White Star Line to the Middle East in 1908. Guest post by John G. Sayers

A fascinating piece of ephemera in The Sayers Collection is a Passenger List titled A Souvenir List of Members who participated in a 1908 Cruise to The Mediterranean and the Orient on the SS Arabic of the White Star Line.

Clark's tenth annual cruise to the Mediterannean and the Orient, 1908 (cover)
Clark’s tenth annual cruise to the Mediterannean and the Orient, 1908 (cover)

Passenger Lists such as this one provide a valuable insight into social history as well as passenger ship history – and represent a glimpse of a genealogist’s version of heaven. The White Star Line’s relatively new SS Arabic left New York on February 6, 1908. Passenger traffic on the North Atlantic route would have been at its low point of the year, since no one with any travel options wanted to face the storm-tossed Atlantic in winter.

Rather than empty cabins and heavily discounted fares for the few brave souls who dared to travel the Atlantic in winter, why not use the ship to take affluent passengers on a cruise to warmer climates? It was a question asked by the major shipping companies, and this type of Tour was an answer. For 70 days, participants enjoyed shipboard comforts while ranging across the Mediterranean as far as Syria and Constantinople, with visits to Spain and then the U.K. on the return as Spring unfolded there. Then – home to America.

Clark's tenth annual cruise to the Mediterannean and the Orient, 1908 (title page)
Clark’s tenth annual cruise to the Mediterannean and the Orient, 1908 (title page)

Side trips, at additional cost, were available just as they still are on cruises today. One of the featured aspects of the cruise was “…spending 19 days in Palestine and Egypt”. For the many people in the church-based society of the era, a visit to The Holy Land would have been a highlight of the experience. A close examination of this Passenger List shows that the Cruise to the Holy Land also attracted a lot of the Clergy. To the casual reader this may be understandable, but many were not well paid, and would have difficulty affording this trip. There was a solution.

Clark's tenth annual cruise to the Mediterannean and the Orient, 1908
Clark’s tenth annual cruise to the Mediterannean and the Orient, 1908

As with today’s tours, if one recruits enough paying passengers, one receives a complimentary trip. In 1908, it was no different. So it is possible, for example, that Rev. Howard Duffield of New York had recruited enough members of his congregation and their relatives and friends to receive free passage. The Passenger List contains the names of 31 Reverends. The number of clerical collars must have been a significant deterrent to inappropriate behaviour on board, and almost a guarantee that ‘the power of prayer’ could keep the entire ship’s company safe from all harm throughout the cruise.

Not all 31 ‘men of the cloth’ would have been group organizers. One would likely have been given free passage by the shipping line to minister to the spiritual needs of passengers on board, since there was no certainty on cruises that there would be nearly so many Reverends available in time of need. In some cases, appreciative congregations may have given a trip to their minister, particularly on his prospective retirement.

This Passenger List also shows the home towns of the passengers. Yes, several were from New York and places in New England. However, the Midwest, including Chicago was well represented, and some participants journeyed from places such as Tower City, North Dakota; Anaconda, Montana; San Francisco; and New Orleans.

The majority of passengers were women, with mother/daughter pairs in some cases. In an era where women could not find other than menial work, those who did not have to do so had the time available to go on educational and informative cruises while the men in their lives pursued business activities. In contrast to many other Passenger Lists of the era, there was no record of maids or valets. Either they were deemed unimportant and were not recognized in the Passenger List, or the participants who had servants did not bring their maids and valets along. I believe that the former situation is much more likely.

So this tiny booklet has many facets. It is a potential treasure trove for genealogists (including names of ship’s officers, and representatives of the Clark tour company), students of social history, and those who want to try to correlate America’s geographic affluence with the places of origin of those who can afford to make this trip. For the genealogist, it can represent an insight to the life of ancestors, such as Mr. & Mrs. W. H. Murch.

Postcard of RMS Arabic at Constantinople
RMS Arabic at Constantinople (postcard)

I delved into my White Star Line postcard archive. There were several postcards picturing the SS Arabic during the various stages of her career, and produced by a variety of publishers. One of them was like winning a PowerBall lottery draw (well, almost as good!). There was a postcard picturing ‘RMS’ Arabic at Constantinople, dated February 29, 1908 with the following message:

This is an excellent picture of our ship. We have 650 passengers on board, 350 in the crew. It is like a small town sailing the Blue Mediterranean. We are both making fine sailors and enjoying every minute of the journey. I cannot settle down to write letters. I am just sending cards. Hope you are all as well as we are. W.H. & Auntie Murch.    

Postcard of RMS Arabic Jacobsen painting
RMS Arabic: Jacobsen painting (postcard)

The Murches are shown as being from St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada – one of the few non-Americans on the ship. Another passenger name intrigued me – Hannah Tunis Munnikhuysen. Her home was shown as Bel Air, Maryland. Surely her name would pop up on a Google search. It did. There were several hits. I didn’t learn much about her except that she was born in 1881 and died in 1981, and she was married to Thomas Roy Brookes. But do any of those people who are interested in the Munnikhuysen family genealogy know that she took a pricey 70-day cruise on a White Star Line ship in 1908? Who accompanied her? According to the Passenger List it wasn’t Thomas Roy Brookes.

RMS Arabic passenger list
RMS Arabic passenger list

I hope that this and the many other Passenger Lists from many passenger liners of worldwide shipping companies in my collection can be digitized. That would make them more conveniently searchable for genealogists who want to learn more about the travel and vacation habits of their ancestors rom The Sayers Collection. As collectors and enthusiasts of antiques and ephemera we cherish the past. Isn’t it wonderful when we can learn more about the intimate details of that past!

The Cunard Radio Service in the 1930s: guest post by donor John Sayers

RMS Queen Mary 'Keeping in Touch' brochure
Figure 1. RMS Queen Mary ‘Keeping in Touch’ brochure

Two small flyers and a substantial booklet all promote the availability of radio service on board Cunard liners. The small folders each have an illustration of the radio room on board the RMS Berengaria, and carry the reassuring titles of ‘Keeping in touch with home and business’ (Figure 1) and ‘Your friends on the sea’.

These small foldover booklets apparently predate a larger booklet which features radio access for those travelling on the RMS Queen Mary, which went into service in 1936. Among many photographs in its 16 full-size pages, there is a photograph of the Radio Room (Figure 2).

The date of this larger booklet, titled ‘R.M.S. Queen Mary Radio Souvenir’ is clearly just after the Queen Mary’s Maiden voyage in May, 1936 because it carries a tipped-in printed note that during the Maiden Voyage the ship handled the following Radio traffic: over 175,500 words of Radio Telegrams; 291 Radio

Telephone calls; and 40 Programmes broadcast to countries around the world, occupying 16 hours and 19 minutes.

Figure 2: RMS Queen Mary Radio Room
Figure 2. RMS Queen Mary Radio Room

The booklet was produced by the International Marine Radio Co., Ltd., which had supplied the radio equipment. This contrasts with the two smaller, earlier booklets which were products of Cunard itself to promote use of its services – which were not free!

For business people, radio accessibility could be a critical resource. The stock market crash was within the preceding decade, so nervous investors on board could feel comfortable about being able to manage their investments – or their business – in a nimble and responsive manner.

RMS Queen Mary - Radio Message Notice
Figure. 3 RMS Queen Mary – Radio Message Notice

‘Nimble is a relative description, and my memories of films where a bellboy or cabin boy seeks out and delivers messages personally to passengers on deck (the 1960s Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr film An Affair to Remember leaps to mind) were shattered when I came across the card pictured in Figure 3, left in a cabin to tell the passenger that he or she should pick up a radio message at the radio Office.

Hopefully a business passenger would be checking for messages regularly, but he should not expect a crew member to search him out on board the ship.

A number of the passengers would have been alive when the Titanic went to her fate some 25 years earlier, so this was likely an attempt to also soothe their safety concerns while on board ship. Controversy over the usefulness of Titanic’s radio messages might have been in their minds as they recalled the terrible stories of just over two decades earlier. Images of ship radio rooms are not easy to find, so these booklets are a very useful resource.

Dating of the Berengaria images is facilitated by the fact that Berengaria went out of service in 1938, and the Cunard White Star nomenclature did not come into use until the merger in 1934, so this is likely from the pre-1934 period since they refer only to ‘Cunard’.

 The Sayers Collection. John G. Sayers, January, 2017

Cocktails at sea: guest post by donor John G. Sayers

 

Cocktails and Liqueurs. Panama Pacific Line
Cocktails and Liqueurs price list. Panama Pacific Line

During the Prohibition era in the United States, between 1920 and 1933, there were lots of opportunities for short or long offshore ocean cruises with well-stocked and unregulated shipboard bars. Access to any booze at all was a cruise enthusiast’s pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow. So for some ocean travellers, the highlight of any ocean voyage was inexpensive, untaxed booze in regular and copious quantities. As well as the pleasures of the moment there were later opportunities to boast of your consumption to parched friends back home onshore.

For those that couldn’t afford the cost – or the time – of a longer cruise, Eastern coastal cities like New York featured frequent weekend ‘’booze cruises” on ocean liners that went out just beyond American territorial waters and featured well-stocked bars. The same was true on the West Coast, to a lesser degree because of the smaller population base.

My trip through the Panama Canal (cover)
My trip through the Panama Canal (cover)

So why not combine the best of both coasts and sail on the Panama Pacific Line from one coast to the other, instead of going by rail across the continent on a train with a dining car – but no bar service. With Martinis and Daiquiris at 25 cents and Courvoisier Cognac for 35 cents a glass, even the most frugal Panama Pacific Line drinker would have been able to imbibe freely on this ship. ‘This ship’ could be any one of the liners that at various times plied the route for the Panama Pacific Line – S.S. Kroonland, S.S. Finland, S.S. Manchuria, S.S. California, S.S. Pennsylvania, and S.S. Virginia.

The cover is a delightful piece of Art Deco design. Unfortunately, the artist has not signed this image. He or she may have wanted anonymity for creating art for a relatively mundane application, or it may have been that the shipping line did not want to provide him or her with publicity. The same is true of the striking artwork on the cover of the 1930s brochure which is pictured. No matter how closely one looks, there is no hint anywhere of an artist’s signature or initials.

Cocktails & Liqueurs prices
Cocktails & Liqueurs prices

However, if you were sitting at the bar on one of the Line’s ships, would you really care who designed the Cocktail Menu cover, when there were so many more important decisions to be made – like, what brand of Champagne to order, or whether the bartender could make you a really good gin martini, with your favourite gin. Ah, the challenges of life at sea!

More information about wining and dining at sea can be found in The Sayers Collection, at The Johnson Collection.

 

The Sayers Collection of Ocean Liner Ephemera: an update

Letter Foldover Dec 2012 NYK Menu Toshogu Shrine May 6, 1923 SS Mashima Maru
Letter Foldover Dec 2012 NYK Menu Toshogu Shrine May 6, 1923 SS Mashima Maru

In July 2016, we announced the (gradual) acquisition of John Sayers’ extensive and international collection of Ocean Liner ephemera and posted an interview with the donor. This update gives information about the ephemera received to January 2017.

Introduction

Encompassing postcards, advertisements, brochures, menus, deck plans, baggage labels, regulations, newspapers printed on board ship, and more substantial publications, the Sayers Collection charts the history of a wide variety of ocean liners, both in peace time and during both world wars.

Blog posts

John has an unerring eye for the interesting detail, and we are publishing on this blog numerous posts and articles he has written about the diverse information contained in this fascinating collection.

Finding Aids

The collection is meticulously organised and presented. In due course parts of it will be catalogued at an item level, thanks to the generosity of John and Judith Sayers. Meanwhile, we are posting on the John Johnson Collection website indexes of the binders so far received. The following is a list of the categories we currently hold, with links to any related blog posts.

White Star Line

Baggage label White Star
White Star Line baggage label

Menus (1 binder) indexed

Passenger Lists (2 binders) indexed

 

 

 

 

Cunard

Cunard Menus (11 binders)  indexed

Clarkes Norway Cruise brochure cover
Clarkes Norway Cruise

Cunard Passenger Lists (6 binders) indexed

Cunard General Ephemera   (6 binders)

Immigration Archive: Cunard RMS Ivernia 1925 (1 binder)

QE2 2008 Farewell Cruise  (2 binders)

 

British India Steam Navigation Co.

SS Kenya Menus 1964 (1 binder) indexed

SS Nevasa Menus, 1956 (2 binders) indexed

Childrens Menus, 1950s and 1960s, mainly SS Kenya & SS Uganda  (1 binder) indexed

Voyage Logs (1 binder)

 

Canadian Pacific

Canadian Pacific Ocean and Rail Service brochure
Canadian Pacific Ocean and Rail Service brochure

Promotional Booklets (2 binders)

Cruises (3 binders)

Canadian Pacific Cruise 1930 (1 binder)

 

Hamburg-American Line & North German Lloyd

St Columbus Thanksgiving 1937 Caribbean Cruise Archive (1 binder)

 

P&O

SS Ranchi Cruise 1926, P&O (1 binder)

 

Other

Liners at the Royal Naval Review, Spithead, 1935 (1 binder)

Baggage labels (4 binders)

Postcard & Menu Combinations (2 binders) indexed

Allowance Lists (SS United States)

Reford Estate Deck Plans (2 binders)

“Rigid sleeve” (outsize) material

Various volumes

 

Silver Jubilee Royal Naval Review, Spithead, 1935 Guest post by donor John G. Sayers

As regular readers of this blog will know, John Sayers is kindly donating his superb Ocean Liner Ephemera Collection to the John Johnson Collection.  Groups of material arrive several times a year, always generating excitement here! Tranche #5 of the Sayers Collection includes a folder of ephemera relating to the Royal Naval Review at Spithead in 1935.  An engaging and prolific author,  John has sent us a blog post to accompany the material.

Spithead review programme 1935
Spithead Silver Jubilee review programme

In July, 1935, there was a Royal Naval Review at Spithead to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, after 25 years as Britain’s reigning monarch. Part of this archive is from a person – unknown – who sailed on Cunard’s RMS Berengaria for a special three-day excursion to watch the Review.

The archive includes menus, descriptions of the proceedings, and a Passenger List which included Rudyard Kipling (and Mrs. Kipling), the Parnell sisters (the Hon. Mary, the Hon. Jean and the Hon. Sheila), and a number of other prominent figures with the surnames Wills (cigarettes), Doxford (marine engines), Brocklebank (Shipping), Mosely (Mrs. Oswald), and a host of minor nobility. The center pages of the Official Programme show the ships and their relative positions on the periphery of the Review area.

Another part of the archive is from a passenger on Cunard’s RMS Lancastria, which also offered a 3-day cruise to enjoy the festive experience. It appears that this archive was saved by Miss P. Langston-Jones, who travelled on the cruise with her sister. Their Passenger list contained a slightly lower stratum of the society of the era.

Berengaria programme of events
Berengaria programme of events

Little did the enthusiastic passengers on the Berengaria, the Lancastria, and the other participating liners realize that this event marked a watershed in British history. Only six months later – in January, 1936 – King George V died; in that same month famous novelist Rudyard Kipling died; less than three years after this sailing, the Berengaria was ravaged by a fire and was scrapped; RMS Lancastria was sunk less than 5 years later with the loss of over 3,000 lives; and in 1941, some 5 years later, the Battleship HMS Hood, pride of the British Navy, was sunk in action against the German battleship Bismarck with a terrible loss of life.

Other British and foreign passenger vessels provided excursions to the event, including RMS Homeric (retired from service just 2 months after the Review); RMS Warwick Castle (torpedoed and sunk in 1942); RMS Viceroy of India (torpedoed and sunk in 1942); and SS Arandora Star (torpedoed and sunk in 1940).

(From The Sayers Collection at The John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library. Ephemera of this event is also contained in the Royal Mail Line binders in the Collection.)