Cunard: The Most Famous Ocean Liners In The World

3 Programmes available.

Professor Derek Fraser

Professor Derek Fraser has been a University Vice-Chancellor, senior civil servant and professor of history at three universities. He is currently Chairman of the Independent Football Commission and of Standards Verification UK. He has an extensive list of publications in the field of modern British history and has been lecturing on cruise ships for the past 5 years. He is also a qualified English Bridge Union tournament director. He has been married to Ruth, a former head teacher, for 45 years and they have 3 children and 6 grandchildren.

Brian J Ford

Brian J Ford is a best-selling author, leading scientist and popular broadcaster. Over 100 editions of his books are out around the world. Recently he featured in ‘Life and Death in Rome’ and this month in ‘Great Dictators’. He has just finished making two documentaries about ‘Weird Weapons of World War 2’, which are out on USA television and is currently filming programs for the Discovery channel. He appears in TV programs all over the world and has written for the press and for innumerable scientific journals (including Scientific American). He is a Fellow of Cardiff University, a member of Caius College, Cambridge, and a Professor at Leicester University. Prof. Ford is a leading cruise lecturer, and a search for cruise lectures on Google shows him near the top of the list out of nearly two million sites worldwide!

Captain William Wells

When still a schoolboy in his native New Zealand, William Wells won a scholarship and travelled to the UK where he underwent his basic officer’s training before embarking on a career in the British Merchant Navy and latterly the Royal Navy Reserve. A Master Mariner, former ship’s captain and licensed commercial marine pilot, his career spanned just short of 49 years of service at sea. Promoted to Captain by the age of 28, he then became a Trinity House licensed pilot in the Port of London on the stretch of river between Gravesend and London Bridge. During his career as a pilot, he also served for 10 years in the Middle East, 4 years in the Bahamas and 2 years as a Deep Sea pilot operating in the busy and congested waters of the English Channel, Dover Straits and North Sea. It was during this period abroad when he handled many of the world’s largest ships, including the QE2. He ended his career as the Senior River Pilot in the Port of London. An active member of the Professional Speakers Association, he is now a very successful Lecturer and After Dinner Speaker and is in constant demand to speak on a range of maritime topics to a wide variety of organisations and learned societies throughout the country including BBC Radio and aboard cruise ships.