Getting there WAS half the fun - Published Ponsonby News July 2015

After booking a transatlantic crossing from New York to Southampton on the QM2 the other day, a friend asked me what to expect.

Quite a lot really…

Today every aspect of life on board a ship revolves around the passengers’ comfort. A far cry from the early days when ships plied the migrant route from Europe to the ’New World‘.  From 1819 until the end of the 1920s, 30 million European immigrants had crossed over to make the ‘good ole US of A’ home. That was in the days when America welcomed migrants.

My, how things have changed. 

Then, the shipping lines made their money from migrants and jammed as many as they could into the bowels of their ships in somewhat less than salubrious surroundings. The bigger the ship - the more migrants, who were treated as little more than cargo and given very little in the way of amenities or services. In those days the only thing to relieve the monotony of the journey was the conviviality of one’s fellow passengers.

This began to change when White Star and Cunard started building their ’Four Stackers‘,  the Mauretania, Lusitania, Olympic and Titanic, to compete with the European Lines for the lucrative migrant business and more importantly, for the first-class passenger trade that could bring good publicity to the shipping lines, add profitability and additional icing to the cake.

The story of the transatlantic liner is an epic saga of one of the great icons of the industrial age.

The competition for the trade pushed human ingenuity and technology to its limits in a race to gain dominance of the seas and ships began to offer more and more facilities to attract passengers. Amenities and accommodations were improved over all three classes. Swimming pools, gymnasiums, smoking rooms and theatres, specialty restaurants and outdoor areas for sports and leisure were added.

As the century progressed, the trade continued beyond its heyday, (thanks to America closing her ’Open Door Policy’) the migrants were replaced by the new affluent middle classes as it was still ’the only way to cross'. However, without the profits of the migrants, the competing lines slowly sank into an abyss. Some governments subsidised their ’Ships of State’ to keep them sailing - the French Liner, Normandie, never made a profit but sailed on regardless, buoyed by French pride and her taxpayers.

By the 50s, passengers were entertained by official ‘Cruise directors‘  who were employed to help keep the minds of the passengers occupied and maybe distract them from the one aspect of transatlantic travel that is very rarely advertised, the often rough Atlantic swell and the subsequent malady for some. This was the period when Cunard coined the phrase ‘When getting there is half the fun’.

With the advent of the Jet liner in the 1960s, the great ocean liners were facing possible extinction and eventually the only surviving line plying the regular Trans-Atlantic route was Cunard with her two ships the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary that continued to cross each other mid-Atlantic, and often carrying more crew than passengers, right up until the late 1960s when they were replaced by the smaller and more economic Queen Elizabeth 2.

Today there is only one true Trans-Atlantic liner.  The 2004 built Queen Mary 2 that continues the tradition of providing the only true ’Crossing‘ experience. Decorated in a style harking back to the great liners of the 30s, now though, without the traditional three class partitions and  with all facilities being available to all passengers.  The QM2 continues to offer the ‘Crossing’ experience along with all the modern conveniences, although no rock climbing walls or water-slides.

Your seven days across the Atlantic can be filled with as much as you like.  Organized sports events, lectures, movies, card games, shuffleboard, tennis, golf, the spa, the gym, the casino, shopping, the planetarium, painting classes or scarf tying. (You’d be surprised how many men turn up to this), and of course, the traditional afternoon tea served by liveried and white-gloved waiters in the ballroom. Or as little as you like. Halcyon days with a glass of champagne in one hand and a tome from the 9000 book library in the other, and often my favourite, just sitting in a steamer chair staring blankly out to sea.

What can you expect from a ‘Crossing’?  The connection with the past 200 years of historical  crossings of the Atlantic and one of the last great adventures you can have from the comfort of a deck chair.