William H. Miller (writer)

Last updated

William Henry Miller Jr. (born May 3, 1948) is a maritime author and historian who has written numerous books dealing with the golden age of ocean liners.

Miller was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on May 3, 1948. In addition to his teaching career and writing over 40 books and many articles on the great liners, he was chairman of the World Ship Society's Port of New York Branch from 1970 to 1976. He was deputy director of the New York Harbor Festival Foundation from 1979 to 1982. [1]

He was historian at the Museum of the American Merchant Marine in 1979 and creator of a course entitled "The Ocean Liner" at the New School of Social Research in Manhattan in 1981. He also created the passenger ship database for the Ellis Island Museum. [2] He appeared in the documentary SS United States: Lady in Waiting . A documentary about his life and studies, Mr. Ocean Liner, premiered aboard RMS Queen Mary 2 on July 1, 2010. [3]

In 2020, during the Coronavirus cruising pause, Miller started to participate in online Youtube and Zoom interviews, discussing cruising. [4]

Bibliography

  • Transatlantic Liners, 1945-1980 ISBN   978-0-668-05267-2 (1981)
  • The Great Luxury Liners, 1927-1954: A Photographic Record ISBN   978-0-486-24056-5 (1981)
  • The First Great Ocean Liners in Photographs: 193 Views, 1897-1927 ISBN   978-0-486-24574-4 (1984)
  • The Last Atlantic Liners ISBN   978-0-312-46971-9 (1985)
  • Transatlantic Liners at War: The Story of the Queens ISBN   978-0-7153-8511-1 (1985)
  • The Fabulous Interiors of the Great Ocean Liners in Historic Photographs ISBN   978-0-486-24756-4 (1985)
  • Fifty Famous Liners 2 ISBN   978-0-393-01947-6 (co-author, 1985)
  • British Ocean Liners: A Twilight Era, 1960-85 ISBN   978-0-393-02336-7 (1986)
  • The New York Harbor Book ISBN   978-0-931474-34-7 (co-author, 1986)
  • The Last Blue Water Liners ISBN   978-0-312-46980-1 (1986)
  • Famous Ocean Liners: The Story of Passenger Shipping, from the Turn of the Century to the Present Day ISBN   978-0-85059-876-6 (1987)
  • Liner: Fifty Years of Passenger Ship Photographs ISBN   978-0-85059-765-3 (1987)
  • Great Cruise Ships and Ocean Liners from 1954 to 1986: A Photographic Survey ISBN   978-0-486-25540-8 (1988)
  • German Ocean Liners of the 20th Century ISBN   978-0-85059-890-2 (1989)
  • SS United States: The Story of America's Greatest Ocean Liner ISBN   978-0-393-03030-3 (1991)
  • Picture History of the Cunard Line, 1840-1990 ISBN   978-0-486-26550-6 (co-author, 1991)
  • Norton Lilly: 150 Years of Shipping ASIN: B0006P4WUI (1991)
  • Modern Cruise Ships, 1965-1990: A Photographic Record ISBN   978-0-486-26753-1 (1992)
  • The Chandris Liners ISBN   978-0-9518656-2-0 (1993)
  • New York Shipping ISBN   978-0-9518656-3-7 (1994)
  • Pictorial Encyclopedia of Ocean Liners, 1860-1994 ISBN   978-0-486-28137-7 (1995)
  • Picture History of the French Line ISBN   978-0-486-29443-8 (1997)
  • The Liners: A Voyage of Discovery ISBN   978-0-7603-0465-5 (co-author, 1997)
  • The Picture History of the Italian Line, 1932-1977 ISBN   978-0-486-40489-9 (1999)
  • Picture History of American Passenger Ships ISBN   978-0-486-40967-2 (2001)
  • Picture History of British Ocean Liners: 1900 to the Present ISBN   978-0-486-41532-1 (2001)
  • SS Independence SS Constitution ISBN   978-1-930098-31-2 (2001)
  • Picture History of German and Dutch Passenger Ships ISBN   978-0-486-42063-9 (2002)
  • Picture History of the SS United States ISBN   978-0-486-42839-0 (2003)
  • Picture History of the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth ISBN   978-0-486-43509-1 (2004)
  • The Picture History of the Andrea Doria ISBN   978-0-486-43928-0 (2005)
  • Liners of the Golden Age ISBN   978-0-9543666-2-9 (co-author, 2005)
  • Great Ships in New York Harbor: 175 Historic Photographs, 1935-2005 ISBN   978-0-486-44609-7 (2005)
  • On the Waterfront: The Great Ships of Hoboken ISBN   978-0-9768525-1-3 (2005)
  • Doomed Ships: Great Ocean Liner Disasters ISBN   978-0-486-45366-8 (2006)
  • SS Canberra ISBN   978-0-7524-4211-2 (2007)
  • The QE2: A Picture History (2008)
  • Under the Red Ensign: British Passenger Liners of the 50s & 60s ISBN   978-0-7524-4619-6 (2008)
  • SS United States: Speed Queen of the Seas ISBN   978-1-84868-365-5 (2009)
  • SS France/Norway ISBN   978-0-7524-5139-8 (2009)
  • Cunard's Three Queens: A Celebration ISBN   978-1-8486-8364-8 (2009)
  • SS Nieuw Amsterdam: The Darling of the Dutch ISBN   978-1-84868-366-2 (2010)
  • RMS Caronia: Cunard's Green Goddess ISBN   978-0-7524-4211-2 (co-author, 2011)
  • Floating Palaces ISBN   978-1-84868-698-4 (2011)
  • The Great Liners Story ISBN   978-0-7524-6452-7 (2012)
  • Along the Hudson: Luxury Liner Row in the 1950s and 60s ISBN   978-1-4456-0555-5 (2012)
  • Great Atlantic Liners of the Twentieth Century in Color ISBN   978-1-4456-0373-5 (co-author, 2013)
  • Classic Liners Île de France and Liberté: France's Premier Post-War Liners ISBN   978-0-7524-7486-1 (2013)
  • SS Normandie ISBN   978-0-7524-8808-0 (2013)
  • UNION CASTLE LINERS: Southampton to the South African Cape 1946-1977 ISBN   978-1-4456-0956-0 (2013)
  • Cunard's Modern Queens: A Celebration ISBN   978-1-4456-3387-9 (2014)
  • P & O Orient Liners of the 1950s and 1960s ISBN   978-1-4456-3813-3 (2014)
  • Great French Passenger Ships ISBN   978-0-7524-9152-3 (2014)
  • Great Passenger Ships: 1920-1930 ISBN   978-0-7524-8809-7 (2014)
  • British India Steam Navigation Co. Liners of the 1950s and 1960s ISBN   978-1-4456-3591-0 (2014)
  • Cunard-White Star Liners of the 1930s ISBN   978-1-4456-4968-9 (2015)
  • Post-war Canadian Pacific Liners: Empresses of the Atlantic ISBN   978-1-4456-2137-1 (2015)
  • Along the Waterfront: Freighters at New York in the 1950s and 1960s ISBN   978-1-4456-5408-9 (2016)
  • First Class Cargo: A History of Combination Cargo-Passenger Ships ISBN   978-0-7509-6508-8 (2016)

Related Research Articles

<i>Queen Elizabeth 2</i> Retired British ocean liner/cruise ship

Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named Queen Elizabeth, was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was then laid up until converted and since 18 April 2018 has been operating as a floating hotel in Dubai.

RMS <i>Queen Elizabeth</i> Ocean liner burned and sank in 1972

The RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by Cunard Line. With Queen Mary she provided weekly luxury liner service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.

RMS <i>Queen Mary</i> Retired British ocean liner

The RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard-White Star Line and was built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Queen Mary, along with RMS Queen Elizabeth, was built as part of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg and New York. The two ships were a British response to the express superliners built by German, Italian and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cruise ship</span> Passengers ship used for pleasure voyages

Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "shore excursions". On "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages", cruise ships make two- to three-night round trips without visiting any ports of call.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean liner</span> Ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another

An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. Only one ocean liner remains in service today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passenger ship</span> Watercraft intended to carry people onboard

A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liners and in virtually all cruise ships has this cargo capacity been eliminated.

SS <i>United States</i> 1950s ocean liner

SS United States is a retired ocean liner built between 1950 and 1951 for the United States Lines at a cost of US$79.4 million. The ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction, retaining the Blue Riband for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952; she still holds the title today. She was designed by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs and could be converted into a troopship if required by the Navy in time of war. United States maintained an uninterrupted schedule of transatlantic passenger service until 1969 and was never used as a troopship.

SS <i>Normandie</i> Ocean liner

The SS Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). She entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat, crossing the Atlantic in a record 4.14 days, and remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pier 21</span> Former passenger ship terminal in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Pier 21 was an ocean liner terminal and immigration shed from 1928 to 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Nearly one million immigrants came to Canada through Pier 21, and it is the last surviving seaport immigration facility in Canada. The facility is often compared to the landmark American immigration gateway Ellis Island. The former immigration facility is now occupied by the Canadian Museum of Immigration, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design as well as various retail and studio tenants.

SS <i>Rotterdam</i> Cruise ship from 1958-2010

The fifth SS Rotterdam, also known as "The Grande Dame", is a former ocean liner and cruise ship, and has been a hotel ship in Rotterdam, Netherlands since 2010. She was launched by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in a gala ceremony on 13 September 1958, and was completed the following summer.

MS <i>Queen Victoria</i> Vista Class Ship

MS Queen Victoria (QV) is a Vista-class cruise ship operated by the Cunard Line and is named after the former British monarch Queen Victoria. The vessel is of the same basic design as other Vista-class cruise ships, including Queen Elizabeth. At 90,049 gross tonnage (GT) she is the smallest of Cunard's ships in operation. Her facilities include seven restaurants, thirteen bars, three swimming pools, a ballroom, and a theatre.

<i>Poseidon</i> (fictional ship)

The SS Poseidon is a fictional transatlantic ocean liner that first appeared in the 1969 novel The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico and later in four films based on the novel. The ship is named after the god of the seas in Greek mythology.

MS <i>Queen Elizabeth</i> Cruise ship

MS Queen Elizabeth is a cruise ship of the Vista class operated by the Cunard Line. The design is a heavily modified form factor compared to earlier ships of the same class, and slightly larger than Queen Victoria, at 92,000 GT. This is due to a more vertical stern, and additional cabins for single travelers. The bow of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria are both reinforced having thicker than the standard for hull plating, to handle North Atlantic weather. The ship is able to carry up to 2,092 passengers.

Francis Osborn Braynard was a prominent American author and maritime historian.

MV <i>Astoria</i> Cruise ship

MV Astoria is a ship that was constructed as the transatlantic ocean liner Stockholm for Swedish American Line, and rebuilt as a cruise ship in 1993. Ordered in 1944, and commenced service in 1948, at 73 years old, she is the oldest passenger liner still sailing in deep water routes. As Stockholm, she was best known for an accidental collision with Andrea Doria in July 1956, resulting in the sinking of the latter ship and 46 fatalities off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatrice Muller</span> American author and cruise passenger

Beatrice DuMont Muller (1919–2013) was an American author and long-term passenger on cruise ships. Muller was born in 1919 and raised in Somerville, New Jersey, during the Great Depression. In 1940 or 1941, she married Robert Arthur Muller, a chemical engineer, and they raised two sons in a house in Bound Brook, New Jersey. The couple went on a world cruise on the Cunard Line cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1995, the year Robert retired. As they enjoyed the experience, they returned every subsequent year for the ship's world cruise. During the 1999 world cruise, Robert died on the ship. In 10 months, Muller sold all her possessions and relocated to the Queen Elizabeth 2 to be a full-time passenger.

<i>Queen Mary 2</i> British 21st-century transatlantic ocean liner

RMS Queen Mary 2 is a British transatlantic ocean liner. She has served as the flagship of Cunard Line since succeeding Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2004. As of 2023, Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner in service.

This is a timeline of the world's largest passenger ships based upon internal volume, initially measured by gross register tonnage and later by gross tonnage. This timeline reflects the largest extant passenger ship in the world at any given time. If a given ship was superseded by another, scrapped, or lost at sea, it is then succeeded. Some records for tonnage outlived the ships that set them - notably the SS Great Eastern, and RMS Queen Elizabeth. The term "largest passenger ship" has gradually fallen out of use since the mid-1990s. Since that time the title of "largest cruise ship" has largely been given to those confined to cruising rather than transatlantic ocean travel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Neal Marshall</span>

Robert Neal Marshall is an actor, director, producer and playwright who has worked on Off-Broadway, in Regional theater in the United States, on Broadway and in London's West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titanic International Society</span> Historical society dedicated to Titanic

The Titanic International Society is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the Titanic and the events surrounding the great ocean liner's sinking on April 15, 1912, when more than 1,500 people died. The society holds biennial conventions and occasional special events, such as memorial ceremonies at sites associated with the Titanic and a tribute to Titanic writer Walter Lord in his Baltimore hometown. It is one of several organizations worldwide dedicated to the memory of the Titanic.

References


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.