Serving on the Big Ships

Bill Miller is known widely as "Mr. Ocean Liner." He has written over 100 books and more than 1,000 newspaper and magazine articles on the subject of passenger ships. He has sailed on over 450 voyages on some 200 different ships, and is a popular guest lecturer aboard liners and cruise ships. He has received numerous awards and has even starred in a documentary entitled Mr. Ocean Liner. He was a co-founder of the Museum of the American Merchant Marine and created the passenger ship database for the Ellis Island Museum. He was also previously a curator for 20th Century Shipping at New York's South Street Seaport Museum.

Drawing on the recollections of the men and women who served on the vessels, Serving on the Big Ships: Life on the Liners presents a unique window into a bygone age. The 1950s to early 1980s was the last period in which passengers sailed simply to get somewhere, before the liners turned to cruising and airlines became the only feasible means of traveling long distances. It was a golden age of ocean travel, even though the signs of inevitable decline were in evidence all around. For those who worked on the ships, whether stewards or captains or anyone in between, looking back conjures a range of emotions and stories as diverse as the ports to which they sailed. Recorded here are memories of sailing on the North Atlantic with Cunard & Holland-America, with the Italian Line in the Mediterranean, with Royal Mail Lines to South America, with Union-Castle to Africa, and with P&O-Orient to Australia and the Far East. They are the memories of the people who manned the ships, served on them, and through their service, grew to love them.