cruise ship, a passenger ship which sails a prearranged itinerary to popular tourist destinations, though cruises can vary in length from a few days to a circumnavigation. Using a ship as a floating hotel, which is what a cruise ship is, is even older than the introduction of
ocean liners on regular scheduled routes as, in 1833, 80 passengers set off on a cruise in an Italian ship from Naples to Istanbul. It did not sound a great success as the diary of one passenger records there were constant disputes and that ‘two duels are yet to be fought, when the voyage terminates’.
The British shipping line P & O (Peninsular & Orient) began running cruises in the 1840s and in 1844 employed the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray to publicize them. One of the first regular cruise schedules was by the North of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Company whose 1,500-ton steamer
St Sunniva, with a capacity to take 132 passengers, made regular summer runs in the 1870s from Aberdeen to parts of Norway.
For many decades it was the scheduled ocean liners which garnered the publicity and the public's attention, and the smaller ones were employed for cruising during the winter months when the scheduled routes were not so busy. Between the two world wars cruising increased in popularity and shipping lines began to build passenger ships specifically for cruising. The main difference between the two types was that cruise liners were almost always one class. Also, because passengers lived aboard cruise ships longer than they did aboard scheduled ocean liners, the former were more luxurious and more space was allotted to the public rooms.
Shipping losses during the Second World War (1939–45), and the economic deprivation that followed it, meant little cruising took place in Europe until the early 1950s, though the Cunard Line's
Caronia,
launched in 1949, was a dual purpose passenger ship which served as both an ocean liner and a cruise ship for nearly twenty years. The British firm of Swan Hellenic was founded in the early 1950s because a cruise ship was the only practical way to take those interested in antiquities to Greece, as stringent currency regulations were in force and Greece was just recovering from a civil war. The early Swan Hellenic cruises were somewhat spartan, with male and female passengers sleeping in separate dormitories, even if they were married. However, as soon as the world began to recover from the economic ravages of the war, more passenger ships started to be built in response to the demand for holidaying on a cruise ship. And once air travel began to supersede regularly scheduled ocean liners, particularly on the North Atlantic route, cruising became an even more important source of income to shipping companies, and new cruise ships of innovative design—
Southern Cross,
Northern Star,
Oriana,
Canberra, and
Rotterdam—were launched. Each of these liners had unusual features, most of which are now standard. The most obvious one was placing the machinery
aft, saving space in the widest and therefore best part of the ship. Many of the
Canberra's first-class cabins had windows, not
scuttles, and some even had verandahs, and the toughened glass used aboard her was a forerunner of the immensely strong glass structures now seen in cruise ships everywhere. Noise suppression was another major feature, with steam turbines,
electric propulsion, and controllable pitch
propellers all helping to reduce vibration and increase passenger comfort. Great care was also taken, by air tunnel testing, to make sure the decks were as sheltered as possible in all wind conditions,
stabilizers were fitted to dampen the ship's movement at sea, and
evaporators ensured a constant supply of fresh water.
Perhaps the single most telling shift in emphasis towards cruise ships and away from ocean liners came in the early 1960s when, at the design stage of Cunard's
Queen Elizabeth II, it was decided to build her for cruising as well as for maintaining a regular transatlantic schedule. It was just as well that this was done because, by the 1970s, scheduled all-the-year-round passenger routes by sea were a thing of the past, but the popularity of cruising continued to increase. New types of cruises which had been pioneered in the 1960s, where passengers flew to or from a destination before boarding their cruise ship, or stayed in a hotel ashore before or after doing so, now became routine. At the same time small specialist cruise ships began to be used specifically to cater for those who wanted to travel to unusual and exotic places, such as Antarctica, while others advertised cruises to a segment of the market, such as parents with children, or those devoted to gambling. Sailing cruise ships was another innovation which proved popular to those who could afford it.
The design of cruise ships, to accommodate the numbers wishing to use them, advanced enormously during the last four decades of the 20th century. When comparing the
Canberra (1961), at that time the largest passenger carrier of her day, with the
Carnival Destiny (1996), it can be seen that the latter, although very similar in displacement
tonnage, and being only 2% longer (between perpendiculars) and only 13% wider on the
beam (at the waterline), and with 20% less draught, can still accommodate nearly 40% more passengers (3,360) and crew (1,040) than the
Canberra (2,200 + 960). The reason for this is that the gross tonnage of the
Carnival Destiny, a measure of her capacity, is about two-thirds more than the
Canberra's, for the former has two more decks than the
Canberra and all the passenger decks are much broader above the waterline. But because it was more economical to run one large ship rather than two smaller ones, cruise ships are also getting larger; and several exceeding 100,000 tonnes had been launched by 2004 which were nothing less than floating cities.
In the modern cruise ships safety is paramount. The
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea laid down the strictest regulations for
stability and for
lifesaving. Currently, cruise ships fit their lifeboats in recesses as close to the water as possible, and many have dedicated muster decks on the same level. Also important for those operating such large vessels, propeller systems, such as
bow thrusters and
propulsion pods, help manoeuvring in confined spaces. Combating
environmental issues is also essential and many cruise ships are now powered by
gas turbines to cut air
pollution.
MARPOL, which regulates this type of pollution, also prevents dumping at sea, so all sewage used aboard a cruise ship is stored in its
double bottoms for later disposal ashore. The latest
Oriana generates 8 tonnes of waste every day, of which only 3 tonnes can be burned in an environmentally friendly way, so it can be seen how essential it is that controls are in place.
In 2004 the most popular cruise destination was the Caribbean. However, Carnival, the world's largest cruise line conglomerate which owns Cunard, is building a new ocean shipping terminal close to the
Queen Mary, now a hotel and conference centre at Long Beach, California. One of the reasons for this is to take full advantage of the untapped Asian cruise market, but the other is that
climate change is creating greater extremes of weather patterns in the Caribbean.
According to Cruise Lines International, 145 cruise ships carried 5.9 million passengers in 1999 and by 2004 the number of cruise ships in operation had risen to 180. This included the
Queen Mary 2 which sailed on her maiden voyage in January 2004. With a length of 345 metres (1,131 ft), a gross tonnage of 150,000, and a maximum speed of 30 knots, she was, at the time, the largest passenger ship ever built; but by then, other, even larger, cruise ships had been announced as being in the pipeline.
The Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising Ships (2004).
