liner[1][2]) is a
ship designed to transport people from one
seaport to another along regular long-distance
maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (e.g., for pleasure cruises or as
hospital ships).
Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes called
liners.
[3] The category does not include
ferries or other vessels engaged in short-sea trading, nor dedicated
cruise ships where the voyage itself, and not transportation, is the prime purpose of the trip. Nor does it include
tramp steamers, even those equipped to handle limited numbers of passengers. Some shipping companies refer to themselves as "lines" and their
container ships, which often operate over set routes according to established schedules, as "liners".
Ocean liners are usually strongly built with a high
freeboard to withstand rough seas and adverse conditions encountered in the open ocean. Additionally, they are often designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships, and have large capacities for fuel, food and other consumables on long voyages.
As of 2012, the
RMS Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner in active service in the world. In April 2012, the Australian mining magnate,
Clive Palmer, announced his plans for building an ocean liner meant to be a
replica of the
RMS Titanic for trans-atlantic voyages.
[4]
The RMS Lusitania arriving in New York in 1907.
As the primary means of long distance international voyages for over a century,
ocean liners were held in great consideration by the general public's attention, national governments and business.
Ocean liners were the primary mode of intercontinental travel for over a century, from the mid-19th century until they began to be supplanted by
airliners in the late 1960s. In addition to passengers, liners carried
mail and cargo. Ships contracted to carry
British Royal Mail used the designation
RMS. Liners were also the preferred way to move gold and other high-value cargoes.
[5]
The busiest route for liners was on the
North Atlantic with ships travelling between
Europe and
North America. It was on this route that the fastest, largest and most advanced liners travelled. But while in contemporary popular imagination the term "ocean liners" evokes these
transatlantic superliners, most ocean liners historically were mid-sized vessels which served as the common carriers of passengers and freight between nations and among mother countries and their colonies and dependencies in the pre-
jet age. Such routes included Europe to African and Asian colonies, Europe to South America, and migrant traffic from Europe to North America in the 19th and first two decades of the 20th centuries, and to Canada and Australia after the Second World War.
Shipping lines are companies engaged in shipping passengers and cargo, often on established routes and schedules. Regular scheduled voyages on a set route are called "line voyages" and vessels (passenger or cargo) trading on these routes to a timetable are called liners. The alternative to liner trade is "tramping" whereby vessels are notified on an ad-hoc basis as to the availability of a cargo to be transported. (In older usage, "liner" also referred to
ships of the line, that is, line-of-battle ships, but that usage is now rare.) The term "ocean liner" has come to be used interchangeably with "passenger liner", although it can refer to a
cargo liner or cargo-passenger liner.
one of the most famous "golden age" ocean liners
Beginning at the advent of the
Jet Age, where transoceanic ship service declined, a gradual transition from passenger ships as mean of transportation to nowadays cruise ships started.
[6] In order for ocean liners to remain profitable, cruise lines have modified some of them to operate on cruise routes, such as the
Queen Elizabeth 2 and
SS France. Certain characteristics of older ocean liners made them unsuitable for cruising, such as high fuel consumption, deep draught preventing them from entering shallow ports, and cabins (often windowless) designed to maximize passenger numbers rather than comfort. The
Italian Line's
SS Michelangelo and
SS Raffaello, the last ocean liners to be built primarily for crossing the
North Atlantic, could not be converted economically and had short careers.
[7]
History[edit]
The 19th century[edit]
The
clipper domination was challenged when the
SS Great Western, designed by railway engineer
Isambard Kingdom Brunel,
[8]began its first Atlantic service in 1837. It took 15 days to cross the Atlantic,
[9] as compared with two months by sail-powered ships. Unlike the clippers, steamers offered a consistent speed and the ability to keep to a schedule. The early
steamships still had sails as well, though, as engines at this time had very inefficient consumption of fuel. Having sails enabled vessels like the
Great Western to take advantage of favourable weather conditions and minimise fuel consumption.
Isambard Kingdom Brunelbefore the
launching of theSS Great Eastern in 1857
In 1840,
Cunard Line’s
RMS Britannia began its first regular passenger and cargo service by a
steamship, sailing from Liverpool to Boston.
[10] Despite some advantages offered by the steamships, clippers remained dominant. In 1847, the
SS Great Britainbecame the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship to cross the Atlantic.
[11] More efficient
propellers began to replace the
paddle wheels used by earlier ocean liners. In 1870, the
White Star Line’s
RMS Oceanic set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water.
[12] The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of
immigration to the United States and Australia.
The
RMS Umbria[13] and her sister ship, the
RMS Etruria, were the last two Cunard liners of the period to be fitted with auxiliary sails. Both ships were built by
John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1884. They were record breakers by the standards of the time, and were the largest liners then in service, plying the Liverpool to New York route.
The
SS Ophir was a 6814-ton
[14] steamship owned by the Orient Steamship Co., and was fitted with refrigeration equipment. It plied the Suez Canal route from England to Australia during the 1890s, up until the years leading to
World War I, when she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser.
The 20th century[edit]
The period between the end of the 19th century and
World War II is considered the "golden age" of ocean liners. Driven by strong demand created by European emigration to the Americas, international competition between passenger lines and a new emphasis on comfort, shipping companies built increasingly larger and faster ships.
Since the 1830s, passenger liners had unofficially been competing for the honour of making the fastest North Atlantic crossing. This honour came to be known as the
Blue Riband; in 1897, Germany took the award with a series of new ocean liners, starting with the
SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. In 1905, the British
Cunard Line fitted its liner, the
RMS Carmania, with steam turbines, which then outperformed its nearly-identical sister, the
RMS Caronia, which was powered by quadruple-expansion steam engines. At the time, these were the largest ships in the Cunard fleet, and the use of the different propulsion methods in otherwise similar ships allowed the company to evaluate the merits of both.
[15] The engines in the
Carmania were successful and, consequently, in 1907, Cunard introduced the much larger
RMS Lusitania and
RMS Mauretania, both powered by
steam turbines. The
Mauretania won the Blue Riband and held it for an astonishing 20 years.
Cunard's dominance of the Blue Riband did not keep other lines from competing in terms of size and luxury. In 1910, White Star Line launched the
RMS Olympic,
[16] the first of a trio of 45,000 plus gross ton liners, along with the
RMS Titanic and
HMHS Britannic. These ships were almost 15,000 tonnes larger and 100 feet (30 m) longer than the
Lusitania and the
Mauretania. Like most other White Star Liners, these three ships were born of a special effort by the line to attract more immigrants by treating them with respect and making their crossings pleasurable.
Hamburg-America Line also ordered three giant ships, the
SS Imperator,
SS Vaterland and
SS Bismarck, all over 51,500 gross tons. The
Imperator was launched in 1912, and the
Bismarck would be the largest ship in the world, until 1935. These ships did little or no service with Hamburg-America before World War I. After the war, they were awarded as war reparations and given to British and American lines.
[17]
The surge in ocean liner size outpaced the shipping regulations. In 1912, the
Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, with more than 1,500 fatalities. A factor contributing to the high loss of life was that there were not enough
lifeboats for everyone. After the
Titanic disaster, the regulation was revised to require all ocean liners to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew. In addition, the
International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the busy north-Atlantic shipping lanes for icebergs.
[18]
Until the 1920s, most shipping lines relied heavily on emigration for passengers; thus, they were hard hit when the
United States Congress introduced a bill to limit immigration into the United States. As a result, many ships took on
cruising,
[19] and the least expensive cabins were reconfigured from third-class to tourist-class. To make matters worse, the
Great Depression put many shipping lines into bankruptcy.
Despite the harsh economic conditions, a number of companies continued to build larger and faster ships. In 1929, the German ships,
SS Bremen and
SS Europa, beat the crossing record set by the
Mauretania 20 years earlier with an average speed of almost 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). The ships used
bulbous bows and steam turbines to reach these high speeds while maintaining economical operating costs. In 1933, the
Italian Line's 51,100-ton ocean liner,
SS Rex, with a time of four days and thirteen hours,
[20] captured the westbound Blue Riband, which she held for two years. In 1935, the French liner,
SS Normandie, used a revolutionary new hull design and powerful
turbo-electric transmission to take the Blue Riband from the
Rex. Due to the poor economic conditions, the British government amalgamated the Cunard Line and White Star Lines. The newly merged company countered with its liners, the
RMS Queen Mary and
RMS Queen Elizabeth. The
Queen Mary was to hold the Blue Riband in 1936-37 and from 1938-52.
[21]
The post-WWII era was a brief but busy period. Notable ships included the fastest transatlantic liner ever built, the
SS United States, which, in 1952, bested the records set by the
Queen Mary to become the holder of the Blue Riband, a designation it retains to this day.
[22] Also significant was the 1961-built
SS France (later renamed the
Norway) which held the record for the longest passenger ship from when she entered service in 1961, until the launch of the
RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2003. Australian government-sponsored immigration resulted in a busy trade between Europe and Australia, producing such notable ships as the
SS Oriana[23] and
SS Canberra.
[24] These two ships, operating on the
P&O-Orient Lines service, were the largest, fastest and last liners built for the Australian route.
Decline of long-distance line voyages[edit]
The Italian Line's
SS Michelangelo and
SS Raffaello,
[7] launched in 1962 and 1963, were two of the last ocean liners to be built primarily for liner service across the
North Atlantic. Cunard's transatlantic liner,
Queen Elizabeth 2, was also used as a cruise ship.
[6] By the early 1970s, many passenger ships continued their service in cruising. By the first decade of the 21st century, only a few former ocean liners were still sailing, while others, like the
Queen Mary, were preserved as museums or floating hotels. After the retirement of the
Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008, the only ocean liner in service was the
Queen Mary 2, used for both point-to-point line voyages and for cruising.
The 21st century[edit]
In 2012, Australian businessman,
Clive Palmer, announced his plans to construct a
modern-day replica of the famous
RMS Titanic.
[4] To be named
Titanic II, Palmer's vision is to create a trans-Atlantic ocean liner that closely mimics her namesake. Palmer, through his new venture, Blue Star Line, and with the help of the Finnish marine engineering firm, Deltamarin, have commenced the process of designing the ocean liner.
[25]
In
World War I, ocean liners played a major role. Large ocean liners, such as the
Mauretania and
Olympic, were used as
troopships and
hospital ships, while smaller ocean liners were converted to
armed merchant cruisers. The
Britannic, sister ship to the
Titanic and
Olympic, never served on the liner trade for which she was built. Instead, she entered war service as a hospital ship as soon as she was completed, and lasted a year before being sunk by a mine.
[26] Other liners were converted to innocent-looking armed
Q-ships, in order to entrap
submarines. In 1915, the
Lusitania, still in service as a civilian passenger vessel, was torpedoed with many casualties by a German
U-boat.
in the foreground, escorting convoy US.12A,
Wilsons Promontory on the Victorian coast.
Ocean liners were also used in
World War II as troopships. The
Normandie caught fire, capsized and sank in New York in 1942, while being converted for troop duty. The majority of the superliners of the 'twenties and 'thirties were victims of
U-boats,
mines or enemy aircraft. The
Empress of Britain was attacked by German planes, then torpedoed by a U-boat when tugs tried to tow her to safety.
[27] She was the largest British ocean liner to sink during
World War II. In 1941, Germany's speed queen, the
Bremen, fell victim to an arsonist, believed to be a disgruntled crew member, and became a total loss. Italy's giants, the
Rex and the
Conte di Savoia, were respectively destroyed by the
Royal Air Force and the retreating German forces. The United States lost the
American President Lines vessel, the
President Coolidge, when she steamed into an Allied mine in the South Pacific. No shipping line was left untouched by World War II.
In 1982, during the
Falklands War, three ships that were either active or former liners were requisitioned for war service by the
British Government. The liners,
Queen Elizabeth 2[28] and
Canberra, were requisitioned from Cunard and
P&O to serve as troopships, carrying
British Army personnel to
Ascension Island and the
Falkland Islands to recover the Falklands from the invading
Argentine forces. The P&O educational cruise ship and former
British India Steam Navigation Company liner, the
Uganda, was requisitioned as a hospital ship and, after the war, served as a troopship until the
RAF Mount Pleasant station was built at
Stanley, which could handle trooping flights.
[29]
Safety and reliability[edit]
Many ocean liners have been lost throughout the decades in various circumstances. The
Titanic sank on her maiden voyage from Britain to the United States in 1912, after hitting an iceberg, with the loss of 1,523 lives; her name has entered the language as an archetypical catastrophe. Her larger sister ship, the
Britannic, which had been converted into a hospital ship in 1915, sank in the
Aegean Sea in 1916, after hitting a mine and remains the largest ocean liner still lying on the sea bed.
On the contrary, many ships with their reliability, comfort and decades of service, became particularly popular with passengers of that time. Cunard Line's
Mauretania (1906) and
Aquitania were considered the finest liners of their time, while superliners, like the
Normandie and
Queen Mary, became symbols of national pride and an important part of western civilization with influences in design, technology, popular culture and standards of international travel.
Survivors
The MS Athena (1948) (former MS Stockholm)
as a cruise ship, much of the original liner's
features remain, including its sheer.
Of the pre-World War II ocean liners, four survive today. The
RMS Queen Mary (1934) was preserved after her retirement in 1967, as a hotel and museum in
Long Beach, California. The Japanese ocean liner
Hikawa Maru (1929), preserved in
Naka-ku, Yokohama, Japan, as a museum ship, since 1961. The
SS Great Britain, was preserved in Bristol, England.
[30] The
MV Doulos is awaiting preservation in
Singapore.
[31][32]
Two former ocean liners remain in active service today: the
MS Athena (1948) (former MS
Stockholm); and the
MS Marco Polo (1965) (former MS
Alexandr Pushkin), both of which are currently used for cruising.
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