Movie Review: Torture Ship (1939)
Welcome back to Horror Movie Monday! Today’s film is 1939’s Torture Ship starring Lyle Talbot, Julie Bishop, and Irving Pichel. Directed by Victor Halperin, the film is rather short at just 64 minutes (and there are other cuts that are even shorter). The screenplay is “suggested” by the 1899 Jack London story “A Thousand Deaths.”…
The Haunting of the QE2
The Queen Mary isn’t the only Cunard ship that’s said to be haunted. It’s said that Queen Elizabeth 2 also has a very healthy amount of ghostly activity. After the ship arrived in Dubai in November 2008, reports of weird activity began emerging. One of the workers aboard QE2 was interviewed by the Daily Mail…
Movie Review: Death Ship (1980)
It’s October, which means that spooky season is here! I figured it might be fun to review a few ship-based horror movies this month. I’m calling it Horror Movie Monday. First up is a somewhat obscure film starring George Kennedy and Richard Crenna: 1980’s Death Ship. Directed by Alvin Rakoff, the movie was based on…
Contingent Contract: The Pending Sale of the SS United States
Florida’s Okaloosa County approved a contingent contract to purchase the SS United States on October 1, 2024. The famed ship would be “converted into the world’s largest artificial reef,” which is a really fancy way of saying that the ship will be taken out and sunk (yes, I know there’s more to it than that…
A Royal Night Out: The Queen Mary’s 90th Anniversary Party
Last Thursday, September 26, I had the great pleasure of attending some special events aboard the Queen Mary for the 90th anniversary of her launching…namely, the unveiling of a replica of Her Majesty Queen Mary’s personal standard in Main Hall. I learned about the event when my wife and I stayed aboard in August, and…
The Stateliest Ship Now in Being: The 90th Anniversary of the Queen Mary’s Launch
It was a rainy September day in Clydebank, Scotland when Britain’s King George V stepped up to the microphone. Before him was a towering steel mountain: the hull of the brand-new ship. He and his wife, Queen Mary, and the Prince of Wales were there to participate in the launching ceremony of this new Cunard-White…
The Captain’s Table
Stories from the Golden Age of Ocean Liners to the Cruise Ships of Today
How it all started…
Over a decade ago, I started a blog called The Captain’s Table to tell the stories about the ships and people involved in the Golden Age of ocean liners. I was working as a tour guide aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA at the time and it was a way to help me both deepen my knowledge and explore a topic I’d been passionate about for a long time.
With this overhauled version of the blog, I’ll continue to explore the stories, ships, and people connected to the old ocean liners. But there’ll also be a new emphasis on cruise ships as well: they continue the traditions and history made famous by such ships as Queen Mary, United States, Mauretania, Caronia, and many others. I’ll be nerding out a lot, and I really hope that you enjoy this blog.
Zach Whitlow
Writer, Ship Geek, and Avid Cruiser