Mark H. Goldberg, TravelPage.com's Cruise Editor is an internationally recognized authority on cruise ships and maritime history. He likes to joke that the stork may have brought just about everyone else, but a cargo ship dropped him off on the pier for his parents to retrieve.

Born in New York City in 1950 he grew into a one track minded shiplover by age four. One day when he was five he picked out the necessary letters on his mother's old typewriter to type a request to a steamship company for a supply of their ship's pictures, plans, brochures, sailing schedules, rate sheets, post cards, posters - anything about their ships. Suspecting the writer was a travel agent, the steamship company generously obliged. Goldberg has been collecting ever since. It took him to sea when he came of college age...it was a toss up - to go for a PhD or go to sea... He became a Purser but compromised with Academia and he went ashore and got his Master's degree in History in 1978.

By the mid 1980s there was less to add to his collection and though by then he was marketing director for a German cruise line, he had ever more unanswered questions about shipping history in his mind. He then turned to teaching, research and writing. He began his serious writing career with a small volume called "Ships of the Libera Line." A study of an almost unknown Italian shipping company, the book won wide acclaim by nautically-oriented scholars.

His American Merchant Marine History series is now well established. Volume 1, The "Hog Islanders" The Story of 122 American Ships has won a wide following. Volume 2, "Caviar & Cargo" The C3 Passenger Ships, has similarly garnered enthusiastic praise. Volume 3, "Going Bananas" 100 Years of American Fruit Ships in the Caribbean has been widely hailed as the standard against which books on merchant ships must be measured.

Volume 4 explores the little known "Sub Boats", the 5,500 deadweight ton World War I era freighters fabricated by the Submarine Boat Corporation at the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation's Newark Bay Shipyard. Never before have these ships been treated in such detail. Volume 5 is examines "The Stately President Liners", the American Passenger Liners of the Interwar Years.

Goldberg brings long gone ships back to life examining the details of their careers under the bright spotlight of his expertise as an indefatigable researcher who takes particular pleasure in uncovering the most minute details of a vessel's life. He retains his photographic memory and continues to absorb facts and figures in a dazzling way. His work has been made easier because of his talent for languages. He speaks, reads and writes over a dozen. This opens avenues of research usually barred to the ordinary student.

Still further, his passion for liners has seen him serve as purser in eight vessels under several flags. This has given him inside knowledge of the steamship business. Since childhood, he has sailed in more than sixty passenger carrying vessels. His formal education won him a BA as well as an MA from New York University.

Now devoting substantially all of his time to his maritime research and writing, he lives in a restored Federal townhouse in the historic Mount Vernon district in Baltimore, Maryland. His enthusiasm for the project continues. Once again, he repeated the closing comment he made at the time of the publication of the first volume: "There are still nine more volumes-AT LEAST."

To order one of Mark's books from Amazon.com, click on the title below.

Shipping Board's Other Agency Ships : Subboats and Merchants

The Hog Islanders : The Story of One Hundred Twenty-Two American Ships (American Merchant Marine History Series)

Going Bananas : One Hundred Years of American Fruit Ships in the Caribbean (The/American Merchant Marine History Series)

Caviar and Cargo : The C Three Passenger Ships/the American Merchant Marine History Series

He is a frequent lecturer ashore and at sea on a variety of cruise lines. He's always interested in hearing from fellow cruise ship enthusiasts and can be reached by clicking on the mailbox below.