What do you think?
Rate this book
Liners: The Golden Age / Die grosse Zeit der Ozeanriesen / L'Âge d'Or des Paquebots
'Liners: The Golden Age' chronicles the great era of ocean liner travel in a wonderful collection of photographs, from the close of the nineteenth century to the launch of the QE2 and beyond. Ocean liners captured the imagination, becoming the hallmark of luxury and fantasy. This was an age when the voyage stood for adventure, escape, and for some the prospect of a new life in a strange land. There were great rivalries between nations, epitomized by the race for the Atlantic and the prized Blue Riband, and reflected in the names of many of the ocean giants: Vaterland, Britannic, Île de France. Despite its glamour and prestige the ocean liner voyage sometimes met spectacular disaster in both war and peace.
From first class to steerage, deck games to grand banquets, from the celebrations of maiden voyages to the adversity of catastrophe, this book is illustrated with over 350 photographs from the Hulton Getty Picture Collection, including many previously unseen pictures.
From first class to steerage, deck games to grand banquets, from the celebrations of maiden voyages to the adversity of catastrophe, this book is illustrated with over 350 photographs from the Hulton Getty Picture Collection, including many previously unseen pictures.
- GenresHistory
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1999
2 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 4, 2016
A lovely book with fantastic photos, well organised and presented.
The text is dense without a wasted word and traverses the history of ocean liners from the late nineteenth century through to the 1960s, when air travel became the mode of choice for international travellers. The story is really well supported with the photographs which feature shots of ships at sea, in port, vessels under construction, the lavish interiors, people disporting themselves or at work, the different roles played by the liners in peace and at war and the ignominious ends endured by many as well as the heroic careers of some of the more favoured vessels.
Structurally the book is arranged by decade, with a feature in the middle on the Queen Mary, from its uncertain beginning in a Clyde shipyard during the depression, to its Herculean war service and its career as a passenger liner, among other notable achievements, holding the blue riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, from 1938 to 1952. The most shocking tale in the book, and previously completely unknown to me, is the fateful day when in 1942 the Queen Mary sliced through one of its escorting warships HMS Curacao, resulting in hundreds of sailors losing their lives. The Captain of the liner made the decision to steam on, given that the ship was carrying 10,000 American troops to Europe and would be a target for U-boats. The Queen Mary was 81,000 tons, the Curacao 4,000 tons.
It is remarkable how many liners meet with misfortune apart from the obvious ones like Titanic and Lusitania, but over the years hundreds have been torpedoed, caught on fire, hit reefs, or each other, even the Normandie caught on fire, also in 1942 while in harbour undergoing conversion operations. Some ships feature prominently: Mauretania, Aquitania’s and later, United States and France, the names alone speaking of how much national prestige was tied into these ships. The Golden age of the liner? Until the sixties when air travel become the norm, but the acme of ocean travel was crossing the Atlantic in the 1930s drinking a cocktails in an ornate deco lounge at a cruising speed of 28 knots.
The text is dense without a wasted word and traverses the history of ocean liners from the late nineteenth century through to the 1960s, when air travel became the mode of choice for international travellers. The story is really well supported with the photographs which feature shots of ships at sea, in port, vessels under construction, the lavish interiors, people disporting themselves or at work, the different roles played by the liners in peace and at war and the ignominious ends endured by many as well as the heroic careers of some of the more favoured vessels.
Structurally the book is arranged by decade, with a feature in the middle on the Queen Mary, from its uncertain beginning in a Clyde shipyard during the depression, to its Herculean war service and its career as a passenger liner, among other notable achievements, holding the blue riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, from 1938 to 1952. The most shocking tale in the book, and previously completely unknown to me, is the fateful day when in 1942 the Queen Mary sliced through one of its escorting warships HMS Curacao, resulting in hundreds of sailors losing their lives. The Captain of the liner made the decision to steam on, given that the ship was carrying 10,000 American troops to Europe and would be a target for U-boats. The Queen Mary was 81,000 tons, the Curacao 4,000 tons.
It is remarkable how many liners meet with misfortune apart from the obvious ones like Titanic and Lusitania, but over the years hundreds have been torpedoed, caught on fire, hit reefs, or each other, even the Normandie caught on fire, also in 1942 while in harbour undergoing conversion operations. Some ships feature prominently: Mauretania, Aquitania’s and later, United States and France, the names alone speaking of how much national prestige was tied into these ships. The Golden age of the liner? Until the sixties when air travel become the norm, but the acme of ocean travel was crossing the Atlantic in the 1930s drinking a cocktails in an ornate deco lounge at a cruising speed of 28 knots.
December 18, 2015
An excellent pictorial history taken from the Hulton Getty Picture Collection that captures the great age - 1860 to 1960 - of the ocean liner.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews