Okay, I just learned something. Itallics (and presumably aslo boldface) don't work in the message titles -- and you all can see how to produce them in the message text from the title to this thread, which correctly appeares as "MV Royal Princess -- 10 July" when you put the same string of characters into the message's text.
BTW, for boldface, just substitute the letter "b" for the letter "i" in both sets of angle brackets.
Norm.