Mike Jernigan has lived in and traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and has been a lecturer on board NCL, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Viking Ocean Cruises and Seabourn ships since 2007. After a first career that ended with early retirement as editor of the alumni magazine of Auburn University, he taught for 14 years at the community college level and as an AP European and World History instructor.

Since retiring from teaching during the Covid pandemic, he has returned to freelance writing, where he has contributed articles on the Caribbean and other travel destinations to a number of periodicals including Coastal Living, Exotic Places to Retire, Airways, American Eagle Latitudes, World War Two Magazine, and Cayman Airways Skies. He is also the author or co-author of two books, including Auburn Man: The Life and Times of George Petrie, and After the Arena, with former Auburn Head Football Coach Pat Dye. As an enrichment lecturer he specializes in destination history, particularly as it relates to the First and Second World Wars.

All cruise lectures feature Keynote (Apple) slide presentations.


NORTH AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN

Charleston Under the Star & Bars
Perhaps no city in America was the site of as many pivotal events in the American Civil War as Charleston, South Carolina, from the war's opening shot on the Union's Fort Sumter to its roles as a home port to sleek rebel blockade runners and finally to the shocking attack on the blockade ship USS Housatonic by the Confederate submarine HL Hunley, the first successful sinking of a ship by a submarine in the history of warfare. Relive this historic port city's role in the War Between the States and find out why Charleston was one of the key cities of the short-lived Confederacy.

The Dutch New World
Though there are few traces of it today other than Anglicized place names, New York was Dutch long before it became a center of English America in the late 17th century. Founded by the Dutch West Indies Company, the colony of New Amsterdam soon became the center of trade and commerce for a vast Dutch colonial empire stretching from the Atlantic Seaboard of North America all the way to the jungles of Brazil.

There Be Pirates
An entertaining history of piracy from its early origins in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Seaboard of America up to present day piracy off the Horn of Africa and Indonesia. Come meet such diverse characters as the fierce Blackbeard, the gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet, the Amazons Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and Jack Rackham--the true-life inspiration for the Pirates of the Caribbean character Captain Jack Sparrow.

Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle
Come trace some of the greatest mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, from the first reports of sea monsters and strange apparitions in the 15th century to the more modern disappearances of ships such as the World War One Collier Cyclops and the multiple aircraft of the ill-fated Flight 19 in 1945. You might be surprised to find out where the Triangle actually got its name and you can draw your own conclusions about some of the explanations that have been put forward to explain the Triangle's frightening reputation.

Ties that Bind: Bermuda and America
Although it has historically been closely aligned with Britain, Bermuda has always walked a fine line between its English character and its American ties, which date back to before the American Revolution and continue through the U.S. Civil War, World War Two, and on up to today. The pink sands and delightful weather of the island have always attracted Americans to its shores, including such luminaries as Mark Twain and President Woodrow Wilson. Bermuda has drawn much from both its British and American links to become a unique combination of both.

Island Bound: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Island Living
Ever visit a lush Caribbean Island and picture yourself reclining in a beach chair, oiling up with suntan lotion and settling down to a life of beach combing and banana daiquiris? Well, it's not impossible, but there's more to making the move to an island than meets the eye. Find out what it takes to make the transition to island life with this practical how-to guide, presented by someone who has first-hand experience—some bad, some good—of actually following up on the dream of living in the Caribbean.

Nassau, Bahamas: Caribbean Crossroads
Many flags have flown over the Bahamian capital of Nassau during its long history, from the Spanish and English ensigns to those of the fledgling United States and even that of a short-lived pirate republic where buccaneers like Black Sam Bellamy, Blackbeard and Ann Bonny once held court. Few other Caribbean destinations have seen more conquerors and cultures, all of which contributed in one way or another to the rich history and cultural diversity the city boasts today.

The USVI: America’s Caribbean Paradise
Each of the three islands that make up the Unites States Virgin Islands—St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix—developed along very distinctive historical lines and the three have as many differences as they share traits in common. They have also given us great figures of American history such as Alexander Hamilton, a key figure of the American Revolution, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury and the unfortunate loser of an infamous duel with Aaron Burr. Despite their differences, however, the islands of the USVI have become one of the Caribbean’s top tourist destinations and continue to boast a unique and distinctive mix of Danish, American and Caribbean culture today.

An Insider’s Guide to Grand Cayman
Find out from a former resident and regular contributor to such publications as Cayman Airways Skies, the in-flight magazine for Cayman Airways, and New Resident, the guide for moving to the Cayman Islands, how to explore the island of Grand Cayman from a true insider’s perspective. If you are looking for a port visit taken far off the beaten path, then this is the lecture for you.

Haiti: Troubled Paradise
A brief history of Haiti, from its colonial status as France’s most prosperous colony through the violent era when it became the site of the only successful large-scale slave revolt in the western hemisphere. This lecture also discusses Haiti’s problematic politics, its stormy relationship with its neighbors, and its complicated past involvement with the United States.

The Dutch New World
Though there are few traces of it today other than Anglicized place names, New York was Dutch long before it became a center of English America in the late 17th century. Founded by the Dutch West Indies Company, the colony of New Amsterdam—today’s New York City—became the center of trade and commerce in the New World during the 17th century. But New Amsterdam was just one gem in the crowns of the Dutch West and East Indies companies, based in Amsterdam and controlling a vast Dutch trading empire stretching from the Atlantic Seaboard of North America, to the steamy jungles of Brazil and West Africa, to the spice islands of Indonesia. This is a brief history of that empire, when the sun never set on Dutch traders and their vessels.

The Real Greyhounds: Winning the Battle of the Atlantic
The battle fought in the North Atlantic between German U-Boats and Allied convoys on their way to Britain was one of the most bitterly contested conflicts of WW2. Early in the war, German submarines held the upper hand, coming perilously close to starving Britain out of the war. But by 1943, new technology and training turned the U-Boat tide, and Allied supply convoys paved the way for D-Day and ultimate victory in Europe.

Operation Drumbeat: America’s Second Pearl Harbor
Despite the fact German U-Boats had nearly strangled maritime supply routes to Britain from 1939-1941, the U.S. was woefully unprepared when the U-Boat campaign was extended to America’s Atlantic coast after U.S. entry into the war in December 1941. When the first German sub arrived in January 1942, it surfaced undetected in New York City’s lower bay and the captain couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw a fully illuminated Manhattan skyline. Such lack of preparation and precautions led to what German submariners called “the happy time,” as they sank U.S. shipping on the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean at an unprecedented rate for the first six months of the war.

Snakes in the Garden: The Caribbean & West Indies in WW2
The war in the Caribbean Sea and West Indies is often a forgotten part of the broader WW2 story, but the region was critical to the Allied war effort and was targeted accordingly by Nazi U-Boats. Ships sailing from the major oil refineries in the Dutch Antilles, the bauxite (important for aluminum production) supply line terminus in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and through the vital Panama Canal became priority targets for German submarines during a critical nine-month period in 1942-43. Other Allied shipping was attacked throughout the West Indies, but the eventual introduction of convoying led to ultimate U.S., Dutch and British success.

Carry a Big Stick: U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean
Starting with the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and most recently in the 2004 military intervention in Haiti, the United States has proved time and time again that it is willing to impose its will in the Caribbean region for political, humanitarian or military purposes. Often these interventions have come at the point of a gun and without the host nation’s consent. But that willingness to act decisively when American interests are perceived to be under threat has been a consistent component of U.S. foreign policy for 200 years.

An East Coast Port: Halifax (Canada) in Two World Wars
Referred to in news releases only as “an East Coast port” during the World Wars, Halifax, Nova Scotia, was actually much more than that. Halifax served as the western terminus of the convoy lifeline to Britain in both World War One and World War Two — a role that brought both prosperity and tragedy to the city and had a profound effect on its transformation into one of Canada’s fastest growing urban areas today.


NORTHERN EUROPE, NORTH ATLANTIC & BALTIC

Britain Stands Alone: 1940
Perhaps no other year of WWII was more pivotal for the survival of Britain and the freedom of Western Europe from Hitler’s tyranny than 1940. In that year alone, Britain survived defeat in Norway and a change in prime ministers, near disaster during the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, the loss of France as its main ally against Germany, a submarine campaign against its vital sea lanes and a bombing assault on its cities on a scale the world had never seen. Yet thanks to its ultimate aerial victory in the Battle of Britain, the island nation held out against the Nazis and laid the foundations for Allied victory in WWII.

The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
A brief history of the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party in the dark years after Germany’s defeat in World War One, from his failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, to his appointment as German chancellor a decade later, and ultimately to his downfall and death in his Berlin bunker after leading Germany and Europe into the maelstrom of the Second World War.

Descent into Darkness: Norway in WW2
On April 9, 1940, life in Norway changed overnight with the launch by Adolf Hitler of Operation Weserubung, the simultaneous invasion and occupation of Norway and Denmark by the German army. While Denmark surrendered with little resistance, the Norwegians, with help from Britain, successfully resisted the German juggernaut for weeks. Patriots in Norway then launched some of the most active resistance campaigns in occupied Europe during WW2. This is the story of Nazi involvement in Norway and the resistance efforts that helped bring it to an end.

Norway’s Last Stand: The Battle for Narvik
When the Germans invaded Norway, one of their prime targets was the northern city of Narvik, the ocean terminus of the Nazi’s vital iron ore rail line from Sweden. But with the help of the Allies, the Norwegians, after initial setbacks, regrouped and liberated the city. Although the Germans eventually prevailed, the joint Allied/Norwegian victory at Narvik was Hitler’s first defeat in WW2.

Hitler’s Vikings: Scandinavians in the Nazi SS
The exploits of the Scandinavian resistance fighters who resisted the Nazi occupation of their homelands during WW2 are a well documented part of the era’s history, but there were also many whose strong antipathy toward communism, particularly following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland, led them to join the German military in order to fight on the Eastern Front against the USSR. This is the story of the Scandinavian volunteers like those in the SS Viking Division, who experienced some of the most horrific fighting on the Eastern Front and whose survivors returned to a harsh reception back home after the war ended.

Slaying the Beast: Sinking the Tirpitz
The chase and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck by Britain’s Royal Navy in May 1941 became the subject of a post-war movie and one of the most memorable naval events of WW2, but what of her 52,500-ton sister ship, the lesser known, but just as dangerous Tirpitz? Dubbed “the beast” by Winston Churchill, the Tirpitz spent the war in the fjords of northern Norway, poised to break out and wreak havoc on Allied Arctic convoys to Russia. From 1942 to 1944 the Allies made almost obsessive efforts to sink her, using everything from special 12,000-pound bombs to mini-submersibles. Their ultimate success is the reason why 20 percent of her wreckage still lies at the bottom of the Kaafjord near Tromso today.

Sinking the Bismarck: The Epic Pursuit of Germany’s Giant
The chase and sinking of the German super battleship Bismarck by Britain’s Royal Navy over seven days in May 1941 became the subject of a post-war movie and one of the most memorable moments of WW2, but cost the British the loss of HMS Hood—the largest battleship in the British arsenal—along with all but three members of her crew.

Arctic Convoys: “The Worst Journey”
Shortly after Hitler’s Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Winston Churchill initiated what he himself called “the worst journey in the world” — the Arctic Ocean convoy route ferrying supplies to the hard-pressed USSR from Britain, Iceland, and later the U.S., to the Russian Arctic ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk. This vital lifeline was a priority target for Nazi air and naval forces based in occupied Norway, but just as bitter an enemy for the convoys was the Arctic weather, which took its terrible toll on both sides.

Iceland in WW2: “The Blessed War”
The occupation of Iceland in WW2, first by the British and later by the U.S., was a profound social and cultural shock to the Icelanders, who initially viewed the “invasion” with very mixed emotions. It was launched to forestall possible German occupation and due to Iceland’s strategic position for naval and air bases in the North Atlantic. But over time, the influx of what eventually became as many as 50,000 British, Canadian and U.S. troops brought Iceland out of poverty and isolation and transformed it into a prosperous modern nation that has become an integral part of Europe. Today, most Icelanders recall WW2 as “the blessed war.”

The Danish Dilemma: Denmark in WW2
On April 9, 1940, life in Denmark changed overnight with the launch by Adolf Hitler of Operation Weserubung, the simultaneous invasion and occupation of Denmark and Norway by the German army. While Norway resisted for several months with the help of the Allies, tiny Denmark surrendered to German occupation almost immediately. But in the five years of occupation that followed, the Danes found countless ways both active and passive to defy their German masters, including saving almost all Danish Jews from deportation to the Nazi death camps.

A Danish Divorce: Denmark, Iceland & Greenland in WW2
Life in Denmark changed overnight with the German invasion of April 9, 1940, but how did that invasion affect life in the two Danish protectorates of Iceland and Greenland? One used its experience in the war years to catapult from isolation into the modern world, while for the other, the war brought neither increased prosperity nor any major change in lifestyle or prosperity.

The Coldest War: Greenland & the North Atlantic in WW2
Isolated and largely forgotten prior to WW2, Greenland and the polar North Atlantic quickly became a vital link in the Allied plan for victory. Both the Germans and the Allies battled to utilize the region for the critical role of weather forecasting, while the Allies also used Greenland and neighboring Iceland as part of the air bridge between North America and England during the buildup of US air power in the European Theater of Operations.

The Kaiser’s Canal: A History of the Kiel Canal
During the great naval building race between Britain and Germany in the years prior to WWI, Imperial German Kaiser Wilhelm II challenged the UK’s traditional naval supremacy and increased tensions between the two great powers. But Germany’s fleet of new dreadnoughts would be bottled up in the Baltic in case of war. The Kaiser’s answer—to build a deep draft canal between the German base of Kiel on the Baltic all the way to the North Sea at Brunsbuttel. Today the 98km Kiel Canal is one of the busiest man-made waterways in the world.

Peter the Great/St. Petersburg
The life and times of one of Russia’s most powerful tsars, the physically imposing Peter I, whose considerable accomplishments earned him the title of Peter the Great. Peter’s role in turning Russia’s focus westward included modernizing the Russian military, touring Western Europe personally as a young man, and the construction of the city of St. Petersburg, to which Peter moved the Russian capital from Moscow.

The Russian Revolution
St. Petersburg, home to the Russian Romanov dynasty since the time of Peter the Great, later became epicenter of the events that gradually undermined the rule of Tsar Nicholas II and culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Meet those involved, from the weak and indecisive Nicholas II to the much-reviled mystic Rasputin, whose power over the Empress Alexandra helped bring down an empire.

Imperial Berlin
A brief history of Imperial Berlin, from its rise as the intellectual, cultural and military center of Europe in the Age of Otto Von Bismarck and the era of German unification through its World War I role as center of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s German Empire, its post-war resurgence as the cultural laboratory of Europe and its World War II destruction as the site of the final stand of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Modern Poland
Both Germany and Russia have throughout history held ambitions to control some or all of Poland, which explains it struggle to maintain its territorial integrity of even to achieve nationhood in the first place. Modern Polish history includes ample evidence of this struggle between Poland and its powerful neighbors to the east and west, from its role as the starting point of World War Two to its ultimately successful efforts to throw off the chains of communism in the 1980s.

Between Two Evils: Finland Under Fire in WW2
Finland’s history has always been inextricably linked with that of its neighbors, from its centuries under Swedish rule until its 20th-century history of close ties with Germany and conflict with the USSR. Those ties and that conflict led to the Winter War with Stalin’s Russia in 1939-40 and the Continuation War just a short time later. They also led to a regrettable alliance of convenience with Nazi Germany—making Finland the only democracy to cast its lot with Hitler in World War Two.

Nowhere to Hide: The Benelux Nations in WW2 (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
Like many of the other smaller nations of Europe, the Benelux nations of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg watched as Hitler gobbled up many of their neighbors in the early months of WW2. All hoped to avoid the war by clinging to an oft-declared neutrality, but the misfortune of their strategic geography put them all in the path of Hitler’s ambition to dominate Europe. This is the story of their initial defeat, long years of occupation, and finally their liberation by the Allies in the closing months of the war.


SOUTHERN EUROPE & MEDITERRANEAN

The Powder Keg of Europe: The Balkans in WWI (Croatia/Bosnia)
By 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, led by aging emperor Franz Joseph and made up of far too many diverse and competing nationalities, was teetering on the edge of chaos. The assassination in Bosnia of the Austrian crown prince, Franz Ferdinand, was the match that lit the spark to the Balkans powder keg and plunged Europe — and eventually many other nations — into the bloody abyss of World War One.

A Nation Resurrected: The French Campaign in WWII
This is the story of France in WWII and its journey from tragedy in 1940 to triumph five years later. This lecture covers how France reluctantly moved toward war, the German blitzkrieg campaign of 1940 that resulted in the British/French evacuation at Dunkirk and the fall of France weeks later. The rise of Vichy France, the French Resistance and the ultimate role played by Charles DeGaulle and the Free French Army is also covered.

A Deadly Diversion: The Italian Campaign in WWII
This is the story of the Allied Italian campaign in WWII, from its origins in the Allied victories in North Africa, to the joint American/British invasion of Sicily and fall of Benito Mussolini to the bloody battle up the Italian boot which costs tens of thousands of lives but never resulted in clear-cut victory due to the shift of Allied emphasis to France after D-Day. Was the Italian campaign even necessary? Historians are still debating its worth to this day.

WWII Laboratory: The Spanish Civil War
The danger of fascism to democratically elected governments was still an idle threat until 1937, when fascist General Francisco Franco launched a coup against the Republican government of Spain. The result was the Spanish Civil War, a bloody and bitter conflict that pitted brother against brother and became a testing ground for European powers such as Italy, Nazi Germany and the USSR, eager to test out weapons and tactics for the future wars they were planning themselves.

Conquerors & Poets: Legacies of Ancient Greece
The civilization of Ancient Greece not only set the stage for the Roman Empire which followed, but also laid the foundations of Western Civilization in ways that continue to resonate across the centuries today, from architecture, to the sciences, to theatre and the arts. Discover how the Greek city-states rose and fell, and how their conqueror — Alexander the Great — then carried Greek ideas and values throughout the known world.

Heroes Fight Like Greeks: The Greek Campaign in WW2
Greece became a reluctant battlefield in 1940 thanks to the unbridled ambitions of Benito Mussolini, who was eager for an easy victory after watching Hitler’s success and being frustrated by the British in North Africa. The result was an Italian invasion of Albania and Greece, which quickly turned into a quagmire and looming disaster thanks to the unexpected tenacity of the Greek Army, aided by an influx of British aid. Only an intervention by Hitler, who belatedly sent large German forces into both countries to bail out his ally, saved the Italians from a humiliating defeat and brought Greece under the Nazi boot of occupation.


PACIFIC & OCEANIA

This is no Drill: America's Disaster at Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the U.S. Pacific Fleet based in Hawaii was caught totally by surprise and all but wiped out in a brazen attack by Japanese aircraft carriers, foreshadowing a new style of warfare in which ships never sighted their opponents and naval air power was supreme. How did the Japanese plan such a decisive blow and why was the U.S. fleet caught so unprepared at Pearl Harbor?

Hawaii: America’s Gibraltar in the Pacific
The development of Hawaii as the U.S. military’s “Crossroads of the Pacific” was a long and gradual process that didn’t reach its full potential until the years just prior to WW2. But Hawaii’s development as a U.S. stronghold was complicated by the fact it was also home to large populations of indigenous Hawaiians still embittered over the heavy-handed imperialism that had made the island a U.S. territory less than 50 years earlier, as well as Japanese Americans who now found their loyalties unfairly questioned.

Fighting Flattops: U.S. Carriers in the Pacific in WW2
The evolution of the aircraft carrier as a weapon of war actually began with the British Royal Navy in the final years of WW1, but it was America and Japan that most embraced the concept between the wars and further refined carrier technology and tactics in their fleets between the wars. In WW2 these two carrier powers would clash in the Pacific in an epic struggle that still defines naval strategy to this day.

Sharks of Steel: The Allied Submarine Campaign in the Pacific
Although German U-Boats and the Battle of the Atlantic are better known, the destruction of Japanese merchant shipping by Allied submarines operating in the Pacific was actually much more decisive on the final outcome of the WW2. By 1945, the island nation of Japan was suffering not only from a severe shortage of war materials from its far-flung empire, but even of food for its civilian population. Many historians even argue today that the submarine campaign against Japan actually made the atomic bombing unnecessary.

Long Road to Tokyo: Island Hopping in the Pacific
No war quite like the U.S. campaign against Japan in the Pacific had ever been fought, a war requiring the evolution and development of both the technology and tactics for large-scare amphibious invasions of far-flung islands like Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, bristling with defenses years in the making. Overcoming all obstacles, US forces marched inexorably across the Pacific toward the home islands of Japan in a strategy that became known as island hopping.

Aluminum Doom: The American Air War in the Pacific
Caught unprepared at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines in 1941 and with aircraft inferior to those of its Japanese opponent, the U.S. Army Air Corps faced a long road to regaining control of the air over the Pacific. But by the end of the war, massive fleets of U.S. bombers with their fighter escorts operated out of hard-earned bases near Japan and ruled the skies of the Pacific all the way from Hawaii to Tokyo.

Broken But Unbowed: Allied Prisoners of War in the Pacific
From the American and Filipino prisoners on the Bataan Death March after the fall of the Philippines to the Australian and British prisoners from Singapore and Malaysia used as slave labor in the construction of the Burma Railway, the treatment of Allied POWs in the Pacific Theater was uniformly poor. After surviving the dangers of battle, thousands died in captivity due to neglect or cruelty.

Rising Sun Triumphant: The First Year of Japan’s Pacific War
From December 1941 and the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor until August 1942 when the U.S. finally went on the offensive for the first time at Guadalcanal, the Japanese war machine enjoyed a run of unprecedented successes against the combined forces of the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. Dislodging the Japanese from the vast territories gained in the first year of the war would lead to some of the bitterest fighting of WW2.

Imperial General: Douglas MacArthur in Peace & War
Probably no American figure from WW2 is more of an enigma than General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, whose Philippines command was caught unprepared on the war’s first day but who eventually led U.S. forces to victory in the Southwest Pacific and replaced Emperor Hirohito as the architect of modern Japan. He later once again led Allied forces to near victory in Korea before ending his career due to his disagreements with President Harry Truman on the conduct of the war.

Have been a cruise enrichment speaker since 2007, working with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Viking Ocean and Seabourn. Master's degree in history with more than 50 current lectures covering a variety of Caribbean, Baltic, Mediterranean, North Atlantic and Pacific destinations.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.