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| Despite their increasing success, these early cruises, called “excursions,” were challenging to plan with existing ships. Constructed as ocean liners, they did not meet the requirements of the pleasure-seeking market. In addition, they offered few amenities aboard. |
Note: Due to the poor signal, formatting has been challenging for today’s post, especially when copying information from another site. We apologize for the spacing and font differential throughout the post.
We can only imagine what it must have been like generations ago for travelers to make their way a much longer and more hazardous journey across the season.
In perusing online, I stumbled across this site with the fascinating story of the world’s first cruise line. For those who prefer not to click on links, here are a few morsels directly from that article with photos.
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“SS Albert Ballin was an ocean liner of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1923 and named after Albert Ballin, visionary director of the line who had killed himself in despair several years earlier after the Kaiser’s abdication and Germany’s defeat in WW 2. In 1935 the new Nazi government ordered the ship renamed Hansa (Ballin having been Jewish).
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The German shipping magnate Albert Ballin was responsible for turning Germany into a world leader in ocean travel before World War I. It was Ballin who also invented the pleasure cruise in 1891.
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| Born in Hamburg on 15 August 1857, Albert Ballin was destined to become a pioneer in making ocean travel a more pleasant, even luxurious experience. |
As a Jew, for most of his life, he would walk a fine line between social acceptance and scorn. But the “Kaiser’s Jew” long enjoyed financial and political prominence before falling out of favor and being branded a traitor to Germany as the First World War and his own life drew to their bitter end in 1918. Born in a poor section of Hamburg, Ballin (pronounced BALL-EEN) had achieved greatness and strongly influenced the passenger ship industry by taking his own life at age 61. A decade before Albert Ballin’s birth, the company he would later head, the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag), had been founded on 27 May 1847, to operate a faster, more reliable liner service between Hamburg and North America, using the finest sailing ships. At that time, a “fast” east-to-west Atlantic crossing took about 40 sailing days. The return voyage, with favorable west winds, required “only” 28 days.
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Nevertheless, there was stiff competition for passengers on the North Atlantic route. Internationally, shipping lines in Britain and Prussia (after 1871) fought to attract passengers, but there was also competition within Germany between the port cities of Bremen (Bremerhaven) and Hamburg. In 1856 Hapag, under its first director, Adolph Godeffroy, put its first steamship, the Borussia, into service, becoming the first German shipping firm. As time went by, coal-powered steamships would cut the travel time between Hamburg and New York down to just six or seven days.”
For our “history buff” readers and the remainder of the story, please click here. We found the story interesting causes us to appreciate further the quality of the experiences we’ve had during this period in our lives with advanced design, amenities, convenience, and technology.
During many conversations with passengers on this cruise and others, a common topic of discussion has been how modern conveniences and technology have greatly enhanced travelers’ desire to see the world in part by cruise ship.
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For us, it’s added considerably to our ability to visit more countries in shorter periods. Although ports of call stops are often for only one day, it allows the traveler to sample the flavor and persona of the city and a country.
However, our opportunities to stay in many countries for more extended periods have provided us with a perspective that often proves to be very different than one might experience in a single day or two (such as these two days in port in Fiji).
If anything, our longer stays while immersing ourselves in the culture and lifestyle of the locals leave us appreciating and feeling more inspired than when we may spend a mere day in any location while on a cruise.
Over these past two days, we’ve had an opportunity to share some of our Fiji lifestyle stories after spending four months on two islands, Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, both very different while having similar friendly Fijian nature of its fine people.
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Photos of the ship and her public rooms – as seen in Scientific American.
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So off we go, to the Pacific Ocean, finally after almost two years departing the South Pacific. We’ve had quite an adventure and yet look forward to the next leg of our journey.
Tomorrow, when we return here to post, we’ll be on our way, hoping to share the excitement as we head toward Hawaii for three days visiting three ports of call. But, funnily, it will feel like going home after spending eight months in the islands.
Back at you soon.
One year ago, no photos were posted when the Wi-Fi signal on the ship, Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas.