Browse our DVD Collection of rare maritime film

'The Great Liners' Series of Historical Maritime DVDs

Snowbow Productions have produced 46, hour long DVDs covering the classic days of shipping in the 20th century (with others already in production). The maritime history DVDs have all been produced to TV Broadcast standards and have been edited using rare clips of film from the largest archive of vintage shipping in the world. This award winning series will take you back in time to the sights and sounds of the ships, ports and voyages of the era of the Great Liners.

View an excerpt taken from 'The Great Liners - Episode 10'

Our DVDs cover every aspect of shipping in the 20th and 21st Century. They include just about every ship that sailed, as well as the ports, both home and abroad, that they sailed to.

The rare films also allow us to show you just what it was like to have worked in shipyards in those days. We show how ships were constructed and the excitement and pride that came with every launching. We take you to shipyards all over the world, but naturally with an emphasis on the UK and Europe, which was where most of the world’s ships were built.

Because Snowbow holds the world’s largest maritime film & sound archive, we are uniquely able to recreate all the sounds of the time, adding to the atmosphere, making both dockyard and ship scenes so realistic that when watching them you feel you have stepped back in time and are there for real. The Curator of one of New York’s top museums said when watching the unique film of the Queen Mary’s 1936 Maiden Voyage to New York, “It’s unbelievable… It’s as if it’s happening right now and you are there right in the middle of it”.

We have received many thousands of congratulatory letters and emails from people all over the world; people of all ages ranging from young children right through to the elderly.  People from all backgrounds from heads of governments, large and small industries, shop keepers, famous show-business personalities, ex-seafarers and other ship workers, ship enthusiasts and even royalty including the late Queen Mother, who wrote to thank us for the wonderful memories these video programmes gave her.

Finally, we believe, as ex-seafarers and having had many years of experience as professional film/ TV makers, we are uniquely qualified to make these highly specialised programmes. That’s why they are so very good!


If you're looking for film of a particular ship, port or shipping line, you can use our film archive checker to see which of our DVDs features scenes of your search criteria, along with the clip length, position in the DVD and a description of the clip. Search our archive here.