Transatlánticos - Gran Bretaña: libros - historia y barcos

Great British Passenger Ships

An illustrated history that charts the heyday of the British passenger ship, those great and grand vessels that connected the continents, but also those far-off colonial outposts of the Empire.

There were the great Cunarders, of course, but then also the likes of Booth Line to the exotic Amazon, Royal Mail to Rio and Buenos Aires, Union Castle to South ad East Africa, British India to the likes of Bombay and Calcutta, and the iconic P&O to ports such as Sydney, Singapore and colonial Hong Kong.

Passenger ships both large and small are covered in these pages, alongside passenger-cargo types. Presenting many previously unpublished images alongside historic, insightful text that combines personal anecdotes of the ships and their voyages from passengers and crew alike, William Miller takes the reader on a nostalgic voyage - an evocative trip looking at days long past.

SS Great Britain Transatlantic Liner 1843

The SS Great Britain, designed by Isambard Brunel, was the first ocean-going vessel to be screw-driven and built entirely of iron. When she was launched in 1843 she was twice the size of any previous ship and her revolutionary design heralded a complete break with traditional ship construction.

Written by experts and containing more than 200 specially commissioned photographs, each title takes the reader on a superbly illustrated tour of the ship, from bow to stern and deck by deck. Significant parts of the vessel - for example, the propeller, steering gear, engine and accommodation - are given detailed coverage both in words and pictures, so that the reader has at hand the most complete visual record and explanation of the ship that exists. In addition, the importance of the ship, both in her own time and now as a museum vessel, is explained, while her design and build, and her career prior to restoration and exhibition are all described.

The SS Great Britain Story

The SS Great Britain Story is a concise account of one of the most famous steamships ever built. The great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel embraced the latest innovations, including an iron hull and a screw-propeller, to create an ocean liner that was decades ahead of its time.

Launched by Prince Albert in 1843, the SS Great Britain was nearly lost three years later when she ran aground in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. Fortunately she weathered the winter storms and went on to enjoy a long and chequered career.
She spent many years transporting emigrants to Australia, served as a cargo vessel, and almost ended her days stranded on the Falkland Islands.

Following an incredible rescue mission in the 1970s, fully documented here, she was returned to dry-dock in Bristol, where she was originally built, and is now the centrepiece of a fascinating and ongoing restoration project.

The British Cruise Ship - An Illustrated History 1945-2014

Ian Collard continues the story of British cruising from the end of the Second World War, when Cunard began construction of their 'green goddess', the Caronia, aimed squarely at the American market.
The 1960s saw a shift from line voyages to cruising as the major money earner for all of the British passenger lines. The QE2 and Canberra made up the bulk of British cruise voyages in the 1970s and early 1980s.
By the 1990s, there had been a resurgence in cruising, with new cruise ships and companies operating. From a low of 180,000 passengers in 1981 to some 1.5 million in 2013, British cruising is alive and well.

Liverpool's Shipping Groups

The history of the great shipping groups of the nineteenth century is about family dynasties, business acumen, investment, risk taking and entrepreneurial skills. It is about everything that epitomises the Victorian age. Men of vision identified market trends and gaps in the provision of shipping services throughout the world. They were responsible for initiating routes that were that were to develop and blossom providing them with excellent returns on their original investment.

The main British shipping lines in this book, including among others Brocklebank, Cunard, Blue Funnel, Booth, Elder Dempster, Ellerman, Hall Lines, Lamport Holt and Cayzer, Irvine had their origins in Liverpool, once the premier port in the United Kingdom. Head offices were located in Merseyside as were many ancillary departments.

Over the past four decades the shape of British Shipping has changed and some of the established shipping lines that had been in business since Victorian times did not survive and many of the names in this book are now a memory of a different age. Others have been taken over by larger groups and their names have gradually vanished from the shipping records as their ships have been replaced or renamed.

It was difficult to imagine in the 1960s that the shipping scene would change so dramatically in such a relatively period. "Liverpool's Shipping Groups" is a celebration of a period that will not be forgotten by anyone with an interest in ships and the sea.

Liverpool's Last Ocean Liners - The Golden Age

At one time, Liverpool's landing stage was so busy that ships would be literally queuing in the Mersey to discharge and embark passengers. However, the period from the late 1940s saw both the golden age of Liverpool shipping as well as the decline of its passenger trade.

From the early 1960s, though, Liverpool's passenger trade entered a downturn that was unstoppable. The Jet Age has seen the loss of much of its trade and shipping line after shipping line moved away from the port or stopped its ships sailing and sold them for scrap or service with foreign lines.
Liverpool now has a new landing stage to accommodate visiting cruise ships back in the Mersey.

Here John Sheperd tells the story, using the memories of those who sailed in them, of the halcyon days of the passenger liners which sailed from the Mersey.

British India Steam Navigation Co Lines of the 1950's and 1960's

The British India Steam Navigation Company Limited, dating from 1862, was one of Britain's largest and most important shipping firms and has been owned by the even larger P&O since 1914. BI, as it was commonly called, created and maintained a great network of sea-going services - to Africa, India and the Middle East, and to the more distant Far East.

BI passenger ships in particular were important for the steady, uninterrupted flow of representatives and citizens of the Crown - from the likes of High Commissioners in first class to Indian workers in deck class. These were links in an age now gone completely.

William H. Miller, author of over eighty maritime books, reviews the final fleet, the last great era, in the 1950s and 1960s, of the British India Steam Navigation Company's passenger ships.

Ellerman Lines - Remembering a Great British Shipping Company

Ellerman Lines was formed by John Reeves Ellerman at the end of the nineteenth century. Ellerman left home at age 14, and at 24 he established J. Ellerman & Co. in London; by 1893, he had been appointed chair of a shipping company. Following the acquisition of various companies, Ellerman Lines Ltd was formed on 22 January 1902, becoming one of the greatest shipping lines in the world.

Services were offered to the Mediterranean, India, South America and East and South Africa as the Ellerman group grew and grew. Ellerman Lines traded successfully throughout war and peace, heavily involved in the war effort, until the third quarter of the century, when many countries gained their independence from Britain and 1960s containerisation saw this once great shipping line close for good.

Using many previously unpublished photographs illustrating the different types of vessels owned by Ellerman Lines, experienced maritime author Ian Collard turns his attention to the company's history, from its establishment in 1886 until the shipping business was bought by its management in 1985.
It was then sold to the Trafalgar House conglomerate, which merged it with its ownership of the Cunard Line to form Cunard-Ellerman in 1987. In 1991 it passed to the Andrew Weir Shipping Group and in 2003 the Mediterranean, Middle East, African, Indian and Pakistan services were acquired by Hamburg Süd and the Ellerman brand was replaced by them exactly two years later.

The Tyne-Tees Steam Shipping Company and its Associates

A very comprehensive maritime history of the Tyne-Tees Steam Shipping Company. Includes many excellent colour and black/white illustrations. This story of the company and antecedent companies and associate interests has never been told in full before.

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company - Fleet List & History

Founded in 1838 in Liverpool, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was the first to operate steamships in the Pacific and primarily traded from the UK to the Pacific coasts of South America. Its most famous ships included the Reina del Pacifico and the Reina del Mar.

With a line of notable firsts to its name, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company name had disappeared by 1984, part of the rationalization of Furness Withy Group. In 1990, Furness Withy itself was sold to Hamburg Sud, another line which had operated on the South Atlantic and Pacific routes.

Many in Liverpool and in South and Central America, from Panama to Tierra del Fuego have fond memories of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and this history and fleet list will bring back memories of those vessels of the line, both deep sea and coastal, which once operated on the South American run.

Union Castle Liners - from Great Britain to Africa 1946-1977

It was one of the most important British liner routes of all - the express run from Southampton to the South African Cape. Carrying passengers as well as cargo, including the all-important mail, it was a byword in travel - 'every Thursday at 4', as one of the big Union-Castle liners set off for Cape Town and beyond.

By the late 1950s, these mail ships included the Arundel Castle, Carnarvon Castle, Winchester Castle, Athlone Castle, Stirling Castle, Capetown Castle and two post-war sensations, the Edinburgh Castle and Pretoria Castle. Three new liners arrived in 1959, the last great ships built for Union-Castle. They were Pendennis Castle, Windsor Castle and Transvaal Castle.

The route was not just to the Cape - for Union-Castle also offered a service down the East coast of Africa and a round-Africa route too. In 1977, with the mail contract and passengers lost to the jet and cargo to container ships, the service ceased in October that year and Union-Castle was no more.

William H Miller tells the story of the post-war Union Castle ships.