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La France en Mer, á bord de BLEU DE FRANCE - a swan song. I have made a wonderful cruise in spring 2009 on board BLEU DE FRANCE, which started her life as HAPAG-LLOYD´s EUROPA in 1981.  by Earl of Cruise BLEU DE FRANCE in Barcelona - own photography © Earl of Cruise Deep rain clouds hang over Marseille. The radiant white city, the gateway of France to the south, shows itself grey. The roads, trotoires and buildings still are wet from the last rainshower. Our car turns into the entrance of the Gare Maritime in the new port. And there she is, the BLEU DE FRANCE. Darkblue hull, white, wet glistening superstructure. The ship seemed to be covered with a layer of laquer. We are unloading the luggage at the check-in and have the boarding, we're early. A steward leads our small group of travellers to the final formalities at the reception in the cabins. that friendly "Bon voyage" from the reception is still echoing in the ears, and the steward opens the door to our Ri...

STX FRANCE and FINCANTIERI finally merge. The deal is done.  After taking controll by the state of France, the nationalization, never meant to be permnanent, created a new deal to secure STX FRANCE, former Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire . by Earl of Cruise, based on CRUISEINDUSTRY NEWS, MER ET MARINE report and REUTERS Keel laying ceremony for CELEBRITY EDGE - courtesy STX FRANCE Media reports coming out of France claim a long-awaited deal to give FINCANTIERI control of STX FRANCE is essentially done. After the nationalization of STX FRANCE by President Macron. The takeover deal with FINCANTIERI was already settled under the presidency of late President Fran çois Hollande . According to this, French investors should hold 45 per cent of the shares in STX FRANCE, 48 per cent would go to FINCANTIERI and a further 7 per cent to Fondazione CR Trieste . The new French President Emmanuel Macron, however, broke with the agreement negotiated in July . The strugg...

CUNARD , will launch in 2022 the biggest cruise ship in its 177 years history. The yet unnamed vessel will accomodate 3,000 passengers ... CUNARD is one of the world’s most recognised shipping and cruise brand, and one of the oldest steamship companies in the worls. ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLYOD/LLOYD AUSTRIACO , founded in 1833, today ITALIA MARTTIMA, former LLOYD TRIESTINO, when becoming Italian, is a bit older - by seven years. The company had a twisted history and ended as container shipping company and is now part of the EVERGREEN GROUP , in its MARINE department. by Earl of Cruise The CUNARD fleet as it will be in 2022 - courtesy THE TELEGRAPH A few days ago CUNARD announced it will build a new ship to be launched in 2022. A 3,000 passenger ship, the fourth and largest in the actual CUNARD fleet by total capacity. The yet unnamed cruise ship will join the QUEEN MARY 2 (QM2), QUEEN VICTORIA and QUEEN ELIZABETH . The QUEEN VICTORIA and QUEEN ELIZABETH are VISTA Class crui...

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...