diff --git a/titan-gremlin/Dockerfile b/titan-gremlin/Dockerfile
index c94336a8..0c569c19 100644
--- a/titan-gremlin/Dockerfile
+++ b/titan-gremlin/Dockerfile
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@ FROM itzg/ubuntu-openjdk-7
 
 MAINTAINER itzg
 
-RUN apt-get install -y wget unzip
+RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y wget unzip
+ENV TITAN_VERSION 0.5.4
 
-RUN wget -q -O /tmp/titan.zip http://s3.thinkaurelius.com/downloads/titan/titan-0.5.0-hadoop2.zip
-RUN unzip /tmp/titan.zip -d /opt && rm /tmp/titan.zip
+RUN wget -q -O /tmp/titan.zip http://s3.thinkaurelius.com/downloads/titan/titan-$TITAN_VERSION-hadoop2.zip
+RUN unzip -q /tmp/titan.zip -d /opt && rm /tmp/titan.zip
 
-ENV TITAN_HOME /opt/titan-0.5.0-hadoop2
+ENV TITAN_HOME /opt/titan-$TITAN_VERSION-hadoop2
 WORKDIR $TITAN_HOME
 
 VOLUME ["/conf","/data"]
diff --git a/titan-gremlin/README.md b/titan-gremlin/README.md
index 3af4f137..a4e532f7 100644
--- a/titan-gremlin/README.md
+++ b/titan-gremlin/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 Runs the Gremlin console from the Titan Graph Database "all" distribution.
 
+# Basic Usage
+
 To start the Gremlin console with the default configuration files available:
 
     docker run -it itzg/titan-gremlin
@@ -12,3 +14,34 @@ attach a host directory to the container's `/conf` such as
 After running once your host directory will be populated with the distribution-default
 configuration files. Modify those or add to them and they will available during
 the next use of gremlin.
+
+# Connecting to Cassandra and Elasticsearch Containers
+
+First start containers for Cassandra and Elasticsearch, where the `--name` you choose
+can be arbitrary or left off to use a generated name. 
+_Note: Cassandra's Thrift port is exposed to allow for external usage, such as Titan Browser._
+
+    docker run -d --name cass -p 9160:9160 spotify/cassandra
+    docker run -d --name es itzg/elasticsearch
+
+Now start Gremlin linking the containers to the respective aliases
+
+* `--link <container>:cass`
+* `--link <container>:es`
+
+such as
+
+    docker run -it --rm --link cass:cass --link es:es itzg/titan-gremlin
+
+and with that you can follow the 
+[Graph of the Gods example](http://s3.thinkaurelius.com/docs/titan/current/getting-started.html), such as
+
+    gremlin> GraphOfTheGodsFactory.load(g)
+    gremlin> saturn = g.V.has('name','saturn').next()
+    ==>v[256]
+    gremlin> saturn.map()
+    ==>name=saturn
+    ==>age=10000
+    gremlin> saturn.in('father').in('father').name
+    ==>hercules
+
diff --git a/titan-gremlin/start-gremlin.sh b/titan-gremlin/start-gremlin.sh
index efbb2c12..521bd4fa 100755
--- a/titan-gremlin/start-gremlin.sh
+++ b/titan-gremlin/start-gremlin.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,47 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+args=
+
 if [ $(ls /conf|wc -l) = 0 ]; then
   cp -r $TITAN_HOME/conf/* /conf
 fi
 
-$TITAN_HOME/bin/gremlin.sh
+rm -f /tmp/titan.properties
+
+if [ -n "$CASS_PORT_9160_TCP_ADDR" ]; then
+  shortcut=/tmp/titan.properties
+  cat >> /tmp/titan.properties <<END
+storage.backend=cassandra
+storage.hostname=$CASS_PORT_9160_TCP_ADDR
+END
+fi
+
+if [ -n "$ES_CLUSTER" -o -n "$ES_PORT_9300_TCP_PORT" ]; then
+  shortcut=/tmp/titan.properties
+  cat >> /tmp/titan.properties <<END
+index.search.backend=elasticsearch
+index.search.elasticsearch.client-only=true
+END
+
+  if [ -n "$ES_CLUSTER" ]; then
+    cat >> /tmp/titan.properties <<END
+index.search.elasticsearch.ext.cluster.name=$ES_CLUSTER
+END
+  fi
+  if [ -n "$ES_PORT_9300_TCP_PORT" ]; then
+    cat >> /tmp/titan.properties <<END
+index.search.hostname=$ES_PORT_9300_TCP_ADDR
+END
+  fi
+  
+fi
+
+if [ -n "$shortcut" ]; then
+  cat > /tmp/init.groovy <<END
+g = TitanFactory.open('$shortcut')
+println 'The graph \'g\' was opened using $shortcut'
+END
+  args="$args /tmp/init.groovy"
+fi
+
+exec $TITAN_HOME/bin/gremlin.sh $args