First question: What was the first purpose built cruise ship? ie. not a liner that started doing cruises.

Secondly: What was the first one-class ship?

You are right, this was the program of the
NS party, not only cruise ships, vacations in
germany and other countries, sporting and cultural events and some more.

In the war, on all german warships, there was the same food for officers and the low charges (sailors, gunners etc.)

This was an big point for a good moral and
willing people.

All the new built ships in this time are built as cruise ships, no liners.

The first ship in Germany that made Cruises was the "Auguste Victoria", before world war
one (in 1911), but this was an liner.

These cruises go to Norway, because our emperor William II made his summer holidays for 25 years in Norway in the "Stalheim Hotel" and with his yacht "Hohenzollern"

In Winter holidays, he was on the island of
"Corfu", belonging to Greece.

Here he had bought the villa of "Sissy",

the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria,
who was murdered in the hotel "Beau Rivage"
in Geneve, Switzerland by an attack with knife by an Italian Assasin.

It happens in 1905.

P.S.: Hitler was no German!

He got our passport in 1930. He was born in
Braunau at the River Inn, this belongs to Austria and his Family is coming from Spittal
at the River Drau, belonging to Austria, too.

The first wife of his father died early, he married again, but this marriage was not good,
so he got suspension from the Catholic Church.

As an Customs officer of the Austrian Empire, this was a great blame, so he leave his
home and surroundings and moved into an other part of the country.

Here he married again, his third wife is the mother of Adolf, born in 1889, on 20th April.

i forgot to tell you the following:

There was no real Hitler. The name of his father was

ALOIS SCHICKLGRUBER

When he was suspended from his 2nd marriage by the Roman Catholic Church and moved to
an other part of Austria, he changed his Name from Schicklgruber into Hiedler,

the name of one of his relatives.

Later it was written: Hitler,

Colin, did you ever see the fatastic four part CH4 TV series, 'Liners'? That mentioned 'Strength Through Joy'. You can buy the videeo - it's fantastic!

What is a 'one class' ship anyway? OK we don't refer to classes on ships anymore, but that does not mean that on board class divisions do not exist! The QE2 is a prime example. But may class divisions exist on most ships i.e. cabin grades! I belive there may have been ships built in the past with every cabin the same size?

Some technical data:
Lenght: 407'5'' (124,18 m)
Beam: 47'2'' (14,38 m)
Draught: 27'0'' (8,230 m)
Tonnage: 4409 gross tons

PRINZESSIN VICTORIA LOUISE docked in Lisbon in 1906. Picture taken from a portuguese marine magazine.

During the busy summer months she was used as a auxilary ocean liner of the HAL fleet.
Sadly she was to have a short life because on the night of 16th December she hit rock near the lighthouse of Port Royal. At time there were 74 guest onboard but all, including the crew, managed to escape the stricken vessel. During the evening of 17th the weather changed and the sea started to pound the ship against the rocks and eventualy she sunk.
In 1905 HAL bought a English ocean liner, the former SCOT of Union Line, renamed her OCEANA and put her alongside VICTORIA LOUISE on the cruise market, sailing mainly on the Meditteranean.
After the loss the OCEANA was the ideal substitute for VICTORIA LOUISE and served HAL until 1910.

Many other companies started using their ocean liners on the cruising market at almost the same time as HAL but but few built a ship with the sole purpose of cruising (for instance, P&O first cruise ship, VECTIS, that started cruising in 1904 was a former ocean liner).

(1) The KdF ships were the first purpose-built cruise ships that were suitable for the masses, in this case the German working class.

Regards

Paulo Mestre

quote:

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HAPAG had the METEOR in 1904...[/B]

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British companies had been engaged in cruising for almost two decades at the turn of the century, using mainly ageing ships. P&O introduced its first full-time cruise ship, the VECTIS in 1903, built in 1881 as the mail steamer ROME. Other British pioneers were the Orient and Royal Mail Lines, while Cunard remained in transatlantic trade till after World War I. All three companies had liner vessels built in the pre-war period which would later find employment in cruising: CARMANIA (1905), ARAGUAYA (1906), MAURETANIA (1907) and OTRANTO (1909).

Alaskan cruises were developed by Canadian Pacific S.S Co. and other local operators. Puget Sound steamers like PRINCESS VICTORIA (1902) and PRINCESS ADELAIDE (1910) offered voyages along the Inside Passage. In the South Pacific, MAUNGANUI (1911) of New Zealand's Union Line won great popularity between the wars.

Cruising as been around for a long time...

Regards

Paulo Mestre

The first purpose built cruise ship was the 1887 ST SUNNIVA 864 tons built by Hall Russell for the North Company for cruising from Leith and Aberdeen to Bergen in Norway.

Source: Cruise ships by Philip Dawson.

Glad you found out that titbit, it puts the UK in the forefront again.

Have you bought "Ships for a Nation" yet, its a great read although a bit heavy going, I am trying to plough my way through it, but only managing a little at a time, its a bit big to carry with me so I am hoping that it has been an added addition to the Aurora library, which by the way has the most comprehensive collection of ship books ever, even more than shops, or any libraries I frequent, but the best ones on Aurora are on the Bridge, I would have loved to have my hands on those ones, they look like directories of all the ships at sea, rather thick books that I have never seen in any shop, have you any idea what they could be?

quote:

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Originally posted by Terry:
AS Malcolm will confirm most good inventions come from the UK.

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Terry, 'most'? Don't you mean 'all'?

Joking aside, Britain is great at inventing things, but it always seems to be other nations that take our concepts and commercialise them.

Our boffins create them, but our business men (and governments) don't back them, market them or sell them, very well!

We were the greatest maritime nation in the world, at one period in history. We were the first country in industrialize. We were the workshop of the world. We build (some of) the finest ships in history...and what do we do now...ZILCH!

quote:

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Originally posted by Terry:
AS Malcolm will confirm most good inventions come from the UK. Scottylass will agree with the proviso that the part of the UK in question is Scotland.

The first purpose built cruise ship was the 1887 ST SUNNIVA 864 tons built by Hall Russell for the North Company for cruising from Leith and Aberdeen to Bergen in Norway.

Source: Cruise ships by Philip Dawson.

Terry Donegan

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I have to disagree partly because given her characteristics and the service area she falls under the category of Excursion ship, just like a ordinary cruise ship but smaller and focused for sailing on a particular area.
The first full fledged deep sea cruise ship was the PRINZESSIN VICTORIA LOUISE, but the ground breaking studies had been done on the last two decades of the 19th century.

Regards

The Question Colin asked was: "First question: What was the first purpose built cruise ship? ie. not a liner that started doing cruises."

Oceanic was indeed the first purpose-built cruise ship, not just with her magrodome, but also her with her aft funnel, swimming pools positioned midship, interior layout, and one-class design. Oceanic was revolutionary, and was the mold from which todays modern cruise ship was patterned after. She was labeled the "Ship of the Future" before she first came out.

I don't think Colin originally intended to get a complicated answer, as most of you have tried to come up with RE: Hitler's "Strength Through Joy" program.

There were many "Liners" built that were used as cruise ships in the early days, but they were liners not cruise ships. Caronia was not built as a cruise ship rather she was built as a world-class liner that eventually found it's niche doing world cruises.

quote:

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Originally posted by Barryboat:
I don't think Colin originally intended to get a complicated answer..

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Such questions rarely have a simple answer! First we must define what a 'cruise ship' ans what is not, also what is a 'cruise'?

Some of us were making the point that Hitler possible used ships for the first cruises - does this make them 'cruise ships', I don't know!

The three reasons you give for not considering the ST SUNNIVA to be the first Cruise Ship do not stand up. Both vessels were built for all first class operation without freight holds other than those needed for cruising. Both cruised exclusively as they they were unsuited for other employment. The idea that ST SUNNIVA was an excursion vessel limited to a single area patently does not stand up. She cruised to the Baltic as well as Norway and was used extensively in the Mediterranean. All places incidently now first rate cruise areas. Unlike some of the wilder peramulations of the later German ship.

The sole criteria you have on your side is size. But as the British ship demonstated most of the characteristics of the cruise ship, maritime historians for the most part have little trouble in awarding the ST SUNNIVA the palm as first.

This does not diminish the achievements of the Hapag vessel in the slightest.

dockside.....
the line to which Oceanic belonged was
Home Lines.....so for the record, it should
be Home Lines' Oceanic. The company very
curiously thought of itself as plural. A
few others have used this odd plural also.