12| Titanic Memorial Crossing

Those already on board many who have agreed to give talks include :-

Ken Marschall
In the world of fine maritime art, particularly Titanic art, his name is well known. In fact, Ken Marschall is globally recognized as the world's leading Titanic artist. Having first been commissioned to paint the legendary liner at the age of 18, in the last three decades he has meticulously portrayed this most famous of ships over one hundred times, along the way amassing one of the largest and most complete archives of Titanic and related reference photographs anywhere.
Ken's painting style is almost a lack of style — historical "portraits" so intricate in detail, so accurate, so breathtaking in their lighting and drama, that they are sometimes mistaken for photographs. His works are represented in many notable collections including the National Geographic Society and the National Portrait Gallery, and his Titanic paintings have appeared in numerous books and on the covers of both Time and Life. The artist's haunting work in the best-selling book Titanic: An Illustrated History inspired Writer/Director James Cameron, and its influence can be seen throughout Cameron's stunning motion picture TITANIC. Ken's incredible familiarity with the ship's every detail earned him Cameron's choice for Visual Historian on both that film and his astonishing 3-D large-format movie Ghosts of the Abyss. 

Click Here for examples of some of Ken's fine work

Relatives reserve places
Many relatives of crew and passengers have reserved their places on the 12 Titanic Cruise comments include:- "My grandfather was the writer in the engine room and went down with the ship leaving my grandmother and my mum who was one year old ...... my husband and I are now in our seventies and have four boys and one girl and ten grandchildren .... they are all very proud of their great-grandfather and take a great interest in the Titanic.  Having spoken to the boys they have decided that at least two of the family should be represented on the crossing."
"We would like to be on the Bridge in 2012 as he was in 1912" .... relatives of Hitchens who was on the Bridge of the Titanic on that fateful night.

Gunter Babler
Gunter got hooked by the Titanic since he was 10 years old at school during a Titanic project.  In 1992 he was the co-founder of the Swiss Titanic Society and has been the president since 1998.  He has written and published three books on the Titanic and was one of two historians of  Europes largest Titanic exhibition from 1997-2000. He does not have a real special interest in any particular part of the story of Titanic is more an "allrounder" and researches many fields and collects everything from books (about 2500 so far) to the worst kitsch about the Titanic.

Senan Molony

Senan Molony is Deputy Political Editor of the Irish
Independent, the largest-selling daily newspaper in Ireland. Born in 1963, he has over
twenty-five years' experience in journalism.
Mr Molony has written and lectured extensively on the Titanic
and other ships. He is the leading contributor of research articles to the website
Encyclopedia Titanica and has appeared in a number of maritime history
documentaries.

He is the author of several books, among them The Irish Aboard Titanic,
Titanic and the Mystery Ship, Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy, Titanic:
Victims and Villains, and the latest (October 2009) Titanic Scandal: The Trial of the
Mount Temple.

An uncle was a Merchant Marine Captain in the Second World War whose
vessels were twice sunk by enemy action, and another uncle became Flag Officer of
the Irish Naval Service.

Mr Molony lives in Dublin.

Peter Lamont and Princess Marconi have reserved their places on 12 Titanic Memorial Crossing.

Peter is one of Hollywood´s most respected production designers and art directors. He has art directed 16 of the James Bond 007 films including 1999´s The World is Not Enough. In 1997, he won the U.S. Academy Award for Art Direction and Set Design and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Titanic. Lamont has three additional Academy Award nominations .... and is and is ready and willing to help with the 12 Memorial Cruise.

Princess Marconi is the daughter of Guglielmo Marconi who invented the wireless that was used on the Titanic.

"Soon it was mandatory for every large ship to be equipped with wireless and have at least one operator, On the night of 14 April 1912, on her maiden voyage to New York, the liner, SS Titanic, deemed unsinkable, struck an iceberg and sank, with the loss of some 1,500 lives. Among them was one of the two Marconi wireless operators, whose distress signals nevertheless brought rescue to over 700 survivors. "Those who have been saved," said the British Postmaster-General, "have been saved through one man, Mr Marconi ... and his wonderful invention." But for his luck, Marconi and his wife would have been on board. Marconi changed his passage to an earlier sailing on the SS Lusitania, and Marconi´s wife also cancelled her journey when, at the last minute, one of children became unwell." (extract from marconicalling.com)
 
John Eaton and Charles Haas
John and Charles have wriiten and published many books on the Titanic and were the technical assistance when the Wreck of the Titanic was discovered.  They are founder members of one TI based in the USA and will be helping with the planning of the 12 Titanic Memorial crossing.
         
Commodore Ron Warwick Joins 12 Memorial Crossing

Commodore Warwick has been with Cunard for over 30 years and was first appointed to the command of the Queen Elizabeth 2 in July 1990, and was Master during the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, on the occasion of Cunard Line’s 150th anniversary celebrations at Spithead. At this point in his career he made Cunard Line history by sailing in command of the same ship as his father, the late Commodore William E Warwick CBE RD RNR who was the first Master of the QE2 before he retired from active service in 1972.

More recently he was involved with the construction of the Queen Mary 2 in France. He was the first Master to take command of the Queen Mary 2 when she was handed over to Cunard on 22 December 2003 and was promoted to Commodore when the vessel arrived in Southampton for the first time on 26 December 2003. In February, the Commodore received the Shipmaster of the Year award from the Nautical Institute and Lloyds List.

He has a son and a daughter and lives with his wife, Kim, in Somerset, England. His interests include property restoration, maritime history, genealogy and researching the history of Cunard Line captains since the company was founded in 1839. His interest in the Titanic lead to a visit in August 2001 by deep-sea submersible to the wreck which lies at a depth of two and a half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.

At a recent Titanic Convention he commented that he was already preparing his lectures for the 12 Titanic Memorial Crossing

Bill Miller

Paul has been interested in the Titanic since the wreck was officially found in 1985. Although his main interest is the Californian incident, he refuses to specialise in any one single aspect of the disaster and has written articles on a diversity of subjects. In 2003,
he acted as a guide and unofficial advisor for the London Science Museum Titanic Artefact Exhibition. Paul has a BSc in Physics and a doctorate in Nuclear Physics, but now works in the computing industry. His first book, entitled 'The Indifferent Stranger,' an analysis of
the Titanic and the Californian controversy was published in April 2008;
more details can be found at http://www.paullee.com/book_details.php"

Other Historians listed below are already on board and we are awaiting biographies

Claus Goran Wetterholm
Alan Ruffman
Brian Hill
Brigitte Saar









Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships. This includes the great ships of the past, those "floating palaces," as well as the current generation of cruise ships, the "floating resorts". Called "Mr. Ocean Liner," he has written over 65 books on the subject: from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to other titles on their fabulous interiors, in post card form and about the highly collectible artifacts from them. He has done specific histories of such celebrated passenger ships as the UNITED STATES, QUEEN MARY, ROTTERDAM, FRANCE/NORWAY, QUEEN ELIZABETH 2, COSTA VICTORIA, SUPER STAR LEO and CRYSTAL SERENITY.

He has also written over 1,000 articles for newspapers and magazines, produced his own quaterly, the MILLERGRAM, and has made some 350 voyages to date --- on liners as well as freighters. He has appeared in dozens of TV documentaries and news broadcasts, and has been a guest lecturer on over 50 different liners, sailing with the likes of Cunard, Crystal, Holland America and others.

A native of Hoboken, New Jersey, the once busy port just across the Hudson River from New York City, Miller was named Outstanding American Maritime Scholar of 1994, received the United States Maritime Preservation Award and the Ocean Liner Council's Silver Riband Award, both in 2005. He was made a Commodore of the Steamship Historical Society of America in 2006. Among other titles, he is currently Adjunct Curator of the Ocean Liner Council at New York City's South Street Seaport Museum. By late 2006, Miller had another eight books, each about ships, in the works.

Paul Lee