The Liners

In the first programme in the series looks at the quantum leap forward from the converted sailing ships of the early 19th century to the majestic floating palaces at see 100 years later, which began with the building of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western in 1837.

Despite the outbreak of World War I, the trans-ocean liners continued to py their opulent trade across the Atlantic until, in 1916, the Lusitania was attascked and sunk, with horrifying loss of life, by the German navy. Con- tinued attacks over the following months were one of the major factors that saw America enter the war and, ironically, Germany's greatest liners, strand- ed in New York harbour, were impounded and used to ferry the troops over to France. Post war years saw the liners of all nations sailing the seas again this time taking immigrants to America and, in the Prohibition years in America, providing legal off shore havens for revellers. However, the key years were 1927-1936, as France, Germany, Italy and Britain launched liners that were to become legends.

The third program in the series looks at the development of the luxurious and spectacular liners of the 1930s, which saw the British `Queen Mary' and the French liner `Normandie' set records for both style and speed and of their Second World War service as troop ships, along with other liners. The programme looks at some of the liners that were lost during the war, including the Italian `Rex', the German `Wilhelm Gustloff', and the `Cap Arcona', which was carrying concentration camp survivors, 5000 of whom died. The immediate post-war years on the Atlantic route was a bonanza period for British liners, with the shipping companies, especially Cunard, owners of the `Queen Mary' and the `Queen Elizabeth', making a lot of money from transatlantic customers. New competition arose from the US, however, with the launching of the new super-liner, the `United States', which broke the pre-war record of the `Queen Mary' for crossing the Atlantic. The only possible source of competition to the lucrative trade was to come from the emerging commercial operations of the airline companies with their new jet engines.

The last program in the series on the history of ocean-going liners. With passenger aeroplanes in the ascendant, liner companies responded to dwindling demand in the sixties by building larger and more extravagant ships. It was an audacious move but a highly successful one and major operators still compete to build the biggest and best liner. Today, cruisers are expanding into fully-fledged entertainment centers.