Twenty-Five Years before the Mast

In this fascinating study of how technology totally changed the cruise industry during the second half of the twentieth century, a cruise director looks back over a career that spanned twenty-five years on some of the best-known ships of their era. Peter Longley served on Swedish American Line’s Kungsholm, all three of the fabulous cruise ships of Royal Viking Line, the well-known Greek ship Stella Solaris, Cunard’s Vistafjord and their world-famous ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2, and Holland America Line’s Rotterdam.

Life and challenges both above and below decks are explored on these floating cities at sea with anecdotes of an extraordinary lifestyle. From gala buffets to musicians’ strikes, from entertaining royalty to evacuation at sea, from dry docks to exciting ports of call, Longley takes you there. You will meet fabulous entertainers and extraordinary passengers from Bob Hope to South African president Nelson Mandela. You will also encounter murder at sea, a ninety-foot wave, garbage disposal, and how terrorism changed security.

Longley traces this fastest growing area of the leisure industry from its imperial passengers traveling the lifelines of empires to the fabulous world cruises that attracted eccentric passengers. See how technology changes shipboard pastimes and how the jet plane changes itineraries and entertainment. See how the computer changes everything.

Finally, take a look at how the industry is today with nearly four hundred cruise ships plying the seven seas. See how a few corporations now run the industry and ships range from condominiums at sea to luxury river barges.