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E NEWS SUPPLEMENT...by Bill Miller
Week of January 13th, 2014
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Welcome to another issue of our Enews Supplement.
Thanks to our friend Hans Hoffman the following are two great pictures of the new Norwegian Getaway departing from Rotterdam. 
If you are sailing on Queen Elizabeth departing January 18th, please be sure to say hello to Bill, he will be lecturing aboard this sailing.
If you would like to join one of our groups in 2014, Bill and I will be hosting a cruise aboard the Royal Princess on October 11, 2014. Information can be found here
Royal Princess 2014
If you haven't joined us on Facebook yet, you're missing one great news
Holland America has provided us once again with Shipboard Credit coupons good for sailing through 2014. These are available to members in good standing. They will be shipped with the next issue after your renewal has been received. If you have already renewed, just send us an email at membership@wocls.org and we will ship them to you. If you haven't yet renewed you may do so online here..
Regards
Tom Cassidy
You May Renew Your Membership Here
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 On the horizon!
Carnival Corporation is investigating the possibilities of developing a new, West Coast Mexican cruise port - Isla Santa Margarita is located half way between Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. |
Expansion!
While the third of a class of high-standard but smallish cruise ships, the 11,000-grt, 260-passenger Le Soleal, entered service last year, a fourth, a sister has now been ordered for delivery in 2015. Ponant is now UK-owned, but is still seen as a French cruise line. Ponant had been French owned until last year.
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Looking spiffy!
Freshly named by none other than Julie Andrews, we were aboard the maiden cruise of the spanking new Crystal Serenity back in July 2003. Just months before, in March, I had gone to the shipyard at St Nazaire in France to research and then write the commemorative commissioning book. On the eve of the maiden cruise, however, the French builders were a bit worried - not everything was 100% perfect and so they asked for a two-week extension on final delivery. With a tight schedule planned (including the well-timed appearance of Ms Andrews at Southampton for the naming festivities), Crystal - wanting perfection, prompted in good measure by their Tokyo-based, NYK Line owners) - went forward just the same. The ship sailed off, with a specially reduced 800 passengers, with barely a screw out of place. But just in case, all 800 guests got a full refund - a free ride! Adding to the occasion, Dionne Warwick, Marvin Hamlish and Alan King were guest entertainers on that gala voyage - sailing from Southampton up to Norway, then over to Scotland and then down around western Europe to Barcelona.
Facelifts! But even beautiful ladies, ladies of the sea, get older and age. The ten-year-old Crystal Serenity has now had two major refits/facelifts (costing a combined $52 million - or a total of $120 million when counting two recent modernizations for her fleetmate, the 1995-built Crystal Symphony). A month ago, in November, the 50,000-ton Serenity was in a shipyard in Cadiz, Spain. Workers toiled round the clock - redesigning and redecorating the ship's penthouses as well as the Lido Deck and its indoor/outdoor Trident Grill, Tastes Restaurant and Lido Cafe. The results are impressive. Called the "Extreme Ship Makeover," the Serenity has been, according to one writer, "buffed and polished, re-imagined and re-designed".
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Great Lakes - Busy Times!
Cruising on the North American Great Lakes is becoming more popular and will see 5 cruise ships in the area this year. Biggest will be the 420-passenger, German-operated Hamburg, the former Columbus of Hapag-Lloyd and then the 210-berth Pearl Seas Mist. Then there are three small cruise ships: Blount Small Ship Adventures' 100-bed sisters Grand Mariner and Grand Caribe, and Travel Dynamic's 38-passeger Yorktown. Altogether, there will be 52 departures, visiting 67 different ports and a total offering of 6,000 berths. |
 Liverpool - Planning underway!
The historic Cunard Building facing onto the River Mersey in Liverpool has been bought by city authorities to become a cruise terminal. The century old building, in Edwardian Renaissance style and adjoining the famed Royal Liver Building, is part of the city's plan to expand its cruise business. Southampton and Dover are the leading cruise ports in the UK but companies such as the London-based Fred Olsen Line have run cruises from Liverpool, convenient for north England passengers. On July 4th 2015, the Queen Mary 2 will make a special crossing from Liverpool to New York via Halifax and Boston to celebrate Cunard's 175th anniversary. Two months before, all three Cunard Queens - including the Queen Elizabeth & Queen Victoria - will rendezvous in Liverpool.
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Lifting high!
Two of the world's largest floating crane barges, the 400-ft long Left Coast Lifter and the 225-ft long Thomas W, have arrived in New York after being towed via the Panama Canal from the West Coast. Both will be used in the $3.1 billion construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge along the upper Hudson River.
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Succession!
Using a contest run on Facebook, NCL has chosen the names
Norwegian Escape and
Norwegian Bliss for its next-generation Breakaway Class ships. These new twins will be bigger, however, at 163,000 tons and carrying up to 4,200 passengers.
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Ocean Liner Collectibles-Strolling along the Prom Deck!
A set of wooden deck chairs from the famed, 1950s French trans-Atlantic liner Liberte sold recently for $3,000.
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Ocean Liner History - Seeking the sun!
The 750-passenger French liners Antilles & Flandre were used in France-West Indies service in the 1960s. Rather expectedly, they called at Martinique and Guadeloupe - along with the likes of San Juan, St Kitts and Barbados. On the inter-Caribbean segments, passages were offered as 7-night cruises. In 1965, with Air France connections from New York or via Miami, a cruise with air was priced from $245.
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Oman - For sale sign!
The 28,000-grt Veronica has been serving as a floating hotel at the port of Duqm in Oman since 2010. Awaiting the construction of new hotels on shore, her job is now complete and, as from last October, the 1966-built liner is said to be for sale. She's a ship with a long and diverse history - having been Sweden's Kungsholm, then Sea Princess and Victoria for P&O, and finally Mona Lisa and Oceanic II for Greek owners. She was constructed at the famed John Brown shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland.
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Bigger & biggest!
The world's largest cruise ship, well for the moment, is RCI's 225,282-get Allure of the Seas. She's just a snippet larger than her twin, the Oasis of the Seas. The 1,187-ft long mega cruise ship, completed in 2010, can carry almost 6,400 passengers. An even larger, 227,000-grt sister-version is now under construction in France and may be followed by a fourth and even a fifth. The current list reads:
Allure of the Seas..(2010)..225,282-grt...1,187-ft long
Oasis of the Seas..(2009)..225,282-grt...1,187-ft long
Norwegian Epic..(2010)..155,873-grt...1,081-ft long
Freedom of the Seas..(2006)..154,407-grt...1,112-ft long
Liberty of the Seas..(2007)..154,407-grt...1,112-ft long
Independence of the Seas..(2008)..154,407-grt...1,112-ft long
Queen Mary 2..(2004)..148,528-grt...1,132-ft long
Norwegian Breakaway..(2013)..145,655-grt...1,063-ft long
Norwegian Getaway..(2014)..145,655-grt...1,063-ft long
Royal Princess..(2013)..142,229-grt...1,083-ft long
MSC Divina..(2012)..139,400-grt...1,093-ft long
MSC Preziosa..(2013)..139,400-grt...1,093-ft long
Navigator of the Seas..(2002)..138,279-grt...1,020-ft long
Mariner of the Seas..(2003)..138,279-grt...1,020-ft long
MSC Splendida..(2009)..137,936-grt...1,093-ft long
MSC Fantasia..(2008)..137,936-grt...1,093-ft long
Explorer of the Seas..(2000)..137,308-grt...1,020-ft long
Voyager of the Seas..(1999)..137,276-grt...1,020-ft long
Adventure of the Seas..(2001)..137,276-grt...1,020-ft long
Disney Dream..(2011)..133,000-grt...1,115-ft long
Disney Fantasy..(2012)..133,000-grt...1,115-ft long
In other RCI news, the 2002-built Navigator of the Seas
is getting a facelift this winter in a Grand Bahama shipyard. Among changes and improvements, some 100 inside cabins will receive 80-inch floor-to-ceiling, high definition screen that will provide real sounds and views of the sea, just as if seen from a "real" balcony.
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 Renewal & Refurbishment!
Three ex-NCL ships have been refitted and now busily serving in the booming Asian cruise market. The 42,200-grt
Superstar Libra dates from 1988 and was the Seaward
and later Norwegian Sea; the 50,700-get Superstar Gemini
had been the Dreamward and later
Norwegian Dream; and finally, the Superstar Aquarius was the
Windward and then Norwegian Wind. The latter two ships now are geared primarily for the Chinese market, often running cruises out of Shanghai.
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 Bits 'n pieces!
To raise further capital for pay off dockage and other charges at her berth in Philadelphia, pieces of the long-faded super liner
United States - idle for 44 years, since November 1969 -- are being sold-off. Parts of the engine room, so we hear, are included and were fittings from the ship's kingposts. Plans to restore the liner, first as a cruise ship and then in some stationery role, have all come to nothing. Last year, studies were being made at ports and facilities near Philadelphia where the 990-ft long ship might be scrapped.
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Sydney - Grand Opening!
We might not have mentioned that the $60 million White Bay Cruise Terminal in Sydney harbor opened last year. P&O's Pacific Pearl made the inaugural call. ... Australian cruising is all but booming, by the way. It jumped by 12% from 2012 to 2013
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Ocean & Cruise News
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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
Oceania Riviera
Sailing roundtrip from Miami and visiting Tortola; St. John's; Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia; Gustavia and Miami March 28, 2014 (10-Nights)
Exclusive WOCLS Events with Host Art Sbarksy
Special WOCLS Q&A with Art Sbarsky as he takes you through his career in the cruise industry.
This is a Fundraising Cruise for Art's favorite charity.
The American Cancer Society.
- Welcome cocktail reception with Art Sbarsky for our guests
- Art Sbarsky will host a dinner in a specialty restaurant with our group
- Includes airfare from most Oceania gateways or an air credit
- Includes a special $150 per cabin shipboard credit
Inside cabin from - $2899*
Window cabin from - $3199*
Balcony cabin from - $3499
Suite cabin from - $4999*
*Rates are cruise only, per person, based on double occupancy. Includes government fees
CRUISES MUST BE BOOKED WITH THE WOCLS GROUP
COORDINATOR TO PARTICIPATE IN WOCLS EVENTS!!
For more information please
call (800) 229-2542
cruises@wocls.org
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About Bill Miller 
Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships --- from those "floating palaces" of yesteryear to the current generation of cruise ships, the "floating resorts". Called "Mr. Ocean Liner," he has written some 80 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 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 450 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 Super Liners, 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 America, 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, deputy director of the New York Harbor Festival, served 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 1,500 miniature ship models, most of them being passenger ships.
By 2011, 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. In 2011, he hosted Cinematic Crossings: Ocean Liners on the Big Screen, a 5-day film festival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center. Currently, he spends some 200 days a year lecturing onboard ocean liners & cruise ships.
Follow Bill's look back at ship's of yesteryear..
Heard Along the Boat Deck
And his current and past cruise experiences...
Scribblings
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William Miller Books!
Canadian Pacific was one of the great Atlantic liner companies, sailing out of Liverpool on the St Lawrence route to Montreal and Quebec. With crisp white hulls and their distinctive checkered funnels, they were the 'Empresses of the Atlantic'. Classic, two-class ships, they were also well-known as popular winter cruise ships.
Covering the period from the end of the war until 1971, when the fleet was sold off, the book begins with the renovated Empress of Canada and Empress of France, taking us through the new builds of the 1950s, including the Empress of Britain, Empress of England and the company's swansong, the beautiful Empress of Canada, constructed in 1961. British, Canadian and American travelers remember the Empresses with fond memories and the ships also continued sailing for other companies, including the fledgling Carnival, now the largest cruise company in the world. $29.95 plus postage & handling
 In the world of ocean liners, those built for French lines were the epitome of style and panache, and SS Normandie perhaps the pinnacle of this. When she entered service in 1935, she was the largest, longest, fastest and certainly the best fed ship of her time, serving the finest food imaginable in a dining room longer than the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Normandie embodied high glamour and was a firm favourite of many, albeit for a short time. Times were changing and even the French government's massive subsidies to the builders, an attempt to make Normandie a flagship for the drive out of the Depression. could only work for so long, as the Second World War drew nearer. She might have been a valuable troopship, and served a the USS Lafayette for a time, but caught fire at her New York pier in 1942. The great ship was salvaged, but with an expensive restoration in prospect she could not escape being scrapped in 1946-47. Through beautiful illustrations and evocative writing, William H.Miller presents the story of one of the most lavish liners ever to cross the seas. $29.95 plus postage & handling
 Union Castle Liners - From Great Britain to Africa 1946-1977 - William H. Miller
It was one of the most important British liner routes of all - the express run from Southampton to the South African Cape. Carrying passengers as well as cargo, including the all-important mail, it was a byword in travel - 'every Thursday at 4', as one of the big Union-Castle liners set off for Cape Town and beyond. By the late 1950s, these mail ships included the Arundel Castle, Carnarvon Castle, Winchester Castle, Athlone Castle, Stirling Castle, Capetown Castle and two post-war sensations, the Edinburgh Castle and Pretoria Castle. Three new liners arrived in 1959, the last great ships built for Union-Castle. They were Pendennis Castle, Windsor Castle and Transvaal Castle.
The route was not just to the Cape - for Union-Castle also offered a service down the East coast of Africa and a round-Africa route too. In 1977, with the mail contract and passengers lost to the jet and cargo to container ships, the service ceased in October that year and Union-Castle was no more. Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK. $29.95
Great Atlantic Liners of the 20th Century in Color (co-authored with Anton Logvinenko; Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK. $29.95
 Ile de France And Liberte - France's Premier Post War Liners The latest in the Classic Liners series evokes the glamour and ambience of two of the most beloved liners of the 1950s Île de France, completed in 1927, was a hugely famous prewar liner, a ship with unique style and character. She was said to offer "the cheeriest way to cross the Atlantic." After wartime service as a valiant troopship, she was restored with what Paris fashion calls a "new look," relaunched in 1949. The Liberté was built in 1930, originally the German Europa, but ceded to France as reparations in 1946. She was de-Germanized and restyled in French Line luxury as the Liberté, recommissioned in 1950. The Île de France sailed until 1958; the Liberté until 1961, and this illustrated book concentrates on their heydays in the glorious, post-World War II years, when they were the largest and grandest liners under the French flag. Both ships were famed for their service and onboard ambience, but most especially for their cooking, and they were said to be the best-fed liners on the Atlantic...$25.00
 Along the Hudson - luxury Liner Row in the 50's & 60's
In the 1950s and '60s, countless passenger liners called at New York and usually berthed at Luxury Liner Row along the City's West Side. The cast includes the Cunard Queens, the Ile de France & Liberte, United States, Independence, Gripsholm & Queen of Bermuda. It is a grand assemblage of great ships -- both large & small. $29.95
Great American Passenger Ships 
The story of American passenger ships over the 20th century -- from the Leviathan to the Lurline, Santa Rosa & America to the brilliant United States. Interesting text accompanied by lots of black & white photos as well as color. $29.95.
Great Liners Story
A fascinating "little book" about the great liners, those floating palaces, of the 20th century -- from the grand German four-stackers to the age of the Oasis of the Seas. Mostly color in this hardcover book. $15.00.
Great Passenger Ships 1910-1920
It was an age of evolution, when size and speed were almost the ultimate considerations. 'Bigger was said to be better' and ship owners were not exempted from the prevailing mood. While the German four-stackers of 1897-06 and then Cunard's brilliant Mauretania & Lusitania of 1907 led the way to larger and grander liners. White Star Line countered by 1911 with the Olympic, her sister Titanic and a near-sister, the Britannic. The French added the France while Cunard took delivery of the beloved Aquitania. But the Germans won out -- they produced the 52,000-ton Imperator and a near-sister, the Vaterland, the last word in shipbuilding and engineering prior to the First World War. They and their sister, the Bismarck, remained the biggest ships in the world until 1935.
But other passenger ships appear in this decade --- other Atlantic liners, but also ships serving on more diverse routes: Union Castle to Africa, P&O to India and beyond, the Empress liners on the trans-Pacific run. We look at a grand age of maritime creation, ocean-going superlative, but also sad destruction in the dark days of the First War. It was, in all ways, a fascinating period.
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.....
I Was Born in Hoboken: Memories of the 1950s & '60s (Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ, due fall 2011)
The Last Great Dynasty: The Royal House of Windsor (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, due 2012)
The Cunard Yanks (co-authored with Ian Wright; pending but due 2012)
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