There has always been a romance around ocean liners, but this book looks behind the romance to show the reality of travelling the oceans of the world. The book starts with the first scheduled transatlantic crossings in the age of sail, then moves on through the development of the steamers and ends in the present day, when ocean liners have given way to airliners. All aspects of the subject are discussed. The experience of travelling by sea varied enormously from the luxury of first-class travel to the often brutal conditions endured by immigrants. Ship design developed in the race between competing companies to provide the most powerful ships. But while technology came into the fundamental design, when it came to décor, for many of the great liners the interiors looked back with a romanticised view of the past. It is not always realised that a great liner might have almost as many crew as passengers, and this looks at all those who kept the ships running, from the black gang in the engine room to the captain on the bridge. The result is a rounded view of what it meant to travel on some of the greatest ships ever built.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One A Scheduled Service
• Chapter Two The Start of the Steam Age
• Chapter Three The American Challenge
• Chapter Four Building the Ships
• Chapter Five Fitting Out
• Chapter Six The Crew
• Chapter Seven Passengers and Life on Board
• Chapter Eight The Blue Riband of the Atlantic
• Chapter Nine The Far East and Beyond
• Chapter Ten Safety at Sea
• Chapter Eleven The Liners at War
• Chapter Twelve Competition
• Chapter Thirteen The Liner in Fiction
• Chapter Fourteen The End of the Line
• Appendix
• Further Reading
• Acknowledgements