Ships have carried passengers across the oceans for centuries. Yet, it was not until the early 1800s that true ocean travel was established. Up until then, ships sailed only when they had a full load of cargo and passengers. Because international trade was expanding, the demand for better transatlantic passenger service increased. The United States took the lead in establishing regularly scheduled voyages with vessels called packet ships; they sailed regardless of weather, cargo, or passengers. In 1818, the Black Ball Line began the first packet service. Soon, other liner companies were formed to cash in on the popularity of the service. The first packet ships were small by today's standards: the average length was about 100 ft. (30.48 m). The typical packet had three sails, the tallest of which was the middle one. The United States lost its competitive edge in the construction of liners due to a remarkable British naval architect, Marc Isambard Brunel. He built ships far in advance, both technically and in size, of any before. His Great Western, built of wood and driven by paddles, established the first regular steamship service between the United States and England. Brunel went on to create the first liner to be made of iron and driven by a propeller: the Great Britain. In 1858, he built the Great Eastern, the first vessel with a double iron hull, which was capable of carrying 4,000 passengers. One more advance for the liner, in addition to steam power, propellers, and iron hulls, was the steam turbine. A English company, the Cunard Line, gambled on the turbine to power its new passenger ship, the Mauretania, launched in 1905. This vessel became the first modern passenger liner with swift lines, steam turbine, steel hull, and four propellers. It was 790 ft.
long, (241 m) and carried 2,335 passengers in addition to a crew of 800. It could cruise from Liverpool to New York in slightly under five days with great reliability. The 1930s was the golden age for ocean liners. Three of the most luxurious ships ever built were launched then: the Normandie (France), the Queen Mary (England), and the Queen Elizabeth (England). Each was more than 1,000 ft. long (about 305 m); the Queen Elizabeth, at 84,000 tons, was the largest by weight. Each was capable of crossing the Atlantic in four days. Although airplanes assumed most of the routine transoceanic travel after World War II, the liners survived as specialty cruise ships.
The last of the great steamships, Queen Elizabeth 2 , was converted to diesel-electric in the mid-1980s. It was in that decade that the cruise ship industry experienced extraordinary growth, and by the mid-1990s, more people were traveling by ship than ever before (nearly 2.4 million in 1994). The 1900s also ushered in a period of even more growth and much bigger liners. In November 1997, the world's largest cruise ship, the 900-ft-long (273-m) Carnival Destiny, made its maiden voyage. As the first passenger ship to exceed 100,000 gross tons, it has a crew of 1,100 members who will serve as many as 3,400 passengers. That sameyear saw the Splendour of the Seas launched, and its ability to cruise 25% faster than most ships enables it to cut off a day of transit to Hawaii, giving passengers extra time to sightsee. Other new liners, like the Grand Princess, specialize in providing such luxurious accommodations as 750 cabins with verandas, five swimming pools, and a virtual reality theater.
Since there is no technical limit to how big a ship can be, a 4,320-ft long (1,310-m)vessel (five times as long as the Carnival Destiny) named Freedom is being planned, with construction to begin in 1998. Described as the world's first floating city, it is so huge that it will have to be assembled at sea. Capable of carrying as many as 115,000 people, it will circle the earth every two years and provide a 25-story high floating home for 17,000 homes and 4,000 businesses. It "citizens" will come and go using yachts or private jets. Its interior will be designed more like an urban area--with open spaces, parks, recreation areas, and transportation links (like a railway system)--than a traditional ship. It will be built of 520 airtight steel cells or compartments that are linked together and which act as a steel beam or keel, allowing it to ride atop waves rather than have to plow through them. Propelled by 100 3700-hp motorized units, it will use clean-burning fuel and recycle materials as much as possible. The new ship, Freedom, will push the concept of an ocean liner to its limit, making it more of a moving island that is able to visit several different countries each month.
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