The Only Way to Cross: The Golden Era of the great Atlantic express liners---from the Mauretania to the France and the Queen Elizabeth 2.
Published by Barnes & Noble, 1983, hardcover, illustrated, index, 434 pages, condition: as new.
This painstakingly researched volume chronicles the age of luxury transatlantic travel and the splendid, glittering steamships that thundered across the world's most dangerous ocean ferrying the world's wealthiest and most prominent passengers, from Mary Pickford and Sally Rand to Edward, Prince of Wales, between the U.S. and Europe during the first half of the century.
The largest, fastest and the grandest [ships] were built and launched exclusively for the Atlantic service. As a result, perfection of hulls and propulsion was accelerated. The paddle wheel disappeared, superseded by the screw propeller. Dubious [British] Admiralty officials were convinced of its advantage only after witnessing a tug of war between two vessels, one equipped with the new device, the other with conventional paddles. Almost simultaneously, their Lordships refused to endorse an iron ship; they had it on no less an authority than the Duke of Wellington that an iron hull would not floatBut having agreed to the propeller, they were ultimately forced to accept it in an iron hull, for wood could not withstand the underwater thrust of screws. By the turn of the century, the worlds greatest merchant ships sailed the Atlantic, flying the colors of half a dozen energetic companies. Whether these companies chose to acknowledge it or not, each class of vessel they built was designed in specific response to a rivals challenge. This was the hallmark of Atlantic competition and the vigor with which it was pursued compressed a quite remarkable evolution within the span of six decades
