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, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The star of the show here are the absolutely A++ illustrations from the age of steam travel—posters, advertising, post cards, paintings and all sorts of ephemera such as match book covers, menus, luggage tags etc. It is a fabulous collection.

The writing that supports the illustrations covers the 1860s through the 1960s and such topics as why the travel (emigration, troop transfer, jobs, leisure etc.) entertainments, weather, dining, stops in ports, sickness on board and many other things. It can be a little scattershot and repetitive. Dozens of sources are used—letters, books and other records of travelers give a pretty good picture of what these voyages could be like. One common topic was “we are particular countrymen and we think the ‘fill in the blank as desired’ are not as good, cultured, sophisticated as we are.” Class is mentioned a lot. Famous authors and notable people of the day such as Waugh, Somerset Maugham, R. L. Stevenson and j. S. Perelman are mentioned through their books and letters. Young men getting their start in far flung places get their two cent’s worth in. Women often saw things differently than the men. Those who traveled as children and had memoirs as adults had interesting points of view. They seemed to have had a lot more unrestricted fun than the sometimes miserable adults. Pity the poor firemen (stokers) driven mad by the extreme heat through the Mid East who rushed on deck and threw themselves off the ship into shark infested waters. Passengers were sometimes annoyed by this as it stopped forward motion while a search for the suicidal fireman took place.

Different shipping lines and travel to all parts of Asia, both coasts of the Americas, Australia, India and Africa are featured. The world wars changed things temporarily and then air travel effectively killed sea travel.

All over interesting, but for me it’s those beautiful illustrations. Wow!

[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.