A Century of Sea Travel: Personal Accounts from the Steamship Era

by Christopher Deakes, Tom Stanley

This book is a voyage through the life of the passenger steamship, a voyage described by travelers who sailed on these vessels, and it carries within it their thoughts and experiences, mirrored here in words and pictures. The pictures are memories of ships and places in times gone by, glimpses of steamship travel through the years. In memoirs and letters home, diaries and journals the writers recorded every aspect of their seagoing they wrote of their ship, its crew and their fellow passengers, of the food and entertainment on board, of romance, accidents and disasters, and of being dreadfully sick. They noted incidents on board that amused or angered them, described the ports at which their ship called, and the fear and excitement of storms at sea. The writers were emigrants or colonial rulers, men of letters, young men seeking their fortune, wives on their way to new homes abroad; some were rich, many were poor and escaping the hardship of downtrodden lives; all had in common the experience of voyaging at sea. The author has woven their words into a narrative that describes so evocatively a world that has now disappeared, and with the huge range of illustrations brings back to life the golden age of the steamship.

Beautifully designed and printed, this book will delight armchair travelers, ship enthusiasts and all those who still go to sea to seek romance and adventure.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could have sworn that I originally downloaded this book in 2023 after reading the review of a GR Friend, but when I went to check, the GR page told me “No-one you know has read this book.” Oh well, my memory must be playing tricks on me!

The book seeks to convey some of the experience of travel during the age of the passenger steamship, that we can say lasted roughly from the 1860s to the 1960s, and it does so by quoting from numerous accounts left by passengers. I’d say the text of this book is of middling interest, but what moves it from a 3-star to a 4-star rating are the illustrations, often taken from period advertising material. The front cover is an example, with the poster radiating an aura of style, elegance, and the romance of faraway lands.

Reality wasn’t quite like that of course. Many passengers found their journeys monotonous. There wasn’t much to do, and once out of sight of land there was often nothing to see. Passengers spent weeks stuck on a boat, seeing the same people, eating the same food etc. On British ships there were invariably some passengers who formed a “sports committee” to organise deck quoits, egg and spoon races and the like. Their efforts were not always welcome. One passenger, travelling in 1913 from Adelaide to Durban, commented how the Sports Committee were upset that after “working hard to provide amusements”, events had been poorly attended. The author added that: ‘It has probably never occurred to the members that they are a nuisance rather than a blessing.’ Professional gamblers routinely travelled on transatlantic trips, and some passengers lost all the money they had to these cardsharps.

Some people literally did find romance though. The atmosphere of a warm tropical night under a starry sky was conducive to assignations between young people. On many colonial routes, women were a small minority of passengers, and young single women found themselves the centre of attention. Usually these women were travelling to join their fiancé, but it was not unknown for them to arrive engaged to someone new.

Travellers faced many hazards. Infectious disease could be a serious problem in such a closed environment – still true today, but in the days before antibiotics, often little could be done. Accidents were commonplace, and there was always the risk of bad weather or other dangers. Need I mention the Titanic? For many there was the misery of seasickness. William Morris, on an 1874 Atlantic crossing, commented: ‘You may recollect what Punch once said about sea sickness. At first he was afraid he was going to die, and then he was afraid he wasn’t.’

But it’s the illustrations that make this book.

[Gareth Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeously illustrated - it really is stunning with so many rare contemporary images from life onboard different passenger liners. The text doesn’t always match the variety, unfortunately, with a handful of sources from a few liners used throughout, meaning that there’s really not a huge amount of variety in terms of chronology or ships. For life on ships between the 1880s and early 1900s, and as a visual guide to the world of the liners, it’s a beautiful book.

[Nev March · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read though a bit haphazardly organized. Interesting quotes and comments from passengers traveling from 1860 though 1960s. Covered an array of ports and antiquated practices which were delightfully described. Good research material for nineteenth century ocean travel

[Kelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 2010 book by authors Christopher Deakes and Tom Stanley. Christopher Deakes has also published in 2005 a book called “A Postcard History of the Passenger Liner”. This book, “A Century of Sea Travel: Personal Accounts from the Steamship Era” really is an amalgamation of various personal accounts written by steamship travelers over the years (from 1840s to 1960s) sprinkled with lots of illustrations, pictures and postcards. The source materials the authors use include diaries, journals, letters, postcards, newspaper articles and travel books. The authors then use quotes from the sources and weave them into a coherent story. I feel, however, a story of the history of sea travel can be better told if the authors do not limit themselves to just use written accounts of contemporary travelers but instead tell the story from a more well structured and top level perspective. By mainly using available written first hand materials, there are big gaps in the steam travel story that cannot be adequately told, and are missing from the book (e.g. the steamship company business perspective and the staff perspective, etc). Also, since most people who leave written records of their travels are first class or second class passengers who are either wealthy or of the educated class, there is not as much coverage of the steerage class and how their lives are onboard.

The story starts with the dawn of steamboat travel form 1840s to its demise in the 1960s, when air travel took over. The book covers a lot of subjects, from the composition of travelers life on board (how immigration trends in early 1900s and after World War II impacted the steamship industry), the living conditions on board for the various classes of travelers, dockside and cargo situations, risks and dangers of travel, the cruise business, how live animals need to be kept on ships for food prior to the invention of refrigeration, how entertainment is provided for people when they could be onboard for more than a month, how difficult life is on a ship in the tropics prior to the invention of air conditioning, how ships from different countries are managed differently, how to deal with primitive ports that do not have docks for ships to berth and how to deal with coaling of ships, etc. One of the interesting quote in the book is “a ship + an island + fog = a wreck”. So true.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Century of Sea Travel is a beautifully illustrated narrative that evocatively describes an age of travel (1840 to 1950) that is now lost to time. Since I've been stuck at home, I'm finding myself wanting to read about far-flung lands, and this book was exactly what I needed.

From one exotic port of call to the next, I learned all about this type of travel: details of the ships, the crews, the passengers, food, entertainment-- even shipboard romances, accidents, disasters, and terrible seasickness during storms at sea. (Beware of some of those seasickness cures!)

The authors have searched through memoirs, letters, diaries, even the backs of postcards for all the information contained in this book. We hear from authors like Rudyard Kipling, Elspeth Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, and Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as many travelers we've never heard of (my favorite being a woman named Delight Sweetser).

A Century of Sea Travel brought this period to life. It's entertaining, informative, and contains many wonderful illustrations. If you feel the need for some vicarious travel, this is a book I strongly recommend.

[Misslill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful Read!

What a wonderful book! Reading the quotes from the varied and various passengers is like travelling in a time machine. A very unique look at a singular form of transportation from a multitude of eras and beautifully illustrated.