Maritime History

Maritime History Links

Listed below are links to sites about maritime history that we find of interest

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/
Ships' Nostalgia, an oustanding discussion board with many forums with a focus on the British Merchant Navy (although much more is covered). And it's mostly merchant seamen themselves who participate. Wonderful stuff.

http://www.passengershipsociety.com/
World Passenger Ship Society, a great resource for ship reviews and photographs posted by a very lovely group of passengers.

http://www.sshsa.net/
Steamship Historical Society of America, an organization dedicated to recording, preserving, and disseminating the history of steam-powered vessels.

http://www.cunardchina.com
Cunard China, collector Richard Villa's site with information about and examples of ocean liner china used on Cunard ships.

http://www.bigshipfilms.com
The site for the video SS United States: the Lady in Waiting produced for American Public Television about the history of the fastest ocean liner and the efforts to save her

Maritime History

Maritime history isn't just about ships. Others will disagree, but in fact, it's not even mostly about ships. It's mostly about people. Particularly when we're talking about ocean liners, we're talking about people. The people the ships carried, the people who designed and built them, and most important of all the people who operated them. From the master to the bellboy and everyone in between, they performed hurculean work to get their cargo (especially the self-loading type) safely to the destination. And that work goes on today. Ship buffs like to think about the golden age of ocean liner travel or the golden age of freighters, but every age is relevant in maritime history, even the current era. Merchant mariners are the backbone of the contemporary world economy and today they toil under less than ideal circumstances. Their trips are longer and their pay is frequently lower. Gone are the days of sailors spending much time in port. Port calls are kept as short as possible to get the freight moving to where it's needed. We salute the world's merchant seafarers.

And as we celebrate the ships they sailed in, we think about their contributions to making this a smaller world. "They that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters..."

How the finer things in life arrive

Maritime History Links

Maritime History

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