The Great age of ocean travel has long since passed. Ocean liners are the synonymon of glamour, speed and style.
Today speed is no longer a nessessaty in the cruise industry. Style? Only if you prefer a vulgar type. Elegance and glamour is also gone with the democracising of ocean voyages, now cruises. Ocean liners but remain one of the most powerful and admired symbols of modernity. No
form of transport was as romantic, remarkable, or contested, and ocean
liner design became a matter of national prestige as well as an arena in
which the larger dynamics of global competition were played out - especially on the most prestigous route: the North Atlantic.
Today we have lost the cultural and creative aspects that grew up around the transatlantic and ocean crossings. Before mass transport planes ocean liners had been the "only way to cross" an ocean, and had been the hip way, if using First class.
by Earl of Cruise
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| L´ATLANTIQUE of COMPAGNIE de NAVIGATION SUD-ATLANTIQUE, interior an ART DÉCO masterpiece, but exterior utterly ultra-conservative - painted by © Eugenio Errea |
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| The Grand Salon of L´ATLANTIQUE a masterpiece of style and elegance from the ART DÉCO era, unfortunately the liner did not last long, as he burned out in 1933. In his heydays L´ATLANTIQUE was the queen of the South Atlantic, dethroning CAP ARCONA with its luxury and comfort - copy from Les Straeter book: L´ATLANTIQUE, Queen of the South Atlantic |
From the mid 19th century through the mid 20th century, ocean liners
were floating showcases of technology, opulence and social
sophistication. As icons of modernity and aspirational living, artists,
engineers, architects and passengers all vied for influence and access
in the creation and enjoyment of these man-made islands at sea.
Today we find the latest hype wow installements, bad copied from Hollywood films, or cheap Las Vegas - made of plastic and other cheap materials. Thus creating a low cost fantasy atmosphere to impress the lower end of the food chain traped by bargains to flood the sea condos.
Ocean
liners were intricately constructed pieces of culture, mainly in First Class - in the
appearance of their design, the elegance of their engineering and the
division of their social space - and each with its own distinct
personality. There have been only some liners who´s 'second and Third classes had been vcreated with care and style, and one outclassing with these First Classes of competitors, even decades later.
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| NORMANDIE, la France à flot, le Seigneur de l´Atlantique, passing Cie Gen TRANSTALIQUEs CHAMPLAIN in 1935 - postcard, authors collection |
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| NORMANDIE, le Grand Salon, view into the Salon Fumoir, through the opend most advanced fire-shot door. NORMANDIE offered an interior in First Class that was a stage for the then "ship setters" and perfect for those with self-assuredness - colouring courtesy by © Daryl LeBlanc |
With the thriving competition on the main trans ocean routes for comfort and technique, which rised from peak to peak. And when desasters struck, security grew - in a learning by experience process.
Ocean liners stil are admired and loved by many, lost but to most of modern day cruisers, their fame, glamour and style but is stil used in modern day marketing departments - most do not see it. And many use the wrong term - Ocean Liner for a mere sardine can, pardon cruise ship. Many modern day high density mass market vacation resorts at sea prepare from time to time events that recall the old glitz - or better what modern day cruisers may think it was in the heydays of liner travel. Some create an onboard atmosphere recreating a fake glitz and bygone style that never really was, a plastic filled stage, imagined by people with no connection to or clue of style, culture and history.
Some even tried to fit their so called luxury resorts with outfittings from bygone liners, trying to create an atmosphere of glitz they never had, an atempt in vain, and it was as if "throwing pearls to the sows" as the cruisers mostly did not know what the decoration was - not even when that specially decorated room was named after the liner where the outfittings had been taken from. Artwork, a world heritage, now stored in dark, hidden places with an uncertain fate for the future, as these artefacts lifes are depending on the whims of money greedy owners.
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| TITANIC of WHITE STAR LINE, anchoring off shore Cherbourg, technically and design wise only an Edwarding evolution of TEUTONIC, with a for her days tremendous luxurious Third Class, in First and Second aft of the German Greyhounds from the turn of the century and the Ballin Trio, the IMPERATOR Class - source: courtesy © Collection Claude Molteni de Villermont |
Most ocean liner´s names are lost to nautical history, as gone as last week’s
gazpacho. Insiders will never forget. But others are as famous as far away kingdoms - and as
magical.
Some still live with us because of their fate. A fate which was the only thing that made them famous - being otherwise totally overrated, now and then, and wrongly taken as "role model", compared to nearly each and everything. Some live on, only for the duties they have done to overthrow an inhuman, brutal war lord that poisoned not only one nation to war. A few are still recognized because of their internal beauty and stylish art or becoming the trademark for an epoche of style, avant garde, art, refined living, art of travel and an icon for "engineering following the dictate of beauty". Today we find "Form follows function" a shallow argument, when you don´t know how to create.
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| QUEEN MARY, inauguated 1936, the competitor to NORMANDIE. The vessel started as a three funneld AQUITANIA with counter stern, but changed in design dramatically, after CUNARD sis some espionage on Cie Gen TRANSATLANTIQUEs NORMANDIE ... seen as a big threat. QUEEN MARY survived in a more or less haunted condition in Long Beach - Source: courtesy CUNARD |
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| QUEEN MARY, Main Salon, CUNARDs former doomed hull 534, a victim of the Wall Street Crash, styled in British ART DÉCO, but critized as "Texas Millionaire Style". When HRH Queen Mary Maria von Teck), Queen Mother, toured the ship, she wrote in her diary: "Not as bad as I thought." You may see it as a praize, but in her words it does not mean any good. |
Often liners, fuelling the national prestige, had been ahead of time. But being in nationalistic envy - belly button views - bad mouthed by the media, and consequently the people, from competing nations involved especially in the most prestigous route/s. Especially when these liners had been technically ahead of time, or being the symbol for a nation´s lifestyle. Most of these liners but had been engineerd in international cooperation - incorporating the best technique from all over Europe or sometimes the world. Some liners became the symbol for the resurfacing of a nation after historical desasters.
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| BREMEN, NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYDs glorius comeback 1929 on the North Atlantic as THE express service from the continent to America. BREMEN and EUROPA, the last German Greyhounds, signaled to the world the German comeback into the center of attention - source: NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD, copy in authors collection |
A rather fair and balanced movie series about the
Transatlantic shipping and passenger transport. Published at YouTube by History
of Wars. The speaker has some difficulties in spelling names correct. And misses some facts and truth.
The Great Atlantic Liners Part 1 Documentary
The Great Atlantic Liners Part 2 Documentary
The Great Atlantic Liners Part 3 Documentary
The Great Atlantic Liners Part 4 Documentary
The book:
Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed, and Style
This beautifully illustrated book considers over a century of liner
design: from the striking graphics created to promote liners to the
triumphs of engineering, and from luxurious interiors to on board
fashion and activities. Ocean Liners explores the design of Victorian
and Art Deco 'floating palaces', sleek post-war liners as well as these
ships' impact on avant-garde artists and architects such as Le
Corbusier.
Edited by
Daniel Finamore and
Ghislaine Wood
ISBN 10 185177906X or ISBN 13 978 1851779062
This stunning volume accompanies the exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA,and that at Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The exhibition:
Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed, and Style
This exhibition is organized by the
Peabody Essex Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Fiduciary Trust Company is the lead sponsor and Eaton Vance Management
is a major sponsor. The exhibition is supported in part by a grant from
the National Endowment for the Arts. Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The
Lynch Foundation provided generous support. The East India Marine
Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum provided additional support.
The exhibition will be on view from February 2, 2018 through June
10, 2018 at Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL.For details, visit: www.vam.ac.uk/
Info/news film from the Reaboody Essex Museum
Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed, and Style - Source: YouTube, WGBH News
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