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Destination - The Only Response to the Attack in Barcelona Is to Keep on Travelling

If you want the terrorists to win, refuse travelling. But there is only one response to the Barcelona attack, keep on travelling. Yesterday a concert of Allah-Las in Rotterdam was cancelled because of a terror warning. The lorry with gas cylinders was stopped and the driver arrested and interrogated. The warning came from Spain. by Earl of Cruise Las Ramblas, Barcelona - Photo by peresanz, courtsey Getty Images It is not possible to know what counts as being “too soon” when it comes to the idea of life returning to normal in the aftermath of any tragedy. Especially after a terror attack. In a troubled era when the “Breaking News” ticker begins flashing on your TV, phone or computer screen at any moment, and the information it brings may well be another shard of despair, it is difficult to say what constitutes day-to-day existence, or whether we can slip back into it when it has been ruptured by a bomb blast, a knife rampage, or a delivery va...

HISTORY - THALIA Austrias TRAUMSCHIFF of the BELLE ÉPOQUE

During time of BELLE ÉPOQUE [ bɛleˈpɔk ] Austria-Hungary´s LLOYD AUSTRIACO had a Traumschiff on its own. While HAPAG had its PRINZESSIN VICTORIA LUISE. The first purpose built cruise ship ever. The term "cruise" was not in use in those days, the "cruises" had been called Pleasure Voyages, Gesellschaftsreisen or Vergnügungsreisen. LLOYD AUSTRIACO wishing to participate in this lucrative and new maritime business, they choose as many others, the way of reconstructing older liner tonnage into an Austrian BELLE ÉPOQUE pleasure travel boat. And some still send out their liners to pleasure voyages. by Earl of Cruise THALIA in a Norwegian Fjord, by H. Heusser - Source: Wikipedia After the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and proclamation of the German Empire in 1871, the 1866 constituated "lesser Germany" (Kleindeutsche Lösung) had been cemented. This consolidation made Austro-Hungary finaly a south-east European power, dominating the Balkan. And after th...

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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 - 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...

HISTORY - FRENCH LINE - COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, a review - Part I

The COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE TRANSATLANTIQUE, known as FRENCH LINE in the English speaking world, or TRANSAT or CGT, had its origins in the victorious end of the Crimean War. S upported by the success and a wave of national consciousness emperor Napoléon III . wanted strengthening the French primacy on the oceans. by Earl of Cruise 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 . The company´s headquarter was situated in Paris, while the homeport of the vessels had been Le Havre . The French navy was gone face since their humiliating defeat by the British under Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar 1805. Foreign lines served the most prestigious and permanent growing route on the Atlantic and delivered French Mail into the risi...