ssMaritime.com - Enter a world of Classic Passenger Liners, as well as Modern Cruise Ships
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With Dr. Reuben
Goossens.
Maritime
Historian, Cruise‘n’Ship Reviewer, Author & Maritime Lecturer
Commenced in Passenger Shipping & the Cruise Industry in 1960.
The Four Cunard Ships of 2024. The Modern Cruise Ships are presented as a part of a New World of Cruising! Read the New Feature (Listed with a link below) of the very special Brand CUNARD who will launch a new spectacular Cruise Ship in May Next Year being the amazing; M.S. Queen Anne - CUNARD’s second largest ship!
Southampton in Early May 2024.
The New M.S. Queen Anne Page is …
Online NOW
Her new lady Captain Inger Klein Thorhaug stated: “The M.S.
Queen Anne will be completely devoid of the traditional and
classic CUNARD hallmarks that the company is famous for. Thus mostly she will just be another modern
cruise ship”, however I did note the more traditional “Golden Lion
Pup”
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ssmaritime.com features simply countless Old and New Ships of
the World. As of recently Modern Cruise Ships are presented as a part of a New
World of Cruising! Read
the New Feature (Listed
Above) on the Brand new CUNARD Cruise Ship M.S.
Queen Anne. In the past I operated CruiseAustralia.com for countless years
and was a firm supporter of P&O, Princess Cruises, etc, etc. And I cruised
with them countless of times, be it on various around world voyages or one way
world sailings, etc. Also countless cruises on almost all P&O ships (par the Pacific Sky) But my favourite at
that time was the Fairstar, and much later the beauitiful, the best ship ever
the P&O fleet the Pacific Aria and I n always sailed in a disabled de-Luxe suite!, but sadly she is now gone and we are stuck
with all those damn Princess ships. Who does not give a damn about those with
disability, and only offer small cabins, thus I will be forced to down grade.
No thank You!
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Regarding The Author:
A Special Note, by Reuben’s friend Samuel who has known him since 1983:
The long standing world wide and well known world wide ssmaritime.com is and has always been 100% non-commercial and privately owned, thus ssmaritime has NEVER been financially been associated with any shipping company or any other organisation! Although the author does allow, one of his special friend’s “Don Leavitt’s” Maritime Memorabilia business “Nautiques.net” to be on his page, and I do not charge him or seek any gifts or favours! Don is honest and is very reliable and Dr. Goossens has known him or countless years. The mention of Him is at the bottom of this page. Dr. Reuben has worked and been involved in the passenger shipping industry for now over 63 years, and he has been a Managing Director of a major Shipping Company, as well as an owner of a Cruise Company, and in those days there where those who would come to him for advice from a good number of countries, and he was always happy to assist. But we believe that certain pages may have been invaded with links to advertising, Please do not touch any of these as if you see any of these they may be dangerous!
Although Dr.
Goossens is commonly known as Reuben his actual Hebrew (Jewish) name is Reuven, and
he is a very close friend of mine (as you have seen above) for a very long
time. But sadly Dr. Goossens is now of
an old age and in extreme poor health, thus he was forced to retire. Yet, he has by now written well over than 1,580 Classic Liners, Passenger-Cargo
Liners as well as humble converted C3 converted Migrant Liners, yet over 33
years he has written countess histories and stories of so many ships which has
been transported via the net countless thousands of folk to the world, as well
on countless of Cruise Ships’. But his online counter keeps on counting
and will not stop stopped counting until the page will run out in long after he
has passed away as he has paid fees for it far ahead! Amazingly; ssmaritime.com
has received around 7.57 billion visitors in the past 33 years. Considering
this site has been online since the mid 1990’s (although he was writing long before the Net ever
existed) and countless people have visited his various
sites well over hundred’s of times. This makes up that huge (to the globe’s number population) of visits, thus this is the most visited maritime site on our
Globe! P&O’s Designer, and several Captain’s of the S.S.
Oriana, and a Captain as well as countless officers and crew from the S.S.
Canberra, and countless others from well known companies such as the
“Holland America Line”, various German Companies, the
“America Line”, several Italian and Greek Companies, and
Israel’s designer of the S.S. Shalom, have all written him. The designer
of great P&O S.S. Oriana has given His book on
Dr. Reuben has also been contacted by one of what he call the most “appreciated of all contacts”, a wonderful contact from the Late Queen Beatrix of the Netherland’s, and the now late Prince Philip; but Reuben insisted and said, “I am sorry, I simply am not able to disclose those as well as several other emails or letters mostly for the obvious privacy reasons for as in parts they tend to be somewhat personal!” The Dutch one is regarding the countless Dutch ships I have written on and the British one relates to the Royal Yacht, “RY Gothic” regarding the “Coronation World Tour” in 1954 and 1955.
Just
for interest, Dr. Reuven and his Mother were Holocaust
survivors in the Netherland’s and before the tragic error made in a
Hospital in 2022, when he was given the wrong medicine which placed him in a
deep Coma for almost a week and came out of that hospital ten days later a
completely different man and a total cripple as well as memory loss. But they
do every thing to get out of it. Yet prior to that horrific event, he had
started a Biography about his life which would have been an amazing story. His
first Book published in the
Dr. Reuven said, “I trust the
features online will continue to provide all Classic Liner enthusiast’s,
crew’s, those who have sailed on these Ships, and those who simply love
cruising and just sailing on Ships, and those who are Ship enthusiasts and
those who are just seeking information. I trust that this site will in one way
or another will provide a great deal of pleasure and relive many happy memories!
Samuel on behalf of … ..……………. … …….
……………Dr. Reuven Goossens.
Doctorates are as follows:
1.
of Literature, 2. of Philosophy, 3. of
Ancient Literatur,
4. of Hebrew Studies. 5. of Hebrew (Jewish) Studies.
Maritime Historian, Cruise‘n’Ship Reviewer,
Author & Maritime Lecturer
Commenced in Passenger Shipping & the
Cruise Industry in 1960.
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Also Note: The email service to ssMaritime is sadly no longer available, due to Dr. Goossens’ old age and severe chronic illnesses as well as being completely disabled. Since the 1990’s ssMaritime has received a Massive number of emails each day at least 120 to 160 per day, but sadly he can no longer handle such massive task and he sincerely regrets this.
Please Note: If there are any photographs, images or
copy missing any this page, please refresh the page
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Only one I was given
permission to state; As I said over the Years he has been greatly honoured be
some of the most famous people on earth, one of these was the late H.R.H. Price
Philip, who wrote Dr. Reuben to thank Him for the feature on the R.Y. Gothic on
which He and the Queen sailed on from 1954 to 1955. Although he has many of the
letters online and they can be found at Dear Dr.
Goossens, of course
there are certain Royal letters he would not publish for obvious and personal
reasons He also received medals, but he never mentions them, although on some
cruises he has worn them..
Please Note: Before October 2022 Dr. Goossens was still able to write, he did add a good number of ships online:
Some time ago, Dr.
Reuben Goossens discovered a number of ships which he had already started and
they were either close to being completed or they needed to be finished, and a
few still required quite some work to be done be completed. Of course none of
these were listed on the ssmaritime Index. Thus with assistance of an long
standing friend of Dr. Goossens, who would do the editing, we managed to
complete these ships!.
Recent update: The very last of these ships, happened to be
the 16th ship, is another two page feature and it is now online. This
is the P&O passenger Liner and Cruise Ship, the much loved S.S.
Himalaya (3) of 1949, and
I am sure that you will enjoy her story and the countless photographs of her
interiors and exteriors, etc. There are even images of Cricketers heading to
play the Ashes in the
All the 16 ships have now been uploaded, and these ships include …
This
French Liner was one of the finest Classic French Liners ever built! She was
luxury to the extreme!
1. “S.S. Île de France”:
From France came one of
the most amazing French Passenger Liners ever, it was the S.S. Île de France
which was to be built by the “Ateliers et Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire
Penhoët” shipyards at Saint-Nazaire, France, yet due to
“World War One” her, as well as other ships had their construction
halted until the conclusion of that dreadful war, However, she was finally laid
down in 1925. There was no doubt about it she was the most magnificent
‘First ever spectacular Art Deco’ style liner, and the magnificent S.S. Île de France was completed in 1927, she certainly remained the
“French Lines” most popular ship ever. Upon completion she left the
shipyards and headed off for her official sea and speed trials on May 29, 1927
during which she reached an excellent speed of 25 knots maximum. She was
perfectly fitted out offering a wide range of accommodations for 537 passengers
in First Class, 603 in Second Class, and 646 in
Third Class, all being superbly cared for by an excellent and a highly
qualified Crew of both men and women.
She departed on her
Maiden voyage on June 22, 1927 and the S.S. Île de France departed
from Le Havre for her maiden voyage to New York U.S.A.
Her arrival in
Although her official
accommodation was for a total of 1,786 passengers, but her normal capacity was
closer to 1437. With a capacity of just 537 in First Class.
Several First Class Images:
The Grand Salon starboard side looking aft revealing her
ultimate in décor!
The
Multi level Smoking Room looking to Port.
Above
& Below: The Elegant Dining Room
Above & below: Here we see just one the three room De-luxe Suites and each has a different Decor!
2. the
S.S. Normandie of 1935, which was one of the greatest ships,
but sadly she was their least successful ships ever. Then there were four
simply delightful Dutch liners 3. the S.S. Prinses Amalia of 1874, 4.
the S.S.
Gelria of 1913.
And the delightful intimate Dutch Liner the luxurious S.S. Gelria,
She was so loved by “Agatha Christy”.
And 5. the S.S. Jan
Pieterszoon Coen of 1915, and 6. the M.S. Colombia
of 1930, next is the magnificent Scandinavian super luxury cruise ship 7. the M.Y. Stella
Polaris of 1927, and two great Italian
liners - 8. the S.S.
Conte Grande of 1928, and 9. the S.S. Frederico C of 1958, 10. is the R.M.S.
Monarch of Bermuda of 1931, which was sold
to become the humble S.S. New
These 16 fine ships and countless other ships
can all be found on the ssMaritime
Index located at the bottom. Sadly there are now no more to come as
Dr. Reuben Goossens can no longer write any longer. I have been his friend and
an assistant since 1983, yet sadly I do not have much knowledge in regard to
the world of shipping, but glad to assist in a small way and finish what he
really had already done. Reuben became a good friend of Carnival
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In Conclusion by Dr. Goossens & Shmuel.:
My dear Friends, this
will be my very last Notice. I hereby whish to say a very special thank you to
all my dear ship lovers from all over the world, for I have been simply
astounded that there have been so many of you reading ssmaritime over and over
again, for the numbers of reader’s simply have more than blown me away!
There are so many readers who have been reading this site up to a hundred of
times for almost 32 years. In fact friends this site has now reached over 7.5
Billion visitor’s, that is really the globe’s entire population, (and my counter can’t be
wrong) thus during all those many
years you have been reading and reading, I am completely amazed. But more so
about the amazing letters and emails I have been receiving over the many years,
from Prince Philip, May He Rest In Peace, Lord’s and Sirs, but his HRH
wrote me regarding my feature, (which I am currently updating) on the Royal Yacht Gothic, on
which HRH Queen Elizabeth and He sailed on
It is simply beyond His
belief! ssmaritime.com is the world’s largest and most famous and popular
website and he has been greatly certainly s very honoured, by captain’s
who are well known, and they have written me many times, World famous ship
designers who have not only contacted me, but given me their book’s
including the designer of the great S.S. Oriana and many other world famous
ships! And please remember, that all Dr. Reuben’s maritime & cruise
sites have always been and will remain 100% non-commercial, thus ssMaritime will continue to provide
wonderful and hopefully joyful memories for past passengers from around the
world, and for those who really love passenger liners and older cruise ships!
Dr. Goossens said;
“It has been a great joy for me to present these classic liners for the
readers of ssMaritime, and it has been a joy to have been able to write for so
many years having started back in the very early 90’s”.
Reuben
said;
“Thus please go and enjoy the many more than the
1,550 ships when I stopped counting, as it became far to
hard for this old man. But I am sure that there will be countless wonderful
maritime memories, and we pray that after a lifetime of sharing his love of
these fine ships with you, that they will live long after he is gone, and that
this site will give knowledge to future and new of generations and provide
wonderful memories to those who remain! I have paid for this site long into the
future so that all the ship lovers will be able to enjoy the memories of real
ships, rather than, as a World Famous Naval
architect told me ‘Those hideous death traps these
money hungry cruise companies are now building, with up to 20 floors, I just
cannot call them decks anymore for they are more like buildings on water. But
if anything happens with over with so many precious lives onboard, tell me how
they will get off those death traps? Thousands will die’, this is
precisely what this world famous maritime architect told me!”
As I stated earlier Dr. Reuben
Goossens is now retired due
to his extreme poor health, being disabled in addition he also has poor
eyesight, the last feature he placed online was done with great difficulty, and
sadly he is unable to remember which ship that was, But I know it was the “Doric”
1 & 2, the Doric is on
the Site Index. Whilst he was in hospital fees were due for
Cruise-australia.com, but that name was stolen by a British company that makes
its money on doing just that! It contained all of Reuben Cruise reviews on it,
and he has been on far more that most in the world and he always paid full fare
for His deluxe suite. He would like to put them back online but it might be too
hard for him now. He has them all saved but sadly it seems, that companies have
changed their ships by now!
Best
wishes - S.E.
Over
the years Reuben has received thousands of Dear Dr. Goossens
emails of thanks and on this page there are just some of them.
I
(Reuben) have been a long time supporter a customer and a Good Friend!
Nautiques.net Leavitt
operates the world’s largest dealership has been online for well
over 20 years and Don
of Ocean Liner and Steam Ship Deck
Plans, Brochures,
and so much more.
Personally I have found his prices to be excellent and the service is simply
outstanding!
I
have been one of his clients for countless years and Don's service has been
perfection!
Visit: https://nautiques.net/
Please Note: Email service to ssMaritime, is sadly no longer available,
This is due to the author’s old age, and His poor illness and being disabled, etc.
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“Blue Water Liners sailing to the distant
shores.
I
watched them come, I watched them go and I watched them die.”
Or ENTER THE SITE's INDEX HERE
Amazingly:
ssmaritime.com has received
7,579
Billion reader’s over almost 32 years
Last
update was on: March 27, 2023
Remember
many readers have read different pages & ships hundreds of times
Also certain features have up to 24 pages and that is a great deal of reading!
**************************
The
Author has been in Passenger Shipping & the Cruise Industry since 1960.
“Managing
Director”, and “Owned a Cruise Company”
In addition he was founder of “Save the Classic Liners Campaign” in 1990.
Please Note: ssmaritime and associated
sites are 100% non-commercial and the author seeks no
funding of any shape or form, never have and never will!
Photographs on ssmaritime and associate pages are by; the author or from the author’s
private collection. In addition there are some images that have been provided
by Shipping Companies and private photographers or collectors. Credit is given
to all contributors. However, there are some photographs provided to me without
details regarding the photographer/owner concerned, so sorry if this is the
case.
This notice covers
all pages; although,
and I have done my best to ensure that all photographs are duly credited and
that this notice is displaced on each page, that is, when a page is updated!
ssMaritime is owned & © Copyright by Reuben Goossens - All Rights Reserved.