Great French Passenger Ships by William H. Miller.

The great liners which crossed the Atlantic have always held an interest for me, quite possibly since I first heard the story of the Titanic in my youth. In recent years the history of many of these ships have come to my notice during my studies in nineteenth and twentieth century transport, including their part in the two World Wars. However the majority of those I was familiar with were owned by Cunard and White Star Lines,  so I was interested to have a look at this book which concentrates on the vessels operated by the great French shipping lines.

To be fair this the book is not just about the ships, although it is not short on specifications and descriptions, but also encompasses those who travelled on them, the decline of the transatlantic services with the increase in air travel and the move into cruise ships amongst other topics. It is also very well illustrated catching everything from the opulence of the ships, the heyday of the liners, (the sight of eight  lined up together in New York harbour in the late 1950's is unlikely to ever be seen again), to the burnt out hulks of some who finished their service abruptly.

The author opens with the Launch of the 'France' in 1912, just a few days after the sinking of the Titanic, through to the 1970's ending with the last of the great French liners, aptly also called The France which was launched in 1962. Every vessel mentioned has a history to accompany it, all of which are interesting and many quite dramatic, certainly I was stunned to find out just how many French liners caught fire over the years.

Personal recollections are used within the pages, which add a great touch of reality to the operation of the ships, I particularly enjoyed the mentions of matching sets of Louis Vuitton luggage and hefty trunks, items which are sought after to this day. War time service is also covered, with many of the liners of this period being used as troop ships it is an important part of their history, particularly as many were sunk and never returned to the shipping lines.

It is a thoughly interesting book on any level and would make a great introduction to the world of the great liners which plyed their trade during the twentieth century. What is made very clear by this informative study is that many, if not all, of the ships mentioned probably deserve a book of their own. As I mentioned earier the Titanic is undoubtably the most written about vessel in history for obvious reasons, however many of these ships led equally facinating and much longer lives.

This is an interesting and informative book, but even more importantly it is a good read. Certainly if you have an interest in the travel, society and ships of this period you will enjoy it, but even if these are not your normal requirements in a book it still has plenty going for it. If I have any complaint, apart from a few harmless proof reading errors, it is that the book is not much, much thicker and even more comprehensive, as I could certainly read more about all of these ships and their lives.

Andy

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words.

Actually there seems to be some debate as to whether that really is the case, but I shall leave that discussion to others. My point is that a picture and a bit of research can certainly produce a thousand words, in fact I remember having to do exactly that for an assignment once.

In this case however I have ten pictures, photographs to be exact, which turned up some months ago at the bottom of a box of books from an auction. They are actually snapshots of famous liners in a very small album, quite interesting and probably not worth a great deal in financial terms.

However there are some rather intriguing stories behind the ships pictured. I am not going to run through all of them, certainly the Queen Mary, Britannic and Normandie are all well known, but a bit of digging into a few of the others turned up some interesting facts.

I am sad to say SS Arandora Star was not particularly familiar to me, but the sinking of it during the World War II was something of a disaster. Over 800 were lost, including Italian and German internees, many from Scotland, as well as British military personnel. The German submarine involved was the U-47, which had a somewhat infamous reputation following its incursion into Scapa Flow and subsequent sinking of HMS Royal Oak, again with a large loss of life.

The Arandora Star was owned by Blue Star Line and was one of five liners which had been ordered together. What I find truly astounding though, is that all five ships were torpedoed by German submarines between 1940-1942, which even considering the amount of vessels lost during this period, does seem rather unlucky.

Another of the vessels pictured is the RMS Majestic, the largest ship ever owned by White Star Line and indeed the largest in the world for some time. However it was actually launched seven years before ever coming into their ownership, as it was originally built in Germany and was originally named the Bismarck. It was launched on the 20^th June 1914, unfortunately eight days later Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, war soon followed and the Bismarck sat unfinished.

So how did it come to be in White Star’s ownership, as a result of the Treaty of Versailles apparently. As it turns out the Bismarck and one of its sister ships, the Imperator were handed over to Britain as part of the reparations after the First World War, with White Star and Cunard gaining a ship each, the Imperator was renamed the Berengaria. The Majestic remained in service until 1936, during which time it appears to have had an interesting life, including colliding with its sister ship in Southampton and running the odd booze cruise during the American prohibition period.

The third and final ship that I looked into is the SS Asturias which completed its maiden voyage from Southampton to La Plata, Argentina in 1926. Again there is a wartime connection with the Asturias being refitted for use as an armoured merchant cruiser in 1939, before being torpedoed by an Italian submarine in 1943. While the ship did not actually sink as a result of the damage, it was considered to be a total loss after being towed into Freemantle.

This though was not the end of the story as in 1945 it was towed to Gibralter and then Belfast for repairs, before being used firstly on the immigration route to Australia, which is a whole story on its own, then secondly as a troop carrier.

All this is really only scratching the surface of the service lives of these three ships and let us not forget the other seven pictures within the album. So regardless of the doubters, it seems clear to me that even if a picture is not worth a thousand words, it can certainly provide the inspiration for a thousand and many more in my experience.

Andy

(Sources: White Star History, Ocean Liners, Blue Star Line, Clyde Marine, SS Asturias)