Secrets of the Great Ocean Liners

Before commercial transatlantic flights, ocean liners were the primary way to travel between continents, offering entertainment, dining, sleeping quarters, and smoking lounges. Secrets of the Great Ocean Liners explores the stages of ocean liner travel, from booking a ticket to shore excursions, dining, on-board games, social events, and disembarking. It also reveals wartime voyages and disasters at sea, with brochures, sailing schedules, voyage logs, passenger lists, postcards, and menus providing a glimpse into the challenges, etiquette, and luxury of ocean liner travel. Diaries, letters, and journals written on board reveal scandals, glamour, challenges, and tragedies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 27 November 2020
Publisher: Bodleian Library

Before the advent of commercial transatlantic flights in the early 1950s, the only way to travel between continents was by sea. In the golden age of ocean liners, between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War, shipping companies ensured their vessels were a home away from home, providing entertainment, dining, sleeping quarters, and smoking lounges to accommodate passengers of all ages and budgets for voyages that could last as long as three months. Secrets of the Great Ocean Liners leads the reader through each of the stages – and secrets – of ocean liner travel, from booking a ticket and choosing a cabin to shore excursions, dining, on-board games, social events, romances, and disembarking on arrival. Additional chapters disclose wartime voyages and disasters at sea. The shipping companies produced glamorous brochures, sailing schedules, voyage logs, passenger lists, postcards, and menus, all of which help us to savour the challenges, etiquette, and luxury of ocean liner travel. Diaries, letters, and journals written on board also reveal a host of behind-the-scenes secrets and fascinating insights into the experience of travelling by sea. This book dives into a vast, unique collection to reveal the scandals, glamour, challenges, and tragedies of ocean liner travel.

Weight: 1032g
Dimension: 186 x 236 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781851245307