Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans
It’s hard to fathom that, before the 1950s, the tens of millions of immigrants, the millions of soldiers, and the numberless other travelers between Europe and the Americas could cross the Atlantic only one way: by ship.
From the Age of Sail through the Victorian era of experimentation with steam propulsion and iron cladding, voyages were always long and uncomfortable, even harrowing, for all classes of traveler. In the 20th century, the great ocean liners hove onto the waves, leviathans with towering funnels that plied the sea at ever faster speeds, offering crossings in conditions ranging from grimly tolerable to fabulously luxurious for thousands of passengers on each voyage.
