Peter Newall - Ocean Liners: An Illustrated History

An Illustrated History

Half title page photo: Cunard Lines Ivernia , see .

Title page photo: Guglielmo Marconi , see .

Copyright Peter Newall 2018

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Seaforth Publishing,

A division of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

47 Church Street,

Barnsley S70 2AS

www.seaforthpublishing.com

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 5267 2316 1 (hardback)

ISBN 978 1 5267 2317 8 (epub)

ISBN 978 1 5267 2318 5 (kindle)

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The right of Peter Newall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Apart from a few isolated exceptions, the passenger ship is singularly the most social of the modes of transport. Social in that passenger ships, depending on their size, can be seen as small villages, small towns or even small cities some maybe even as large cities. Within their confines, the whole experience of life can be seen to be played out; sleeping, dining, dancing, sports, watching films etc.; in fact, all the social interactions that occur on land, but in the passenger ships case, the village, town or city moves from place to place. Behind the scenes, just as on land, fresh water has to be produced, sewage collected and disposed of, electricity for numerous consumers generated, food prepared etc. Indeed, the list of activities is too long to enumerate here.

Apart from the short-sea passenger ferry, passenger ships can be described as passenger liners or cruise ships. The latter are specifically designed to cater for the leisure or holiday trade, whereas the passenger liner was a scheduled means of getting from one place to another. As the late and lamented John Maxtone-Graham described, passenger ships were in many cases, The OnlyWay to Cross. As such, the passenger liner holds an even more elevated place than the cruise ship, as this mode of transport fulfilled an altogether different and important function. In their heyday, passenger liners took diplomats and civil servants overseas to important appointments, business people travelled to far-off lands to sell their goods and wares to foreign markets, friends and relatives were brought together for reunions and special events, and crucially, these ships fuelled the hopes, dreams and aspirations of thousands of people looking for salvation or a new life elsewhere from the lands of their origin. Undeniably, before the aeroplane stole her thunder, the passenger liner was the iconic mode of transport, coincidentally for many years also being the largest moving object made by man. What a miraculous creation she was.

Some passenger liners were quite humble, quietly and faithfully serving their passengers on the sea routes around the world without undue publicity, whereas others were grand ships of state financed and forged by nationalistic pride. Some ships were slow and sailed at a leisurely pace, whilst others vied with each other for speed records and fame. Many passenger liners not only operated in peacetime, but went to war in the service of their nations as troopships or armed merchant cruisers and in some cases even as full warships following hasty conversions. The history of the passenger liner is surely wide and immeasurably varied.

Who better to provide us with a definitive history of the passenger liner than the noted maritime author Peter Newall. With a string of successful books behind him, this new volume Ocean Liners provides a very informative voyage through the history of many of the ships, the advancing technologies that drove innovation and the companies that operated them. Think of yourself as a passenger travelling through the pages of the book. Many of the ships featured are naturally old favourites, but some lesser-known ships are at anchor amongst the pages here too. It is a fascinating read, brought in a relaxed easy style that is sure to inform and keep the passenger interest.