Bill Miller is considered an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships. This includes those great ships of the past “floating palaces,” as well as the current generation of cruise ships. Called “Mr. Ocean Liner,” he has written over 70 books on the subject: from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to other titles on their fabulous interiors.
In all, Bill has also written over 1,000 articles for newspapers, magazines and nautical journals & newsletters. He has appeared in some three dozen video & television series, both in the USA, Britain, Europe and Australia, including Castles of the Sea, The Floating Palaces, The Superliners, Inside the World of a Cruise Ship, Disasters at Sea and Deco: Age of Glamor. He has also appeared on TheToday Show, CBS Evening News, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America and many other news broadcasts.
He has been guest lecturer aboard over 50 different liners. As a public school teacher, in middle school and for social studies for 32 years Bill was named “Teacher of the Year” in 2002. His remarkable life story has been documented in my film “MR OCEAN LINER” www.MrOceanLiner.com which made it’s New York premiere in 2011 at Lincoln Center as well as an International premiere on board the Cunard Liner RMS Queen Mary 2.
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| Bill Miller & Robert Neal Marshall at MR OCEAN LINER premiere on Queen Mary 2 (photo: Peter Knego) |
Part I
RNM - Bill, Why do you think that people are so fascinated, perhaps even obsessed, by the TITANIC history?
BM - I think there are many reasons but I think two of the most common would be that it was defiance of what you might call the “Powers of the Almighty” by creating a ship said to be unsinkable. It would be like giving birth to a human and saying it can't die. So they created a ship that turns out sinks - not later in its life - but on the maiden voyage! It was as if to say “I'm going to show you!" And then the very fact that the whole thing was a disaster, a loss of over 1500 lives that was really unnecessary. Of course, no ship could be unsinkable so I think it's also that twist on tempting fate, plus creating something that is supposed to be invincible.
RNM - What does it mean to you, personally, to be on this voyage and to go to the site of TITANIC on the 100th anniversary?
BM - I can say it only enhances the closeness, and I might even use the word “intimacy” with the TITANIC. It’s the whole history of it and the disaster. To be right there at the very spot 100 years later where it all occurred. I remember in the late 1990's going on the Royal Yacht BRITANNIA up in Edinburgh and I thought to myself “Wow! I'm standing on the Royal Yacht,” which I never thought I would get aboard. You're suddenly brought right to it, which is certainly true of the TITANIC. On that night when we think of the tragedy right on the spot, surrounded by people who are fascinated by it. It will create this tremendous closeness, or for lack of a better word “intimacy” with the TITANIC.
RNM - You will be presenting several lectures on board the AZAMARA JOURNEY. Can you talk a little bit about your topics?
BM - I'll be talking more about the overview of the great liners that would have been TITANIC's contemporaries back in the Edwardian period, World War I, the era of the great liners. I’ll also be talking about the history of New York Harbor where TITANIC was destined. I’ll share anecdotes about the rich and famous and how liners were the principal form of transport until the jet changed everything. I will talk about the current booming cruise industry which, oddly enough, people say is not as glamorous ... I'm not sure it is not as glamorous, but it's much more comfortable with more and more people traveling now than ever before. So, I'm going to bring what surrounds the TITANIC then and now.. and the supporting cast of the whole TITANIC event. I'm not specifically an expert on TITANIC, so I will leave that to the experts who will be on board.
RNM - How would you compare the TITANIC tragedy to the Costa CONCORDIA disaster 100 years later?
BM - There are a number of things. There is the factor of human error which occurred in both situations. Certainly the CONCORDIA was not called "unsinkable," but you would not have thought hitting a reef would have done such hideous damage. The same with TITANIC...in both cases it is huge losses. The CONCORDIA of course hasn't sunk, but most likely she's going to be scrapped. There is also a very strong similarity of human error. All the tentacles that have come out of it. There are endless stories, tens of thousands stories about the TITANIC, but in the case of the CONCORDIA, the Captain “tripping” into the lifeboat with the Coast Guard ordering him back, unqualified crew in lifeboats, and more. In a modern age, 100 years later, it shows that accidents are by no means eliminated. Even simple things like unchartered reefs can be devastating.
RNM - What do you think has changed since the TITANIC regarding safety and maritime law?
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| Wilhelm Gustloff (photo courtesy of Michael Pocock at www.maritimequest.com) |
BM - One of the biggest things that has changed is the increase in safety. No ship can set out without adequate safety equipment since the TITANIC. Although there have been many disasters since then, there is a much greater chance to survive than before TITANIC when there were not enough lifeboats. God only knows about the WILHELM GUSTLOFF during World War II when when over 9,000 perished in the worst maritime tragedy of all. That being said, of course, you have better methods in general of handling a ship, detecting things like an iceberg, going through fog, it is much safer today than it would have been 100 years ago, although I do not preclude or eliminate the fact that accidents can still occur. (To be continued.....)
Check back soon for Part II of my interview with Bill Miller where he talks more about the CONCORDIA accident, what he hopes to take away from the TITANIC 100th Anniversary commemoration, and his thoughts on going down in a submersible to the final resting site of the historic White Star Liner.
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