Passenger Liners of the World Since 1893
Front Cover, Passenger Liners Of The World Since 1893 By Nicholas T. Cairis, Revised Edition With Over 200 pictures, 1979. Jacket photograph of liner, France III, from Colour Library International, Ltd. GGA Image ID # 201c11aa7e
From the Inside Dust Jacket
Present-day demand for air travel has almost outmoded the passenger ship; it has been unable to maintain the tempo of the airlines and has reluctantly moved out of the scene.
The author here takes a nostalgic look back to the heyday of the passenger ship, providing a brief history of 211 ships of over 10,000 tons, together with specifications and technical details of each.
For ready reference, the reader will find such diverse facts as:
- Who built the ships?
- Where and when were they built?
- Tonnage and dimensions
- Type of engine
- Cruising speed
- Passenger accommodations, officers and crew
- Maiden voyages and final dispositions
- Sister ships
- General histories and much more.
To this revised edition, new technical data and updated information about the last voyages and final dispositions of ships have been added.
Thirteen of the better-known steamship companies dating back as far as 1893 are featured in this book. The book is illustrated with an original photograph of each of the 211 ships.
Contents
- Preface
- Cunard Line
- French Line
- Greek Line
- Holland-America Line
- Home Lines
- Italian Line
- North German Lloyd
- Norwegian-America Line
- Polish Ocean Lines
- Portuguese Line
- Spanish Line
- Swedish-American Line
- United States Lines
- General Notes
- Notes for Revised 1979 Edition
- Index of Ships
To Jehovah who has endowed me with a love for the sea and ships and to my mother and father.
Preface
The port of New York is where all the great liners of the world have rendezvoused since the advent of the passenger ship to carry many travelers to far-off lands and resorts.
The term passenger liner is a label appropriate to steamships and motorships alike. The specifications governing a vessel of this type have undoubtedly fluctuated through the history of passenger-carrying ships. The phrase is entirely controversial,
I have decided to include vessels only exceeding ten thousand gross tons, thereby keeping this volume within reasonable limits. In all, there are enumerated two hundred and ten ships. Chartered ships and others completed to be released as war reparations or those that never sailed as passenger ships for the Lines, respectively, have not been included in this book for numerous reasons. Concerning these ships, a brief note relating to their stories will be found in the fleet lists.
In the following pages, I have gathered all such material about the most prominent steamship companies on the Atlantic Ferry today and those that have been there for some time. Some Lines have diverse services to other oceans, seas, and continents. My foremost interest was to include the better-known steamship company of each seafaring nation in the Western Hemisphere.
In total, thirteen of these Lines fly the national flags of their homeland, and the last of the Lines, the Panamanian ensign, owing to the company's numerous interests and keen tax purposes. I included this previous Line as a type of international firm whose founders were of Greek, Swedish, Italian, and American origin.
The lore for the sea and ships has prompted me to choose not only the vessel of my choice and liking but to combine the more significant number of all these liners in an unbiased, factual publication of, hopefully, everybody's favorite ships. Each vessel is illustrated with an original photograph to help the reader grasp the full beauty of these inspiring ladies, from the great leviathans and express greyhounds to the intermediate and cargo-type passenger ships.
In stating the history of the ship's life, if there is any such to mention, there is listed in order if known:
- The builder and place of construction with the date;
- The last known tonnage;
- Overall length and extreme breadth;
- Molded depth and number of propellers;
- Type of propulsion and average service speed;
- Attained speed on trial runs or maximum speed;
- Passenger accommodations (the given figures are usually the last in the ship's life and are, in most cases, smaller in the latter years of a ship than when she first entered into service because of the immigration laws of the early 'twenties and the reclassification of the classes brought about through the years);
- Officers and crew (this in most cases follows the same rule as passenger accommodations because of the advancements in technology);
- Maiden voyage;
- Bulkheads and a general number of decks (the labeling of decks is sometimes controversial because of changes in construction and the naming by designers.
Some may consider a specific section of a ship to be labeled a deck for passenger use, whereas others may not, depending on the length or location of the section); history and ultimate fate; and last, a sister ship or ships, if any, existed in the Line's services. Roman numerals preceding the name of a vessel designate the numbered ship to carry the name.
This fast-moving era of air travel has almost outmoded the passenger ship into oblivion.
Unable to maintain the tempo of the airlines of reducing once several-day journeys to a mere couple of hours and the competition of rates, the passenger ship has slowly, but reluctantly, moved out of the scene. Remorsefully, we are all witnessing the extinction of the passenger liner due to the drastic drop in transatlantic sailings since World War II. Some larger fleets have depleted rapidly, and many have used their ships to cruise most of the year.
Some have even sold cruise tickets to nowhere, where the vessel merely sails around in circles just off the coast for several days. As time went by, the steamship companies' conditions immersed in the possibility of a return to take her part in the travel medium, rightfully hers. Though should the liner fade into the past, she will always live in the hearts of many who knew her in her day.
All facts have been entered in this book to the best of my knowledge. The information gathered stems from various sound resources such as Lloyd's Register of Shipping, The American Record, newspaper articles, brochures, original abstract records, and, to some degree, written and oral correspondence with the Lines and shipping personnel. Should the reader have any reason to argue its contents, which I believe to be the most accurate, he may take the initiative to write me through the publishers. I would be most happy to assist him with the source of origination and degree of authenticity.
My gratitude would only be complete if I close by thanking the following people connected for supplying information and photographs for my book. They are enumerated thus: Mr. Claros of the Spanish Line, Mr. Vreugdenhil of the Holland-America Line, Mr. Rickmann of the North German Lloyd, Mr. Martin of the Cunard Line, Mr. Bet of the Italian Line, Mr. Bouvard of the French Line, Mr. Martin of the United States Lines, Mr. Henriksson of the Swedish-American Line, Mr. Amundsen of the Norwegian-America Line, Mr. Sigalas of the Greek Line, Mr Coutinho of the Portuguese Line, and Mr Tillet öf the Home Lines.
My thankfulness is also extended to Mr. John L. Lochhead of the Mariner's Museum at Newport News, Virginia; Mark Sexton of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; Mrs. Alice S. Wilson of the Steamship Historical Society of America on Staten Island, New York, The Upper Clyde Shipbuilders of Glasgow, Scotland, Mr David Pearson of Belmont, Massachusetts, and the Maritime Museum of Barcelona for photographs.
'If the only flags we gave allegiance to were the houseflags of the Lines and the only battles fought were for the Blue Riband.
Nicholas T. Cairis
London, England
Alphabetical List of Ships
- Alaunia
- Alaunia II
- Albania II
- America
- America II
- Andania
- Andania II
- Andrea Doria
- Antilles II
- Antonia
- Aquitania
- Argentina (Home Lines)
- Argentina (Spanish Line)
- Arkadia
- Aseania II
- Atlantic
- Augustus
- Augustus II
- Aurania III
- Ausonia II
- Barbarosa
- Batory
- Begona
- Berengaria
- Bergensfjord
- Bergensfjord II
- Berlin II
- Berlin III
- Berlin IV
- Bremen II
- Bremen IV
- Bremen V
- Bretagne
- Britannic
- Campania
- Carinthia II
- Carinthia III
- Carmania
- Carmania II
- Caronia
- Caronia II
- Carpathia
- Champlain
- Chicago
- Colombie
- Colombo
- Columbus II
- Conte Biancamano
- Conte di Savoia
- Conte Grande
- Covadonga II
- Cristobal Colon II
- Cristoforo Colombo
- Cuba
- Cunard Adventurer
- De Grasse
- De Grasse II
- Donizetti
- Doric
- Dresden II
- Drottningholm
- Duilio
- Espagne
- Europa II
- Europa III
- Flandre
- France II
- France III
- Franconia
- Franconia II
- Franconia III
- Friedrich der Grosse
- George Washington (Norddeutscher Lloyd)
- George Washington (United States Lines)
- Georgic
- Giulio Cesare
- Giulio Cesare II
- Gneisenau II
- Gripsholm
- Gripsholm II
- Grosser Kurfurst
- Guadalupe
- Habana II
- Homeland
- Homeric (Home Lines)
- Homeric (White Star Line / Cunard-White Star)
- Ile de France
- Imperio
- Infante Dom Henrique
- Italia
- Ivernia
- Kaiser Wilhelm II
- Kaiser Withelm der Grosse
- König Albert
- Königin Luise
- Kronprinzessin Cecilie
- Kronprinz Wilhelm
- Kristianiafjord
- Kungsholm II
- Kungsholm III
- Kungsholm IV
- Laconia
- Laconia II
- Lancastria
- Lafayette II
- Lafayette III
- Lakonia
- La Lorraine
- La Provence
- La Savoie
- Laurentic
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Leviathan
- Liberte
- Lucania
- Lusitania
- Main II
- Majestic
- Manhattan
- Maasdam IV
- Mauretania
- Mauretania II
- Media
- Michelangelo
- München III
- Neptunia
- Neptunia
- New York
- Nieuw Amsterdam
- Nieuw Amsterdam II
- Noordam
- Noordam II
- Normandie
- Oceania
- Oceanic
- Olympia
- Olympic
- Orazio
- Oslofjord
- Oslofjord II
- Paris
- Parthia II
- Patria
- Pilsudski
- Potsdam (Holland-America Line)
- Potsdam (Norddeutscher Lloyd)
- President Adams
- President Arthur
- President Garfield
- President Harding
- President Monroe
- President Polk
- President Roosevelt
- President Van Buren
- Prinzess Alice
- Prinzess Irene
- Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm
- Queen Anna Maria
- Queen Elizabeth
- Queen Elizabeth 2
- Queen Mary
- Raffaello
- Republic
- Rex
- Rhein II
- Rijndam
- Rochambeau
- Roma
- Rossini
- Rotterdam IV
- Rotterdam V
- Royal George
- Ryndam
- Sagafjord
- Samaria II
- Santa Maria
- Sardegna
- Saturnia
- Saxonia
- Scharnhorst II
- Scythia II
- Sierra Cordoba II
- Sierra Morena
- Sierra Ventana II
- Slavonia
- Sobieski
- Statendam
- Statendam III
- Statendam IV
- Stavangerfjord
- Stefan Batory
- Stockholm
- Stockholm IV
- Stuttgart II
- Suffren
- Sylvania II
- Uige
- Ultonia
- United States
- Uruguay
- Veendam II
- Vera Cruz
- Verdi
- Ville D'Alger II
- Ville D 'Oran
- Virgilio
- Volendam
- Vulcania
- Washington
- Westerdam
- Zaandam II
Publication Information
- Class 623.8243
- Personal Name Cairis, Nicholas thomas
- Main Title Passenger liners of the world since 1893, by n.t. cairis
- Publication New York: Bonanza books, 1979
- Pages: 226
- Published: 1988-12-12
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0517288753
- ISBN-13: 9780517288757
- Binding: Hardcover (Revised Edition) with Dustjacket
- Note: BONANZA BOOKS A Division of Crown Publishers, Inc. One Park Avenue New York, New York 10016