When Luxury Went to Sea

Front Cover and Spine, When Luxury Went to Sea by Douglas Phillips-Birt, 1971. GGA Image ID # 209163c70e

Excerpt from When Luxury Went to Sea

The age of the luxury liner opened in the 1890s flared into final brightness in the 1950s of the present century and lingers today in the shape of one ship, the French Line's France.

Meanwhile, another, the Cunard's QE2, tries to establish an acceptable modern interpretation of what was once uninhibited, proudly exclusive grandeur afloat.

The liners of this age served the route of gold linking Europe with the brazenly rich United States of America, where a new class of person was learning how to spend money as lavishly as any Old World rentier.

Contents

• Text
• Plates
• Acknowledgements
• Index

Back Cover, When Luxury Went to Sea by Douglas Phillips-Birt, 1971. GGA Image ID # 209167e5db

From the Inside DJ Flap

In the late 1890s, with the development of North Atlantic passenger routes well underway, luxury liners began to appear in the leading merchant fleets—designed to satisfy the demands of a wealthier and predominantly American traveling public who believed that "how you travel is who you are."

This attractively illustrated study begins with a prelude to this period, contrasting the rising standards of comfort afloat brought by the steamships in Dickens' time with the magnificent interiors of such famous ships as the Aquitania, the SS France, the RMS Queen Mary, and the SS United States.

The book brings the story up to the present day, noting the stages by which the luxury liner, now almost extinct, has been turned into a cruising liner in which comfort rather than luxury prevails.

It is as much a social as a maritime study, reflecting in the world afloat the swing from an exclusive to an egalitarian society—with a dash of nostalgia for the splendors of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Ships Index

1. America
2. Amerika
3. Aquitania
4. Atlantic
5. Berengaria
6. Bismarck
7. Bremen
8. Britannia
9. Caledonia
10. Carpathia
11. Conti di Savoia
12. Deutschland
13. Etruria
14. Europa
15. France, (1912
16. France (1962)
17. Great Eastern
18. Ile de France
19. Imperator
20. Kaiserin Auguste Victoria
21. Kaiser Wilhelm der Gross
22. Kaiser Wilhelm II
23. Kronprinz Wilhelm II
24. Leviathan
25. Liberté
26. Lusitania
27. Majestic
28. Manhattan
29. Mauretania
30. Nahlin
31. Normandie
32. North Star
33. Olympic
34. QE2
35. Queen Elizabeth
36. Queen Mary
37. Ravel
38. Rex
39. Rome
40. Sapphire
41. Titanic
42. Umbria
43. United States
44. Valiant
45. Vaterland
46. Washington

Library of Congress Catalog Listing

• Personal name: Phillips-Birt, Douglas, 1920-1978.
• Main title: When luxury went to sea [by] Douglas Phillips-Birt.
• Published/Created: Newton Abbot, David and Charles, 1971.
• Description: 96 p. (chiefly illus., facsim.). 25 cm.
• ISBN: 071535339X
• LC Classification: VM381 .P47
• LC Subjects: Ocean liners.
• Dewey class no.: 387.2/43
• National bib no.: B71-20387
• Type of material: Book