AQUITANIA: Limited stock
Paperback version

Clearing out the warehouse to make room for new stock, we found two boxes of mint copies of this book from 1997! Rarely available even from second-hand bookshops, this is a chance for you to acquire your own copy at less than the original cover price.

This is a paperback book covering the design, construction and service of Cunard’s four-funnelled express liner Aquitania. Published in 1997, this is smaller than our newer offering but still very detailed book about this beautiful liner. In 72 packed pages, every facet of the liner’s construction and service are covered.

Her first three commercial North Atlantic crossings in 1914 were a triumph. Then Aquitania proudly gave four years of service to her country, as an armed merchant cruiser, then a troopship and a hospital ship.

Aquitania’s peacetime service

Aquitania resumed her peacetime service and quickly became popular. Although she never fought for the Blue Riband, she was still one of the fastest liners on the route. Increasing US immigration restrictions, Prohibition, the Great D

World War II

With the advent of yet another war, she was soon requisitioned as a troopship, giving six years of hard work around the world.

Her last few years were spent repatriating American and Canadian troops, German prisoners of war and war brides, before taking emigrants to their new lives in a new world. She was finally scrapped in 1950.

72 pages. £10.00 plus shipping

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WHITE STAR LINE:
The Company & The Ships

The origins of White Star Line can be traced back to 1846. T.H. Ismay bought the company in 1868, registering it as Oceanic Steam Navigation, trading as White Star. He forged agreements with Harland & Wolff in Belfast to build his ships, which quickly gained a reputation for speed, comfort and reliability. The company grew and prospered, building ever bigger and better ships.

After T.H. Ismay died, his son, J. Bruce Ismay, took over. In 1902 the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan bought the company as part of the IMM combine, and Ismay became President and Chairman.

American owners, economic pressures

World economics turned against the company, with slumps, depressions, the loss of Titanic, the Great War and reduced US immigration quotas. By the late 1920s White Star was on the point of collapse, and in 1934, under pressure from the UK government, it was forced to merge with Cunard, also in financial difficulties.

Development, growth and decline

This book looks at the development, growth and decline of one of the most famous shipping lines in history. It looks at the highlights, successes, mishaps and tragedies.

It covers the careers of all the ships, owned and chartered, with photographs of most, along with illustrations of advertisements, menus and other ephemera. It is a complete company history.

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250 pages with hundreds of photographs. £48.00 plus shipping

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SHIPS OF THE BRITISH MERCHANT NAVY: 1932

In the years between the two world wars, vessels flying the Red Duster were pre-eminent around the world, with thousands of seamen, hundreds of ships and dozens of companies carrying passengers and cargo. This was the heyday of the British Merchant Navy.

In 1932, noted maritime author E.C. Talbot-Booth attempted to record the principal ships and companies in his now-famous book, Ships of the British Merchant Navy. This work examines his original selection and traces each vessel’s subsequent career, as far as has been possible.

Research and Results

After years of painstaking research and hours spent pouring through libraries and on the Internet, all but a handful of ships mentioned in the original work were tracked down. Some were scrapped or lost before World War II. Others were lost during the war. More survived, along with their crews. All but a few are detailed in this volume.

Copiously illustrated with photographs of many of the ships plus items of contemporary ephemera, this book is a compendium of information for the maritime historian.

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188 pages with 800 photographs. £38.00 plus shipping

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MAJESTIC:
White Star’s largest liner

A hardback book covering the design, construction and service of White Star Line’s express liner Majestic.

Built by Blohm & Voss for Hamburg America, Bismarck was to have been the third of Albert Ballin’s planned trio of super liners, designed to dominate the North Atlantic .

Although launched, sadly the tragic outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 interrupted her completion, and throughout the war she lay at her builders, only half-built.

Reparations then to White Star Line as Majestic

Following the Armistice, the still-incomplete liner was ceded to White Star as reparations, and was completed by the builders. Once finished, she was renamed Majestic, and finally entered the prestigious trans-Atlantic service to New York, although she never competed for the Blue Riband.

Popular for a number of years, she generally enjoyed good passenger numbers. However, the quotas imposed on immigrants by the US authorities, coupled with Prohibition and the Great Depression, impacted on her success. Her grand interiors and immense size were redolent of an era that had passed.

With the merger of Cunard and White Star in 1934, the combined fleet was rapidly culled to effect the necessary economies to enable the new company to survive, and in 1936 it was announced that she was to be scrapped.

Conversion to HMS Caledonia

At the last minute she was sold to the British Admiralty and extensively converted into a training establishment for young seamen and artificers, as HMS Caledonia. Moored at Rosyth, she caught fire soon after the declaration of World War II and was gutted.

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206 pages plus three A3 throw-out deck plans. £42.00 plus shipping

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LEVIATHAN:
America’s first superliner

A hardback book covering the design, construction and service of America’s first superliner, Leviathan.

Built by Blohm & Voss for Hamburg America’s service to the United States, Vaterland was the second in Albert Ballin’s planned trio of liners that he intended would dominate passenger services on the North Atlantic.

Unfortunately after only seven trans-Atlantic crossings, the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 destroyed his plan.

The Great War

Trapped in New York, Vaterland was interned by the US authorities until April 1917 when, with the entry of America into the war she was seized, renamed Leviathan, and converted into a troopship. With the Armistice, she was used to repatriate GI troops until she was laid up at Hoboken.

Post-war service as Leviathan

Eventually, completely rebuilt, in 1923 she emerged as a luxury liner sailing under American colours for United States Lines. Although she often enjoyed high passenger numbers, the effects of Prohibition and immigration quotas, alongside numbing levels of Government bureaucracy, excessive levels of catering and a high crew-to-passenger ratio, meant that for much of her life she made losses. Laid up several times, she was eventually scrapped in 1938.

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262 pages. £48.00 plus shipping