social history Archives - The Captain's Table

How Titanic Became a Queer Love Story Without Even Trying

June 26, 2025 Zach W. 1

When James Cameron’s Titanic hit theaters in December 1997, it wasn’t just a movie—it was an event. Audiences around the world fell for Leonardo DiCaprio, […]

A book cover with text reading “Kindred Spirits: A Titanic Tale” by Nelson Aspen. There is an image of an ocean liner and two men standing beside each other.

Book Review: Kindred Spirits: A Titanic Tale by Nelson Aspen

June 23, 2025 Zach W. 1

Few tragedies have captured the world’s imagination quite like the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. More than a century after her ill-fated […]

An image of a four funnel ocean liner superimposed against a rainbow

Hidden in the Wake: The Lusitania’s LGBTQ+ History

June 2, 2025 Zach W. 1

Last year for Pride Month, I wrote a post about the LGBTQ+ history of RMS Titanic. This year I wanted to focus on RMS Lusitania […]

A stylized image of an ocean liner superimposed against Union and Confederate flags.

Two Tragedies of Modern Memory: Titanic and the American Civil War

April 9, 2025 Zach W. 0

Today marks the 160th anniversary of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This ultimately led to […]

A stylized image of a woman looking at an ocean liner with two red, white, and blue funnels.

A Woman and the Big Ship: Elaine Kaplan and the SS United States

March 30, 2025 Zach W. 0

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 […]

A book cover showing women standing against a ship railing, with text reading "Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them."

Book Review: Maiden Voyages by Siân Evans

March 26, 2025 Zach W. 0

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 […]

A picture of a small lifeboat filled with people on the open sea.

The Unsinkable Suffragists of Titanic’s Lifeboat No. 6

March 10, 2025 Zach W. 0

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 […]