Bill Miller Shares Remarkable Decade in New Book, On All the Seven Seas

Known throughout the shipping world as “Mr. Ocean Liner,” William “Bill” H. Miller has spent decades documenting the ships, voyages, and personalities that shaped passenger travel.

The American maritime historian has written 125 books and more than 1,000 articles on ocean liners and cruise ships. He has lectured aboard more than 75 cruise ships and has earned numerous honors for his contributions to maritime history.

We also know Miller through his CruiseNews column, Heard Along the Promenade Deck. Each installment is a compilation of dispatches that connects us with the people and ships that defined passenger travel.

Now, Miller is looking back at one particularly memorable chapter of his life.

His newest book, On All the Seven Seas, focuses in on the 1980s, one of the most transformative periods in passenger shipping The decade saw him crossing the Atlantic aboard legendary liners, flying on the Concorde, visiting China, all the while keeping meticulous records when he had two complementary roles in the industry.

“I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had a lot of boom periods, and that was a boom period for my travels,” Miller told us. “Everything from QE2 to Wind Star, to the maiden voyage of the Sovereign of the Seas, then the biggest liner yet created. So many wonderful, wonderful experiences.”

Throughout that decade, Miller had a front-row deckchair as the passenger shipping industry rapidly evolved.

Wearing Two Hats

The idea behind On All the Seven Seas wasn’t something Miller dreamed up recently. In many ways, he began writing the book more than 40 years ago.

During those years, Miller wasn’t simply traveling as a passenger.

“I had two hats,” he said. “I was a lecturer, but I was also a journalist writing for Ocean and Cruise News, which is no more. I wrote a series of journals during each trip… usually on board the very ship itself during the voyage.”

Miller says the book covers roughly two dozen ships. Most of the accompanying photographs are his own.

“It’s beautifully done,” he said. “It was designed in England and printed in India, and I must say they’ve done a beautiful job.”

QE2, the Concorde, and Perfect Timing

One memorable voyage came about in a way he never expected.

“The ultimate travel experience in the ’80s was to go one-way QE2, five days New York to England, and return—or go over on the Concorde and come back by ship,” he recalled. “This was one of the great travel experiences.”

Miller had just returned home after spending a month traveling in China and had only one week before returning to his teaching job in Hoboken when Cunard called.

“They said, ‘Can you come over to London? We’re going to make a film on the QE2 about the great ocean liners. We’d like you to be in it.'”

His reply was only half serious.

“I said, sort of in a joke, ‘Well, I just got home from Tokyo from this China trip. If you send me on the Concorde, I can get over there in time.'”

To his surprise, Cunard agreed.

“They said, ‘Okay.'”

For Miller, QE2 represented something much larger than simply crossing the Atlantic.

“The Cunard experience to me has an appeal because it’s a link to the bygone age of travel,” he said. “It’s ballroom dancing. It’s tea at four. It’s one of the best lecture programs at sea. The biggest library currently at sea on the Queen Mary 2. It’s all the old ingredients of an ocean liner voyage.”

Seeing the Future of Cruising

Miller also recalled another defining moment, the debut of Royal Caribbean’s Sovereign of the Seas, the world’s largest passenger ship in 1988.

His experience actually began months before the inaugural cruise.

“They flew us to Paris, and then to Saint-Nazaire for the floating out of the ship,” Miller recalled. “It was first-class air, the Crillon Hotel in Paris, the best of the best.”

From there, Royal Caribbean took the group into the shipyard.

“They ferried us over to the shipyard, and we were on board with hard hats as they moved it from the building dock over to the fitting-out dock. We were overwhelmed by this 73,000-ton, unpainted ship, which would be the biggest in the world.”

A few months later, he stepped aboard the finished ship in Miami for its inaugural sailing.

“We stepped aboard into a six-deck-high atrium, which was phenomenal at the time, with bubble elevators going up and down, interactive television in the cabins, and that wraparound nightclub in the smokestack.”

Looking back, Miller believes Sovereign of the Seas marked the beginning of a new era.

“I, for one, was very positive,” he said. “This is the continuation of ocean travel. There were rumors that ocean travel would fade away because of the age of the jet… but instead it was the reverse. It was becoming more popular than ever.”

On All The Seven Seas is available through retailers such as Amazon.