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All text and photographs (unless stated otherwise) ©  Paul Timmerman

After the devastations of WWI several shipping companies switched vessels from liner service to cruising. Virtually all ships used for cruising in this period were existing liners which were modified and were more or less adapted to cruising.

In the interwar-period, newbuildings were all liners built for important services like the Transatlantic route: Normandie, Queen Mary. Rex, Conte di Savoia, Nieuw Amsterdam, Bremen and Europa, to name some examples, every ship showing the best each nation had to offer in shipbuilding, architecture, art etc.

Just before and after the first World War, passenger ships were lavishly decorated, reflecting more and more the interiors of land based hotels or country estates. This was no wonder as many of these ships had been designed by architects like Mewes and Millar who were well-known hotel decorators. In those days, many passengers still considered a sea voyage as something to be endured rather than to be enjoyed. Extremely luxury interiors (these ships weren't called "The Floating Palaces" for nothing), were meant to draw the attention of the traveller away from the angry seas they had to cross. This style of passenger ship interiors lasted until the beginning of the 1930's (the Italian Rex being one of the last examples), when more modernistic interiors emerged.

Meanwhile, in 1927, the French introduced the Ile de France, which is regarded the first passenger ship completely decorated in a modern, contemporary style. In fact, it was this ship that introduced the now famous modernistic art-deco style. The Ile de France marked  the end of the Floating Palaces with their classic, severe interiors.

                                                               Nieuw Amsterdam, Holland America Line

Some very important developments mark this period:

-          America’s Prohibition, a law that prohibited consuming alcohol in the Unites States, made cruises to nowhere or the so called booze cruise very popular. It offered Americans an opportunity to drink legally outside US territorial waters.   Prohibition started in 1920 and ended in 1933. Ships like Cunard´s Mauretania and Berengeria offered these trips between their Atlantic crossings.

    Berengeria, Cunard Line

-    In 1922, Laconia, owned by British Cunard Line, made the first ever world cruise. She departed from New York, transited the Panama Canal, then visited Japan and other countries in the Far East, and continued via de Suez Canal, through the Mediterranean and back to New York. The following years, Cunard offered world cruises with a duration of six months, almost twice as long as a world cruise offered today.

-          Bremen, taken into service in  by North German Lloyd in 1929 and later followed by sister ship Europa, introduced  the standard cabin in passenger shipping.  At the time, liners offered passengers a variety of cabin types. The  Bremen and Europa offered standardised accomodation in both first and tourist class. They were fitted out in a functional modern way, yet passengers travelled in hotel like subdued elegant surroundings. It took other lines until after WWII before they followed this example.  

                  The ship that made the first world cruise ever: the Laconia, owned by British Cunard Line

-          The thirties saw the introduction of cruises organized by the German Labour Ministry for German workers (a kind of incentive cruises). The NAZI-fleet consisted of several ships, the Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley being the most famous. They were called the Kraft durch Freude  (Strength through Joy) ships. These ships introduced a new feature in cruising: large numbers of cabins with exactly the same lay-out, a phenomenon found today on every cruise ship afloat. First seen on board Bremen and Europa, but now in a more extreme manner, as apart from a few more de luxe staterooms, the remaining cabins only had two different lay outs. A four berth cabin kind of embraced the smaller two berth cabin, so to speak, assuring all cabins would be outside cabins. Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley were forerunners of the All Outside Cabin lay out, re-introduced by Royal Princess in 1984!

                                                         Rober Ley, a Kraft durch Freude ship 1938

-          The Norwegian Stella Polaris was introduced in 1927, the world’s first  purpose built luxury cruise ship (see ship description). This vessel resembled a large yacht, and 200 passengers were looked after by a crew of 130! The impeccable service and her long cruises to remote places, only to be enjoyed by the happy few with enough time and money to spare, set her apart from other cruise ships and made her probably the most famous cruise ship of all times......

-    Other cruise lines followed with full time cruise ships. The Blue Star Line operated the converted Arandora Star for ten years, Lamport & Holt had their Vandyck and Voltaire in cruise service, Royal Mail ran Arcadian and Atlantis wile the Germans offered luxury cruises on their full time cruise vessels Reliance and Resolute. Cruising started to take off slowly.

One of the first German world cruises

-    Something entirely new was introduced in 1932 by the British India Steam Nav. Cy. They offered two cruises to Norway for students and their teachers during the summer holidays on their Neuralia. On each cruise well over a thousand pupils were carried. It was an instant success and it was repeated until their last ship, the Uganda was retired in the 1980s.

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