Era of luxury liners

At the meeting in February members of the East Yorkshire Family History Society enjoyed a presentation entitled ‘Art on Transatlantic Liners: 1900 to 1950’, delivered by Andrew Clay of Woodend Creative Space. Andrew painted a picture of a bygone era, where the wealthy could consider crossing the Atlantic almost as a short cruise. Today most of the big ships are dedicated cruise ships rather than running a sort of transatlantic shuttle service.

Perhaps the Great Eastern can be considered the first transatlantic liner. She was built in 1858 to the design of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and was well ahead of her time - a prototype. She was not surpassed for tonnage until 1901.

This was an influential period of marine engineering, which culminated in the United States, which, though it only sailed for 20 years was considered the perfect Atlantic liner. This luxury passenger liner was built in 1952, specifically to capture the transatlantic speed record. She was the largest ocean liner built entirely in the US, and the fastest to cross the Atlantic in either direction.

There was great rivalry between Britain and France, and Britain and Germany.

France’s Normandie was the first 80,000 plus ton ship, very avant garde in design. Britain’s answer was the Queen Mary built during a financial crisis; indeed construction stopped for a time. These two beautiful ships were great rivals. The Île de France was the forerunner of interior design for ships, her interior was pure Art Deco.

The Queen Mary could be considered old fashioned in comparison with her French counterpart, but was nevertheless a great symbol of patriotic pride in the 1930s.

Kaiser William of Germany decided that Germany had to have bigger and better ships than Britain, the answer being the Deutschland, owned by the Hamburg-America line, launched in 1900. She was the fastest ship of the day, and won the Blue Riband. She might have been the fastest ship, but she rattled and vibrated, due to her experimental design. This was not a good experience for passengers, so she was retired from the Atlantic run, and became a cruise ship.

Germany launched the Bremen in 1929. This was a trailblazing, new, sleek and very modern design. Gradually, however, her association with Nazi Germany put people off travelling on her.

France joined the contest with the Mauretania. Following the Titanic disaster, Mauretania had a full complement of lifeboats. She weighed 31,000 tons, small in comparison with today’s Queen Mary II which is 150,000 tons, but the French ship was the first to have steam turbines, and she held the Blue Riband for 22 years.

The Queen Mary II is the only surviving true transatlantic passenger liner in existence today, and is owned by Cunard, the most successful shipping line ever.

The next meeting of the society will be on Tuesday March 28, when Robin Boddy, Denise Howell and Lesley Newton will talk about Scalby and Newby during World War One. Meet in the church hall at St Andrew’s UR Church, Ramshill, at 2pm. Everyone welcome, non-members admission £2. Refreshments available. For further information contact Mrs P McNaughton on 01723 369070.