Paul Curtis, Tales from the Great Passenger Ships: A Jaunt through Time

There is an adage among professional sailors that "anyone who would go to sea for pleasure would go to hell on a lark."Nonetheless, since Mark Twain recounted his 1869 "cruise" on the Quaker City to Europe and the Holy Land -"a picnic on a gigantic scale" -Americans (and others) have been fascinated with going to sea for fun.In 2023 more than thirty-one million people went on such a "lark," that is, a cruise.Unlike a "voyage" (travel from one place to another) cruising embraces the journey itself.There is no need to worry about the speed of the vessel; it is simply a pleasure to be aboard.Having worked aboard ten ships, including a stint as entertainment director on board Cunard's RMS Queen Mary, few people know more about cruising and shipboard life, below and above decks, than Paul Curtis.Ships are the largest man-made, movable objects on the planet.We christen and launch them with a great ceremony.In "The Building of a Ship," the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow caught the moment when a vessel comes alive: She starts, she moves, she seems to feel The thrill of life along her keel, And, spurning with her foot the ground With one exulting, joyous bound, She leaps into the ocean's arms!In like fashion, artists have embodied ships with the human experience of life and death.Just as Longfellow above described the first days of a vessel in poetry, in his painting HMS Temeraire the British artist J.M.W. Turner depicted the last days of an ancient lady being toward to its last berth.Following the tradition of Longfellow and Turner, Curtis gives the reader the same sense of life.In 36 vignettes he captures the romance and tragedy of great ships from Britannia (1840 / 1154 tons) to the behemoth Wonder of the Seas (2022 / 236,857 tons).Titanic, Empress of Ireland, Morro Castle, and other casualties are chronicled, including at least one of recent memory, Costa Concordia where, to offer his guests a scenic view of Isola del Giglio, Captain Francesco Schettino took his vessel dangerously close to the island, and in doing so ran aground.Fortunately, as Curtis points out, such behavior is rare.Responsible captains care for the ship, the crew, and the guests.While disasters at sea make exciting reading, they have been told so often they do not require repeating (Titanic, Lusitania, etc.).Curtis is at his best recounting personal anecdotes, including the time when, with only two days'