According to Haimark Line, beginning with former TV anchor Dan Rather as the special guest expert on the inaugural sailing, these experts will each join select cruises that visit America’s Five Great Lakes, New England colonies and French-Canadian Maritime provinces. They will engage in casual chats as well as present informative scheduled talks in the ship’s Compass Lounge that bring to life everything from the diverse history of Victorian towns rich with seafaring history and archaeological investigations of shipwrecks to insights into local cultures and remote islands with spectacular wildlife viewing.

Other speakers includes Dr. Bill Cogar, a published author and former U.S. Naval Academy professor; Dr. John Odin Jensen, a historian, archaeologist and policy professor who has participated in more than 50 underwater archaeological investigations of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes; Dr. James Robertson, recipient of every major award given in the Civil War field, and a lecturer; Frederick Stonehouse, author of more than 30 books on maritime history and an “on-air” expert for National Geographic and the History Channel; Bob Tagatz, resident Historian & Concierge for the Grand Hotel on Michigan’s Mackinac Island, with more than 29 years of experience in historical preservation; and Jay White, a Nova Scotia-based historian and a former teacher of military history for the Royal Military College of Canada.

Based in Denver, Colorado with sales, marketing and operations offices in Chicago, Haimark promises to combine comfort and luxury with the exploration aboard small ship coastal expedition cruises in North, Central and South America.

In the fall, the Saint Laurent will reposition to Central and South America.

Haimark Line is the sister company to Haimark Ltd., a river cruise operator and destination management company that offers river cruise journeys in Vietnam and Cambodia, Myanmar, India, and the Peruvian Amazon.