This book explores the brief but glorious golden age of the ocean liner. Throughout the last decades of the 19th century, travel by ocean-going vessel became quicker and more reliable as steam power replaced sail power. By the 1880s, great steamships transported passengers in true elegance. Supreme among them was The City of Rome, considered by many to be the most beautiful liner ever built, which boasted lounge walls lined with furniture covered in velvet and leather. Bursting at the seams with fascinating articles and illustrations from the period, this book looks at how these palatial greyhounds of the sea were built, at how they performed and at the lifestyle of the passengers lucky enough to voyage to exotic shores in the golden age of sea travel and cruising...