cassidy |
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Cruising German style!
The fifth of six so-called Sphinx class cruise ships, the 71,300-ton AIDAsol has been delivered. She also made German liner history when she became the first liner to use Hamburg's new Altona Cruise Terminal. Previous ships in this class of colorfully painted vessels include the AIDAdiva, AIDAbella, AIDAluna and AIDAblu. The sixth ship will be commissioned next year. Aida Cruises is now Germany's biggest & most popular cruise line and, while managed through Italy's Costa Cruises, both companies are owned by the giant Carnival Corporation. The overall German cruise market has reached 1 million per year. |
Historic comparisons!
Last May 31st was the 100th anniversary of the launching of the immortal Titanic. This month, Carnival is taking delivery of the 130,000-ton Carnival Magic, destined for Caribbean cruising from Galveston, Texas. The Magic is the second in a class of three mega-liners --- the Carnival Dream was first, the Carnival Breeze will be third. The delivery of the Magic has prompted a 100-yr comparison: The Carnival Breeze is 130,000 tons & measures 1004 ft by 122 ft and can carry 3,650 passengers on 13 decks. The Titanic was 46,200 tons & measured 882 ft by 92 ft. She carried 2,600 passengers (in three classes) and stood 9 decks in height. The White Star Line was merged into the Cunard Line in 1934 and Cunard itself was bought out by Carnival in 1998. |
Bermuda bound! 
I shall be aboard the splendid Celebrity Summit, departing, quite happily, some 20 minutes from my home at Cape Liberty/Bayonne, New Jersey. It is a pleasant weeklong getaway --- 7 nights to ever-beautiful Bermuda. There's 3 days at sea & 3 days in port. I will be giving lectures onboard --- expectedly about the great liners of the past & history-rich New York harbor. The 92,000-ton Summit includes a specialty restaurant & has other artifacts from the lavish luxury liner Normandie, which sailed for the French back in the Art Deco '30s. |

Ocean liner history!
Our good friend Captain Christopher Rynd, known since his earlier days at P&O-Orient Lines back in the '70s & '80s, has been appointed commodore of the 3-liner Cunard fleet. Best congratulations to him! ... I will be sailing westbound from Southampton to New York, Jul 20-27th, aboard one of my favorite ships, the mighty Queen Mary 2, and will be, of course, lecturing on the lives & times of the great liners as well as the Port of New York & the evolution of the cruise industry. |
Transatlantic 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. |
Troubles for Mazatlan! Most cruise lines, such as Carnival, Princess, Disney, Holland America and Norwegian Cruise, have dropped calls at Mazatlan because of continued violence & crime. The cuts are all seasonal, of course. Many ships are spending an extra day at Cabo San Lucas. |
Ocean Liner Collectibles -Those great Atlantic liners! 
A silver Champagne bucket from the
a la carte restaurant aboard one of the great White Star liners of the 1920s, possibly the Majestic or the Olympic, itself hints greatly of bygone glamour on the high seas. At a Manhattan auction, it sold recently for $1100. |
Ocean Liner history - Name changes!
Some forty-one years ago, Chandris Lines bought the 622-ft long President Roosevelt from American President Lines. The 456-passenger, twin-stacker was thoroughly rebuilt in Greece for New York-based & Caribbean cruising. She re-emerged as the Atlantis, carrying 962 passengers in all. The 24,000-ton ship had a long career --- she'd already been the General W P Richardson, Laguardia and Leilani. |
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Titanic! With the 100th anniversary of her tragic sinking coming up next year, here are some frequently asked questions about the famed White Star liner. The information comes from a dear friend, Charles Haas, an internationally recognized expert & author on the Titanic and her sinking. What shipping regulations changed after the Titanic accident? Laws pertaining to lifeboats, distress signals (both rockets and radio), trans-Atlantic "traffic lanes", establishment of an International Ice Patrol; as a direct result of the disaster, in the U.S. the Federal Radio Commission (later the Federal Communications Commission) began regulating radio, setting aside frequencies just for distress messages, standardizing distress signals, requiring that operators "clear the air" and stop sending when a distress message was being sent, and ensuring that ships' radio operators had to respond to and cooperate with other operators in giving priority to messages involving ships' safety.Perhaps most importantly, the international "Safety of Life at Sea" (SOLAS) conventions have been held from time to time ever since Titanic (1912, 1929, 1948, 1960, etc.) where the nations of the world discuss and agree to revisions in shipping safety regulations that now make shipping the safest way of getting from one place to another. If you search for SOLAS online you should find further information about how the SOLAS rules are truly Titanic's living legacy to future generations. These regulations govern everything from ship construction to emergency lighting to provisions for thwarting hijackers. Groups such as the Coast Guard now inspect ships regularly for compliance with the rules, can demand demonstrations of all the ship's safety systems, and can actually stop a ship from sailing if significant safety defects are found. |
Changing hands! Windstar, which slipped into bankruptcy last April, has been sold to Whippoorwill Associates, an investment company headquartered in White Plains NY. |
Ocean & Cruise News
Current & Past Issues Members can download a PDF of current and past issues using the following links
Past Issues of this "new" Email Supplement beginning with the Feb. 21, 2011 issue can be found by clicking our logo below
The above listed items are copyrighted material and are for the exclusive use of paid members in good standing. Any unauthorized duplication, transmission or distribution of this material without the written permission of The World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society is strictly prohibited. |
About Bill Miller
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!
On the horizon! Brian Hawley is penning a new book, filled with lots of photos, about the Olympic, the White Star liner completed in 1911 and sister to the infamous Titanic
Ocean liners in words & pictures! An updated list of my published ocean liner books ... and available thru bmce48@yahoo.com.

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

RMS Caronia: Cunard's Green Goddess
(co-authored with Brian Hawley) The History Press Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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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WORLD OCEAN & CRUISE LINER SOCIETY'S
HOSTED CRUISES
One of the great things about being a World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society member is joining us aboard one of our "Hosted" member cruises. Each cruise features low group rates, special amenities plus onboard lectures and events
Rotterdam - Transatlantic (9-Night)
July 3rd, 2011 - from $1,499*
(Rotterdam to New York)
Rotterdam - Transatlantic (9-Night)
July 12th, 2011 - from $1,199*
(New York to Rotterdam)
(Bill Miller and Stephen Card will be on both of the above voyages!
Eurodam - Canada & New England (10-Night)
Sep 30, 2011 - from $1,699*
Noordam - Southern Caribbean (10 Night)
Dec 2, 2011 - from $1,019*
Silhouette - Eastern Caribbean (12 Night)
Jan 29, 2012 - from $1,499*
*Rates are per person based on double occupancy.
Government fees are additional |
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