Category: People
The Killer Steward of the Liverpool, Dublin, and London Steam Packet Company
In the sweltering heat of August 1891, a chilling tale of passion and murder unfolded in Victorian England. While passengers aboard the Liverpool, Dublin, and London Steam Packet Company’s SS May Day enjoyed their journey across the Irish Sea, little did they know that among them walked a man whose passion and emotions had transformed…
A Woman and the Big Ship: Elaine Kaplan and the SS United States
A complex engineering marvel, the SS United States remains the fastest ocean liner ever built. She smashed the Queen Mary’s coveted transatlantic speed record on her 1952 maiden voyage and achieved an astonishing average speed of 36 knots (41 mph; 67 km/h). It was the culmination of a dream long held by the ship’s designer,…
Book Review: Maiden Voyages by Siân Evans
About the Book Great transatlantic liners like Mauretania, Lusitania, Aquitania, Olympic, Île de France, Imperator, Rex, Normandie, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth dominated the first half of the 20th century. In the days before commercial jet travel, anyone wanting to travel across the Atlantic to Europe or America had to do so aboard an ocean…
Book Review: Making Waves by Lisa Lutoff-Perlo
About the Book Lisa Lutoff-Perlo is a “badass CEO” who changed Celebrity Cruises and — as a result — the entire cruise industry. In her autobiography, Making Waves, Lutoff-Perlo writes: What is a badass CEO? I’m guessing it’s someone who performs well. Someone who is brave. Someone who takes risks. And someone who figures out…
Captain Kate McCue Joins Four Seasons Yachts
Captain Kate is going back to sea. Not that we ever thought her seafaring days were over! She even said as much. The famous cruise ship captain, who left Celebrity Cruises last month, announced on social media earlier today that she’d joined the new Four Seasons Yachts luxury brand. Captain Kate will command their first…
A Break with Tradition: Captain Inger Klein Thorhauge
Inger Klein Thorhauge (née Olsen) made history in December 2010 when the Cunard Line promoted her to captain of MV Queen Victoria. It was a historic appointment. She was the first woman to command a Cunard ship in the company’s long history. And at 43, she was also one of its youngest captains too. Peter…
The Unsinkable Suffragists of Titanic’s Lifeboat No. 6
The new White Star liner RMS Titanic departed from Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, on April 11, 1912, with several suffragists aboard. United in a common cause, these women’s rights activists found themselves on the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage for one reason or another. Titanic famously struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14 and…
A Day with the Chief Engineer
It’s Global Day of the Engineer! One of the highlights from when I worked aboard the Queen Mary was getting to spend a day with Chief Engineer Ronnie Keir of the Queen Victoria. It was January 2012, and Commodore Everette Hoard asked me to come along and take “lots of photos.” It was my day…
A New Vision: Marcus Garvey & the Black Star Line (Part 2)
Marcus Garvey was at the height of his power in the early 1920s. His Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) had between two and four million members worldwide. He spoke passionately and persuasively about Black pride, nationalism, and economic independence from the White world. To help promote his agenda, Garvey established the Black Star Line in…
Captain Kate McCue Leaves Celebrity Cruises
On February 24, 2025, Captain Kate McCue announced that she was leaving Celebrity Cruises. It was a complete shock to the cruise world. Captain Kate is iconic. In 2015, she became the first American woman to command a “mega” cruise ship when she took the helm of Celebrity Summit. Captain Kate went on to command…