Author: Alfredo Casuso

LinerLore Aboard Nieuw Statendam 25 July – 22 August 2026

25 July 2026: Ahoy! Alfredo and I are now at sea onboard the lovely Holland America Nieuw Statendam, having set sail from Rotterdam. For the next 28 days we’ll be cruising northern waters with stops in Norway, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and Scotland before returning to Rotterdam and Dover. Along the way, we’ll experience a full solar eclipse on August 12. 

Our very great thanks to Geoff DeVito and all the Holland America folks shoreside and aboard ship for inviting us to share our salty sea tales. It’s a great honor and joy.

Throughout the journey, I’ll be available to “talk ships” with our fellow passengers and also offer my “LinerLore” maritime history presentations. See below.

Titanic: Legend and Legacy: Without a doubt, the most famous ship – and shipwreck – in the world, RMS Titanic has lived longer in memory and ongoing fascination than her all-too-brief maiden voyage. Learn of the 1898 book that “predicted” her story (and loss), and take a tour through the dozens of movies, and hundreds of books that continue to bring this classic sea tale to new generations. Plus – a Holland America connection!

Paddlewheels, Steam & Speed: The Birth of Oceanic Travel:

For millennia, humans have sought to bridge the “Old World” to the “New” over the “Western Ocean”. From St. Brendan to SS Great Britain from sail to steam, former ship office and award winning author David Eugene Perry chronicles the story of TransOceanic travel including the birth of the great Holland America line.

Ocean Olympians: Ships of State, Immigration & Sometimes War:
From 1900 – 1914, millions of Europeans crossed the Atlantic: immigrants, business people and tourists. The competition among the ship owners of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Holland and others was intense, and changed the world leading up to World War I.

The Golden Age of Liners: Blue Riband Royalty:

The Holland America greats including the iconic Nieux Amsterdam, Queens Mary and Elizabeth, Rex, Normandie, Breman & Europa and SS United States. These fastest and most glamourous of liners defined an age, and a way of life, between the Wars, and after. A crowd pleasing “must sea” talk of the Sea!

From Crossing to Cruising: A New Golden Age at Sea:

In the late 1950s, air-travel became “the only way to cross” the Atlantic. What to do with aging, elegant ships meant for passenger comfort but not competitive with jets? The answer: “Getting there is half the fun.” Learn how “crossing” gave way to “pleasure cruising” including Holland America’s significant contributions.

Linerlore: Classic Tales of the Sea and Famous Ship Stories:

Nothing is more evocative than “Tales of the Sea.” Learn about the Italian beauties Michelangelo & Raffaello, FDR’s presidential yacht Potomac, the only ship that ever sailed in two centuries, two millennia, and in two days – at the same time – plus more fascinating ship stories.

Amsterdam: Maritime History & A Memorable Meal

— David Eugene Perry

Ahoy! Today Alfredo and I visited the spectacular Amsterdam Maritime Museum, including stepping aboard a meticulously reconstructed Dutch East India Company (VOC) tall ship, Amsterdam. Here are some of the highlights from what we gleaned and learned.

The museum does an exceptional job of telling the story of the Netherlands as a maritime nation—not simply celebrating its remarkable achievements at sea, but also confronting the darker chapters of its naval and colonial history. It is one of the most balanced maritime museums we’ve visited.

Our visit began with the remarkable replica of the Amsterdam, an eighteenth-century Dutch East India Company (VOC) merchantman. The original ship was launched in 1748 but was lost on her maiden voyage. The replica, whose keel was laid in 1985, was built both to preserve traditional Dutch shipbuilding skills and to create employment during a period of high unemployment. Opened to the public in 1991, it has become one of Amsterdam’s most recognizable maritime attractions.

Walking aboard is like stepping back almost 300 years. We learned that a voyage from Amsterdam to Batavia (today’s Jakarta) could take eight months, with ships stopping at the Cape of Good Hope for fresh water and provisions. Conditions for the crew were harsh. Around 15 to 20 percent of sailors never reached Asia due to disease, malnutrition, or accidents at sea.

The Amsterdam typically carried 334 people, including 192 crew members, 128 marines, artisans, and a handful of passengers. The crew was remarkably international, including Dutchmen, Germans, Scandinavians, and even a Latvian captain.

Life aboard was anything but luxurious for ordinary sailors. Meals were simple, fresh food quickly disappeared, and diseases such as scurvy, typhus, influenza, and dysentery were constant threats. Officers and passengers dined separately with the captain, while common sailors ate in small groups and slept on the crowded orlop deck.

The cargo tells another fascinating story. Outbound ships carried inexpensive bricks as ballast, which were later used to construct warehouses, forts, and churches throughout the Dutch colonial world. Returning ships brought home coveted luxury goods including pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, Chinese and Japanese porcelain, tea from Sri Lanka, silks, silver, and fine fabrics. Gold and silver flowed eastward to finance this lucrative trade.

The museum also squarely addresses the legacy of the VOC. Founded in 1602, the company became perhaps the world’s first multinational corporation and one of history’s most powerful commercial enterprises. It negotiated treaties, maintained armies, built fortresses, and effectively governed colonies. The exhibit’s memorable observation sums it up succinctly: “No trade without war, and no war without trade.”

Unlike older museum presentations, today’s exhibits openly acknowledge that the wealth generated by the VOC came at tremendous human cost. Recent scholarship estimates that Dutch merchants operating in Asia bought and sold between 660,000 and 1.1 million enslaved people, while the Dutch share of the Atlantic slave trade involved another 550,000 people. Although the VOC was not founded specifically as a slave-trading company, it profited extensively from slavery and maintained one of Asia’s largest slave markets in Batavia.

One particularly moving exhibit recounts the story of the Meermin, a VOC vessel carrying 140 enslaved Malagasy people in 1766. The captives seized weapons and briefly gained control of the ship before ultimately being overwhelmed and sold. The museum highlights one of the leaders, Massavana, who was exiled to Robben Island, where he died at only 29 years old. His story reminds visitors that resistance to slavery existed wherever slavery existed.

The museum also explores how Dutch attitudes toward their maritime past have evolved. When the Amsterdam replica was built in the 1980s, it was largely celebrated as a symbol of Dutch ingenuity and enterprise. Today, it also serves as a symbol of colonialism’s painful legacy. Rather than ignoring that tension, the museum invites visitors to wrestle with it, even asking whether such a replica would be built today.

Beyond the VOC, we enjoyed exhibits on the Royal Barge of the Dutch monarchy, beautifully carved ship decorations inspired by classical mythology and the Bible, the centuries-long development of nautical charts, and the famous naval Battle of Solebay in 1672. Another exhibit traced Amsterdam’s transition from the great passenger liners of the twentieth century to today’s cruise industry, asking whether the economic benefits of cruise tourism outweigh its impact on the city.

One unexpected favorite was the museum’s charming “Fish Hotel” outside, an artificial reef installed beneath the canal waters to provide habitat for fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants while helping improve the health of Amsterdam’s canals.

We left impressed not only by the museum’s extraordinary collection, but also by its willingness to tell a complete story—one of remarkable seamanship, innovation, exploration, commerce, and prosperity, while equally acknowledging conquest, exploitation, and slavery. Maritime history, like history itself, is rarely simple.

For anyone visiting Amsterdam—whether you’re a ship enthusiast or simply curious about how this small nation became one of history’s greatest maritime powers—the Amsterdam Maritime Museum deserves a place near the top of your itinerary.

Afterwards we topped off the day with a traditional Indonesian Rijsttafel at “Blauw”, a small Amsterdam restaurant known for this multi-course culinary journey. All in all, a feast for all our senses.

Ahoy!

Media Contact:
David Perry / (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

Following Record July 4th Success, Fisherman’s Wharf Launches “Pier Party at Sunset” Saturday, July 25

Free Golden-Hour Waterfront Celebration Features DJ Umami, TURFinc and the Top Chefs Band

Series Continues Through September

24 July 2026 – San Francisco, CA: As famed lyrical poet William Wordsworth said: “The ocean is a mighty harmonist.” Like great music, a great oceanfront comes alive when people gather, explore and experience it together.

That spirit will fill San Francisco’s historic Fisherman’s Wharf tomorrow — on Saturday, July 25 from 5pm to 9pm — when Fisherman’s Wharf launches its first Pier Party at Sunset, a free golden-hour celebration featuring acclaimed Bay Area performers, interactive activations, dancing, cocktails, nearby dining and unforgettable views of the Bay.

Taking place at the Triangle Lot on Taylor Street, adjacent to Boudin Bakery and the SkyStarObservation Wheel, the July 25 celebration begins with Bay Area favorite DJ Umami, performing from 5pm to 6:30pm. The evening continues with an interactive dance performance by Oakland-based TURFinc, followed by the Top Chefs Band, headlining from 7:30pm to 9pm as the sun sets over the waterfront. 

“Following the incredible response to our first Pier Party season and the extraordinary success of the July 4th holiday weekend, we are thrilled to keep that momentum going with our first Pier Party at Sunset,” said Bri Maughan, Executive Director of the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District. “We’re taking over the Triangle Lot, creating room for people to gather and dance, and bringing together extraordinary Bay Area talent against one of the most beautiful Bay Area backdrops. This is exactly what Fisherman’s Wharf should be: welcoming, energetic, surprising, and iconically San Francisco.”

A Northern California native, DJ Umami is one of the region’s most celebrated open-format DJs. The official DJ of the San Francisco Giants and a former longtime DJ for the Golden State Warriors, she has appeared with performers including Dua Lipa, Anderson .Paak, Questlove and E-40 and at festivals including Outside Lands, SXSW and BottleRock Napa Valley. 

The program will also feature TURFinc, whose local dancers will bring an interactive performance to the heart of the crowd.

Closing the evening will be the Top Chefs Band, a San Francisco-based powerhouse ensemble blending hip-hop, jazz, R&B and soul. The group has performed throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and South America and is preparing to release its debut album in 2026. 

“Pier Party at Sunset is an inspired use of one of San Francisco’s most iconic public spaces,” said District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter. “It supports our small businesses, celebrates local artists and gives San Franciscans another reason to gather on the waterfront. The success of the series demonstrate that people are eager to experience Fisherman’s Wharf in new and exciting ways.

The July 25 event marks the beginning of the fourth-Saturday Pier Party at Sunset series, which complements the classic second-Saturday Pier Party experience. On second Saturdays, visitors enjoy afternoon live music, a Pier Party bar serving ready-to-drink premium craft cocktails, bistro-style seating, dancing and dozens of nearby retailers and restaurants. The event will also feature live in-the-moment mural making, arts and crafts and Instagramable photo-opps. 

Fourth Saturdays transform the Triangle Lot into a golden-hour gathering place with interactive activities, additional room for dancing and live music continuing through sunset. Both formats are free and open to the public. 

“The Port of San Francisco is excited to partner with the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District on creative programming that unites people and supports the economic vitality of the neighborhood,” said Port of San Francisco Executive Director Michael Martin. “Pier Party at Sunset celebrates this extraordinary neighborhood while creating a welcoming new experience for residents and visitors. San Francisco’s waterfront is an amazing backdrop for this celebration of community, music, and entertainment.” 

The sunset(?) summer series follows a highly successful July 4th weekend during which Wharf hotels, restaurants, retailers and attractions reported sold-out rooms, record-breaking sales and significant year-over-year increases.

The Argonaut Hotel and Zephyr Hotel were sold out, with the Argonaut recording its strongest July 4th performance since 2016. Several PIER 39 tenants reported record or historic sales, while Berry’s Boba and Matcha, Blue Mermaid and Boudin Bakery also reported record holiday business. Cioppino’s reported July 4 sales up 48 percent from 2025, Only in San Francisco reported a 20 percent increase, and Bay Company reported sales up 100 percent for the holiday itself.

The Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District launched its fourth season of Pier Party in June. The initial afternoon events attracted enthusiastic crowds for live music, dancing, cocktails and waterfront gathering, helping build momentum toward the expanded sunset series.  In addition, afternoon concerts continue through September. Below are links to the full schedule for both:

Afternoon: https://www.fishermanswharf.org/pier-party/

Sunset: https://www.fishermanswharf.org/pier-party-at-sunset/

For all events, ample parking facilities exist within the district, but locals are encouraged to use public transit when possible.

2026 Pier Party at Sunset Schedule:

* Saturday, July 25 — 5pm to 9pm

5pm–6:30pm: DJ Umami

Special Performance: TURFinc

7:30pm–9pm: Top Chefs Band

* Saturday, August 22 — 5pm to 9pm

Bay Area DJ and radio personality Chuy Gomez will open the evening, followed by a Bachata and Salsa sunset intermission. San Francisco’s Bayonics will headline with its signature fusion of reggae and Latin music. 

* Saturday, September 26 — 5pm to 9pm

Golden State Warriors DJ D Sharp will open the final sunset event of the season, followed by another performance from TURFinc. Winner of the 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, The Philharmonik, performing with his Core Four, will headline the season finale. 

Event Details:

What: Pier Party at Sunset

When: Saturday, July 25, 2026, 5pm–9pm

Where: Triangle Lot on Taylor Street, adjacent to Boudin Bakery, Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco

Admission: Free and open to the public

Featuring: DJ Umami, TURFinc and the Top Chefs Band, plus interactive activations, dancing, cocktails, nearby restaurants and retailers, and sunset views of San Francisco Bay

Pier Party events continue every second and fourth Saturday through September 26. Second-Saturday events take place during the afternoon, while the fourth-Saturday Pier Party at Sunset celebrations run from 5pm to 9pm at the Triangle Lot. 

Follow @pierpartysf on Instagram for entertainment and event updates.

For more information, visit pierpartysf.com or fishermanswharf.org.

About the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District:

Established in 2005, the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to promoting, advancing and maintaining Fisherman’s Wharf as a world-class waterfront destination. The FWCBD works to enhance public spaces, support local businesses, improve the visitor experience and celebrate the history, culture and vitality of San Francisco’s most visited neighborhood.

About Fisherman’s Wharf:

Fisherman’s Wharf is one of San Francisco’s most iconic and beloved destinations, known for its historic fishing fleet, seafood restaurants, waterfront views, PIER 39 sea lions, family attractions, maritime heritage and enduring role as a gathering place for locals and visitors from around the world.

About the Port of San Francisco:

The Port of San Francisco manages 7.5 miles of waterfront that is home to popular destinations and attractions, historic districts, small businesses and robust maritime opportunities. The Port works to advance environmentally and financially sustainable maritime, recreational and economic opportunities for the City, Bay Area and California.

It’s our job and our pleasure at David Perry & Associates, Inc. to represent Braille Institute, one of the nation’s leading organizations serving people who are blind or visually impaired. Through education, accessibility, advocacy, technology, library services and community programs, Braille Institute helps people live with confidence, independence and connection.

We are proud to support an organization whose work opens doors, expands opportunity and transforms lives. In November 2026, the Braille Institute will open a new facility in Rancho Mirage, California serving the Coachella Valley.

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Ship to Shore: Île de France and Baroness de Rothschild

—- David Eugene Perry

Ahoy! When ship buffs talk of the Île de France, chances are they are discussing the glorious 1920s Art Deco vessel that became a legendary liner, including 70 years ago this week serving as rescue ship to the Andrea Doria. However, there was an earlier Île de France memorialized by a baroness.

That earlier vessel is the one that links sea-going history to one of the most enchanting villas on the French Riviera.

Most people know the name Île de Francebecause of the celebrated French Line liner launched in 1926 and placed in service in 1927 — the glamorous ship later famed for her Art Deco interiors and for racing through fog in July 1956 to help rescue survivors of the Andrea Doria. But more than two decades before that famous liner ever slipped into the water, another ship had already carried the name.

The earlier Île de France began life in 1882 as the Dutch steamship Insulinde, built for the Netherlands Steamship Company. She was soon renamed Burgemeester Den Tex and served as an ocean-going passenger steamer in Dutch service. In 1903, she was sold to the Marseille-based Société Générale de Transport Maritime à Vapeur — SGTM — and received the name Île de France.

She was no giant Atlantic greyhound. Rather, she was a handsome late-19th-century passenger steamer: white-hulled, with a single funnel, two masts, open decks and the elegant profile of a Belle Époque traveler. In French service she worked Mediterranean routes and also became associated with pleasure cruising. Indeed, she was sometimes styled a “paquebot-yacht,” a telling description that suggests a vessel intended not merely to transport passengers from one place to another, but to offer the voyage itself as part of the pleasure.

And that is where the Baroness Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild enters the story.

Tradition holds that Béatrice traveled aboard this earlier Île de France, and that the ship so captivated her imagination that when she later created her extraordinary estate at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, she gave it the name Villa Île-de-France. The villa, built beginning in the first decade of the 20th century, was conceived with an unmistakable maritime sensibility. Perched dramatically on the narrow ridge of Cap Ferrat, with sea views on both sides, it gave the sensation of being afloat.

The villa also arose from a decisive moment in Béatrice’s private life. In 1904, after 21 unhappy years, she divorced Maurice Ephrussi, whose immense gambling debts had alarmed the Rothschild family and threatened her financial security. Newly independent—and soon fortified by the fortune she inherited after her father’s death—Béatrice turned her attention to creating a world entirely of her own.

In 1905, she discovered seven rocky hectares on the narrowest part of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. The land was also coveted by King Leopold II of Belgium, who owned neighboring property and hoped to expand his Riviera holdings. Learning of the king’s interest apparently sharpened Béatrice’s resolve: she purchased the site without hesitation.

Thus, the future Villa Île-de-France was born from a remarkable convergence of freedom, fortune and royal rivalry. Her divorce allowed Béatrice to begin anew; her inheritance made the project possible; and competition with Leopold II helped secure the dramatic promontory from which she could command her gardens like a captain surveying the deck of a ship.

The conceit was deliberate. The loggia was imagined like a ship’s bridge, from which the baroness could look out over her property as though surveying the sea from a captain’s command post. The great axial garden descending from the villa has long been described as evoking the deck of a ship. Even the staff reportedly played their part in sustaining the illusion: gardeners are said to have worn sailor-like uniforms, complete with the red pompons so familiar in French naval dress.

It is a lovely and important chronology. The villa’s shipboard inspiration belongs to the older Île de France, not to the better-known 1927 liner. Béatrice’s villa was underway by about 1907, whereas the famous French LineÎle de France would not enter service until 1927. So when one sees modern references suggesting that Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild was inspired by “the Île de France,” it is essential to know which Île de France is meant.

The earlier ship, though now far less remembered, was a fascinating vessel in her own right. She bridged worlds: Dutch and French; liner service and leisure cruising; practical steamship and floating symbol. She also seems to have belonged to that early era when the Mediterranean voyage itself was becoming a refined social experience. Before the great interwar liners turned travel into theater, ships such as this one helped teach fashionable travelers how to enjoy the sea as destination as much as passage.

Her end came just as Europe lurched toward catastrophe. The ship appears to have completed her last cruise in 1914, on the eve of the First World War. Records diverge somewhat after that — as maritime records sometimes do — but she seems to have passed out of French service soon thereafter and was gone by the middle of the decade.

Yet her afterlife proved unexpectedly durable. Not through steel, nor through schedules, nor through passenger lists — but through architecture, imagination and memory. Thanks to Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, the earlier Île de France left a wake not only on the sea, but on the land.

So, yes: when maritime enthusiasts toast the name Île de France, most will think first of the glamorous 1920s liner and her celebrated role in the Andrea Doria rescue. But there was another — an earlier ship of the Belle Époque — and it is she who seems to have sailed straight into the imagination of a baroness and from there into the creation of one of the Riviera’s most magical estates.

Ship to shore, indeed.