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Luxury Expedition - PONANT has reached 30 years

PONANT , France's number 2 cruise company and world leader in polar expeditions celebrates 30 years of existence. It was on 1 April 1988 that the adventure began in Nantes, where 14 young Merchant Navy officers aged 23 to 29, including Jean-Emmanuel Sauvée, still active as CEO, and Philippe Videau, decided to create the company, which first took the name COMPAGNIE des ÎLES du PONANT (it became COMPAGNIE du PONANT in 2009 and simply PONANT in 2014). PONANT is the only cruise company in France flying the Tricolore. by Earl of Cruise based on an article by Vincent Groizeleau at Mer et Marine LE PONANT in the port of Bonifacio, Corsica - Sourece: Wikipedia ( original seize ) The first ship, built in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, was born in 1991. It is the sailboat and cruise vessel LE PONANT , a modern three-masted ship of 85.5 meters long with 32 cabins, still in service. LE PONANT´s sails became the logo of PONANT.  LE LEVANT - Source: Wikipedia ( original seize ) ...

Heritage - Geniale Göttin, Film über Hedy Lamarr, ohne die Schauspielerin gäbe es weder WiFi noch Bluetooth

Der Film zeigt die verschiedenen Facetten: „Geniale Göttin“ – Hedy Lamarr – im Labor. Foto: The Everette Hedy Lamarr wurde als Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler am 9. November 1914 in Wien geboren. Sie war das einzige Kind einer jüdischen Bankiersfamilie. Die Lamarr galt zu ihrer Zeit als die schönste Frau im Film, wenn nicht gar der Welt. Aber sie war auch eine der umstrittensten Schönheiten überhaupt. „Es ist für Frauen immer noch schwer, in der Technik anerkannt zu werden – gerade für eine Frau wie Hedy. Ihre Schönheit hat den Blick verstellt auf das, was hinter der Fassade steckt“, beschreibt Forscherin Anja Drephal von der Humboldt-Universität in Berlin das Schicksal der 1914 geborenen und 2000 gestorbenen österreichischen Schauspielerin Hedy Lamarr. Das motivierte auch Peter Fotheringham vom Kino Sweet Sixteen im Depot den Film zur Premiere in Dortmund zu zeigen. „Zur Premiere verlosen wir unter den Zuschauern eine Hörbuchfassung ...

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Ocean Liners in Movies or Films at Sea (updated Nov 2017)

For liners and the shipping companies movies and films had been a top marketing tool Movies or Films and liners at sea, had been intriguing me since I have read about in my youth in LUXUSLINER - BILDER EINER GROSSEN ZEIT by Lee Server ( THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS ). But earlier, mot only since my first crossing, I was keen watching movies with liners in it, and disapointed, which was an understatement, when I realized the films have been made in a set ashore in some movie "factory". That was after my first crossing.   by Earl of Cruise an essay in progress `Sabrina´, Humphrey Bogart in the office, while LIBERTÉ is sailing out of New York harbor - screenshot Ocean liners, especially those of the luxury category, had been the location of dramas, love stories, thrillers, suspense and catastrophies sinde film was born, or nearly. In this list, the most descriptions are taken from Wikipedia, as I guess no one can expect having seen all these films ... otherwise I w...

HISTORY - HAMBURG-SÜD and the CAP express liner

The CAP express liners of HAMBURG-SÜD, CAP FINISTERRE, CAP TRAFALGAR, CAP POLONIO and CAP ARCONA, are known worldwide for their luxury, renowned service on board and grandeur. Their successors of the 60s, the CAP SAN vessels, have not been that elegant, but truly first class and were known as the "White Swans" of the Atlantic. by Earl of Cruise HAMBURG-SÜD´s SANTA TERESA in Santos - courtesy HAMBURG-SÜD Since its formation in 1871, HAMBURG-SÜDAMERIKANISCHE DAMPFSCHIFFFAHRTS-GESELLSCHAFT ( HSDG or HAMBURG-SÜD ) has evolved from a conventional freight and passenger shipping company into a global operating transport logistics organisation. Today, it ranks among the world's ten largest container shipping lines and is one of the leading providers in the North-South trades. T ill recently it was a member of the successful Oetker Group, one of the largest and best-known family enterprises in Germany. The heirs and owners sold HAMBURG-SÜD to the Danish MAERSK Group ...

HISTORY - Traveling with airliner LZ 129 HINDENBURG was the most luxurious airtravel

The real airliner LZ 129 HINDENBURG enabled the most luxurious airtravel for decades. Imagine, gliding through the air while the landscape or the sea below can be seen ... LZ 129 HINDENBURG marks the climax of airship construction. On May 6, 1937, the story of civilian airship ended in a tragedy. In Lakehurst, New Jersey, the largest flying object and has been with the similar sized LZ 130 GRAF ZEPPELIN II the most luxurious of all time. How this came about can be reconstructed logically, a series of fatal physics concatenations . The airship LZ 129 HINDENBURG marks the climax of airship construction. It was in its time the fastest and most exclusive traveling object between Europe and America. The challenges of the construction of the giant of the heaven were immense. by Earl of Cruise LZ 129 HINDENBURG, 1936, in Lakehurst - digital copy of a coloured cover photo, originally by Bill Schneider, published in Dan Grossman´s book ` ZEPPELIN HINDENBURG: AN ILLUSTRATED HI...

ss NORMANDIE 1935 - 1942 IX

s s / te NORMANDIE starting from cold Owners: COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE BUILDERS: PENH Ö ET, St. Nazaire, France   by Stephen Carey © , editing by Earl of Cruise   This document is almost exclusively about the engineering aspects of NORMANDIE , mainly on how to start her up from cold. If you are looking for photos of the passenger spaces, there is a plethora of them on the web, in Facebook groups - Admirers of the ss Normandie , ss Normandie photographic file , The French Ocean Liners / Les Paquebots Fran ç ais , ss Normandie , GREAT LINERS OF THE PAST & PRESENT , and others, Pinterest and in articles about NORMANDIE here in the blog, please see at the end of the article. Using "ss" for NORMANDIE is quite incorrect, as NORMANDIE was a Turbo Electric vessel and not a steamship, therefore NORMANDIE should be adressed as "te".   by Earl of Cruise te / ss NORMANDIE berthed in Le Havre, Gare Maritime May 29th, 1935 - colouring courtesy ...

HISTORY - FRENCH LINE - COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, a review - Part II Belle Epoque

The COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, known since the Belle Epoque as FRENCH LINE in the English speaking world (or TRANSAT or CGT), had its origins in 1861.  by Earl of Cruise E mperor Napoléon III. wanted strengthening the French primacy on the oceans and an adequate mail line for the French mail. The 1855 established COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE MARITIME of the Péreire brothers was the core for the new company. This company´s headquarter was, as any major business in France, situated in Paris, while the homeport of the vessels had been Le Havre for the North Atlantic and Marseille for the route to the Orient and Africa. Houseflag of COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE S.A. - soure: ebay "On   limited space, we put our country on display", a crewmember declared once. And no other line put in more of its national personality into its product than COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE . After the French - Prussian/German war of 1870/71 France had to sig...

Transatlantic - OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY, New York, 1846-1857

The OCEANSTEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY was the first United States flag Transatlantic steamship company to offer regularly scheduled transatlantic service to continental Europe. The company was founded in response to a U.S. government decision to subsidize a steamship operation by means of mail contracts in an attempt to compete with British government subsidies to British CUNARD LINE. The mail line should serve the ports of Le Havre and Bremen . In 1783 Bremen was amoung the first states to acknowledge diplomatic the new formed United States of America.   by Earl of Cruise WASHINGTON of OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY - own collection Bevor the advent of usable steam engines, sailing packets dominated the Northatlantic, e.g. BLACK BALL LINE . This line and other sailing packets from the USA dominated the market with their more or less frequent crossings depending on the winds - sometimes up to 10 weeks westbound. BLACK BALL LINE was a freight, mail and passe...

HISTORY - One of the earliest steam ship companies in the world ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD was founded in 1833 - III 1914-19 becoming LLOYD TRIESTINO

After the assaination of crownprince Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajewo , all European powers did run with `eyes wide shut´ in the first catastrophy of the 20th century. This war, caused equally by all the imperial powers, which was thought " to end all wars in the future ", seen as a " clearing thunderstorm ", caused with the Versailles Treaty only more war, grief and sorrow, with a final push from the Great Depression of the 1930s. LLOYD express steamers PRINZ HOHENLOHE and BARON GAUTSCH in Pola - own collection, copy from a postcard Even if the signals for this war could be seen as Menetekel (portent) at the walls, everybody was taken by surprise. Especially the economy, as nobody really was prepared for this war. by Earl of Cruise At the beginning of the First World War many ships of LLOYD AUSTRIACO were scattered on the oceans of the world. Some ships had to seek shelter in neutral ports, numerous were used by the k. u. k. Kriegsmar...

HISTORY - ss KAISER FRIEDRICH the failed German Greyhound

The failed German Greyhound ss KAISER FRIEDRICH is one of the tragic figures in shipping history, as we find it in rms TITANIC , ss NORMANDIE, ss GREAT EASTERN and a number of other vessels human engineering created. Each vessel has its own history record. by Earl of Cruise ss KAISER FRIEDRICH build 1897 by Schichau - source Wikipedia Isambard Brunel created the perfect vessel of his time, or thought so. The ss GREAT EASTERN was in the end, besides far ahead of time, but without the power she needed, a financial desaster, and in the end the cause of the heart attack and death of the genius of the 19th century. The tragedy of rms TITANIC is all too known to all of us. While she was build to sail smooth over the Atlantic, as her sister the rms OLYMPIC , "the old reliable", did. she did not finish her inauguaral sailing and took 1,514 souls with her to the bottom of the Atlantic.  The ss NORMANDIE , the `Palais Flottant´, the `Vaisseau de Lumière´ was ahead of her...

HISTORY - The CUNARD - WHITE STAR Liner rms QUEEN ELIZABETH (1938-1972)

Over years, in my early youth, the QUEEN ELIZABETH was shaping my mind for the perfect ocean liner, despite having made my first experiences with a liner onboard the HANSEATIC (1), ex EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND, ex EMPRESS OF JAPAN. When leaning at the rail of HANSEATIC entering the port, my eyes where every where and I wished to by a camera, I took all in. And when seeing the QUEEN ELIZABETH with my own eyes, the nice behaving young boy turned into a tomboy, that my grandmére was no longer able to tame ... I did draw quite a lot of looks, back then. I found, while on research, this article and thought it interesting publishing in my blog: written and published by John Sheperd at liverpoolships.org editing and comments by Earl of Cruise I ( John Shepard ) joined the CUNARD LINE in March 1962 as an Assistant Purser and sailed the QUEEN ELIZABETH throughout that year, before transferring to the Liverpool-based CARINTHIA in November, where I remained as Crew Purser for the next five...

HISTORY - rms MAJESTIC - Hand in Hand with rms TITANIC

TITANIC and MAJESTIC (1890), both Royal Mail Ships, hand in hand? How so? The review of João Martins will show. by João Martins , editing by Earl of Cruise And WHITE STAR LINE was more than only a shipping line which employed rms TITANIC. WHITE STAR was company with a great heritage and introduced many innovations which became standards. Founded by Thomas Henry Ismay , originally from Maryport, and shareholders amoung whom had been HARLAND&WOLFF . Later the Irish shipbuilder, located in Belfast, built all ships for WHITE STAR. rms MAJESTIC as built by HARLAND&WOLFF - Sour ce: Wikipedia ( original seize ) T he rms MAJESTIC was a 9,965 GRT British ocean liner built by HARLAND & WOLFF for WHITE STAR LINE and completed in 1890. Her career was profoundly intertwined with rms TITANIC. In the late 1880s competition for the Blue Riband, the award for the fastest Atlantic crossing, was fierce amongst the major shipping lines. At the time the prize belonged to CUNA RD...