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Germany’s two luxury liners, BREMEN and EUROPA , have not only played an important part in their country’s mercantile revival, but have added also an immortal chapter to the history of transatlantic travel. Copy from Shipping Wonders of the World   From part 6 , published 17 March 1936 editing by Earl of Cruise ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: Shipping Wonders of the World/Bundespresse Archiv The PRIDE OF A NATION - the NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD quadruple-screw turbine express liner BREMEN . The keel of this ship was laid in June 1927. Her launch took place in August, 1928. In less than a year later, the Bremen made her first voyage to America, when she crossed the Atlantic from Cherbourg to New York in four days seventeen hours forty-two minutes, thus setting up a new record and gaining the coveted “Blue Riband”. During the passage the Bremen attained an average speed of 27.83 knots. ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: W ikipedia For the pop...

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...

HAMBURG-AMERIKANISCHEPACKETFAHRT ACTIEN GESELLSCHAFT - HAPAG or HAMBURG AMERICA LINE is reflecting, as Germany, the LLOYD of Bremen, two times of rsing and two times of devasting downfall and a third rise. BORUSSIA , 1856, First Day Cover 1956 of Deutsche Bundespost - own collection Once Germany´s biggest shipping line HAPAG / HAMBURG-AMERIKANISCHE PACKETFAHRT ACTIEN GESELLSCHAFT-LLOYD, merged with it former old Hanseatic rival NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD in 1970, to now HAPAG-LLOYD, had its peaks and downs, but rose each time on its own to new hights, without any state subsidies. As German mail subsidiaries did never cover the costs for purchasing or mainting the vessels ordered for the specific German mail lines.   by Earl of Cruise In this article I used most German Wikipedia links, as they proved to be mostly of better research quality, and surprisinf to me, some English lines and liners have only German written articles, for the others, English Wiki links are to ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

Not many know about the Austro-Hungary shipping line, AUSTRO AMERICANA , which sailed out of Trieste to the Americas. Austro-Hungary and shipping? You may ask ... you may have heard about Vienna Walz, coffe house culture, Hotel Sacher and its famous chocolate cake, the Prater, chateau Schönbrunn, the Fiakers - the famous horse carriages and such things. But passenger shipping lines? There has been AUSTRO AMERICANA and ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD , renamed in LLOYD TRIESTINO after 1918 and after purchased by EVERGREEN renamed in Italia Marittima. The actual company ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD is a new formed management company situated in Austria.   by Earl of Cruise KAISER FRANZ JOSEH I. the biggest liner of AUSTRO AMERICANA - own collextion Parts of my family lived for a long time in the Austro-Hungary empire, which can be qualified as a "United Nations of the Balkan". Having traces into Austria-Hungay, the realm of Hungary in special, it is a pleasure for me making thes...