After her ground-breaking round the world voyage, the Ceylon cruised to Madeira and the Azores and the Mediterranean, before making her first call in Norway at Bergen in 1885.

Postcard of the steam yacht Ceylon, pictured in a Norwegian fjord with a small steam boat full of male and female passengers, some holding parasols.

Ceylon is rightly regarded as the first cruise ship in history, and consequently, The Inter-Oceanic Yachting Company Limited can consider themselves to be the inventors of cruising . Until then, ship owners had used liners for off season cruising when passenger loads in liner service were low.

Full time cruise ships did not exist before the advent of the steam yacht Ceylon.

In 1885 she was sold to Michael Drury-Lavin of London, and in 1896, to Quintin Hogg of London, and operated by the PTA - the Polytechnic Touring Association, a distinctive, significant and successful player in the growing British travel and tourism industry. While other travel agencies had ‘rational recreational’ and educational origins, the PTA was distinctive in terms of the numbers of tourists for whom it catered and the balance of its portfolio. Considered progressive in its day, PTA's travel accounts up to 1911 formed an ideology of ‘collective Continentalism’, which represented aspects of modernity. Their emphasis on simple fun and enjoyment suggested a degree of willingness to edge close to the boundaries of respectability while on holiday. After its change of status in 1911, the PTA became an effective adaptor to changing economic and social conditions – if not the pioneer it claimed to be. By its latter days in the 1950s, now known as Poly Travel, it was a sizeable and well-respected firm, though not as modern – in the sense of being new and innovative – as perhaps it had been in its early years.

 

"Concerts and entertainments will be held every evening on board, and everything will be done to make the trip the most delightful ever organized.

No intoxicating liquors and gambling will be permitted on board, and the regulations of the Poly on land will be applied to the Poly 'on sea'. "

"..................it's most wonderful what a wealth of sight-seeing the Polytechnic guides cram into five days"

The fjord cruises arranged by the Polytechnic Association were early examples of relatively inexpensive cruises with a clear focus on education. One of the travel market's most important players, Thomas Cook and Son, complained to the English Ministry of Education the year after the purchase of Ceylon - because of the government support they received in connection with the journeys.  

 

 

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1889

With utilisation limited to specific seasons, operating coal-burning steam powered passengers ship was an expensive business, and by the end of the 19th Century shipowners were resorting to cruising as a means of generating much-needed out of season income.

In 1889, the Orient Line’s sister ships Chimbarazo and Garonne were taken off their London – Australia schedule and switched to cruising to European ports and the West Indies.

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1890

North German Lloyd ‘s Kaiser Wilhelm II made a three week cruise from Bremerhaven to Norway in 1890, carrying 215 passengers. The cruise was reported as being a huge success.

When launched on 12th August 1902, at the Vulcan Company in Bredow near Stettin, the Kaiser Wilhelm II represented a great advance over all former steamers. Her principal dimensionsThe At approximately 20,000 gross registered tons, Germany proclaimed she surpassed all the previous built fast steamships........

 

She was certainly sumptuous - her interiors magnificent.

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1898

In 1898, the screw steamer Norfolk, built by Greens of Blackwall, London in 1878, was sold to her fifth owner, the Co-operative Cruising Company Limited and fitted out as a luxury steam yacht named Argonaut.

Argonaut leaving Marseilles, from a painting by Charles Dixon.

Argonaut was of 3,274 tons register, measuring 334ft x 40ft, and driven by 4 12hp triple-expansion engines.

Deck Games on board the Argonaut. The promenade deck was large enough to play quoits or cricket; lost balls incurred a fine!

There were several official group photographs taken by the company which could be purchased by passengers. 

  

The Steam Yacht Argonaut was operated by Henry Lunn’s company, World Travel, later to become Lunn Poly,  and was, by all account, a magnificent vessel.

A newspaper at the time carried a promotional article about a forthcoming cruise.

This cruise was an early package tour which was intended to inform and educate passengers.  There was enough accommodation for up to 120 passengers and 120 crew.  Argonaut had electric lighting and a large refrigerated food store.  It had been fitted out with new boilers and quadruple-expansion engines.  The facilities on board were first class, the food was wonderful, concerts and lectures were organised and there were opportunities to exercise. 

 STEAM YACHT SINKS; IS HIT BY STEAMER

Dover 29th September1908

 The tourist steam yacht Argonaut which left London yesterday bound for Lisbon with 250 person aboard, including passengers and crew, went down between Dover and Dungenness this morning after having been in collision with the steamer Kingswell in a fog. All on board the Argonaut took to the boats and came ashore here in safety. The Argonaut sank so quickly that those on board barely had time to save themselves. Fortunately the sea was smooth and the transfer of the passengers and crew to the small boats was made speedily. There was no panic. The peoplePlymouth 29th September1908 ~ The tourist steam yacht Argonaut which left London yesterday bound for Lisbon with 250 person aboard, including passengers and crew, went down between  on board the Argonaut lost everything they possessed. For an hour the Argonaut's boats groped about in the fog for the steamer Kingswell, which they finally reached and boarded. Finding that vessel in a sinking condition the passengers again took to the boats and were ultimately picked up by the steamer Southwood, which brought them in here.

The Crew, Stewards, and Captain were the last to leave the Argonaut, as water began washing under the bridge on the upper deck. The crew of the Argonaut were thrown into unemployment after the sinking and a fund was opened for their assistance, with contributions from passengers who had previously been on voyages on the yacht.

Each crew member also received a (generous!) gift of £1 from the Co-operative Cruising Company.

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1900

The first vessel built exclusively for luxury cruising, was the Prinzessin Victoria Luise of Germany.

She was a magnificent purpose-built luxury yacht, unlike most of her contemporaries, which doubled as liners outside the season. She was specifically built for cruising,  Carrying up to 180 passengers, she was popular with German and English speaking clientele on both sides of the Atlantic.

She had a double bottom extending the entire length of the vessel, divided into 26 water-tight sections, with the hull itself being further divided into 19 water-tight compartments, by 16 transverse bulkheads, reaching to the upper deck, and one longitudinal bulkhead in the engine room.

The bulkheads were distributed in such a manner that even if two adjoining compartments were filled, the vessel would still float. Below the upper deck there were 4 steel decks extending the entire length of the ship.

Designed by Albert Ballin, general manager of the Hamburg-America Line, built by Blohm and Voss of Hamburg, she was completed in 1900.

In conformity with requirements of the Imperial German Admiralty, structural arrangements had been made to permit the mounting of a considerable number of guns, so that in time of war, the ship could be used as an auxiliary cruiser.

Her engines and boilers were built at the A G Vulcan Company's works, and consisted of 4 sets of four-cylinder, three-crank, quadruple expansion, inverted, vertical engines with surface condensers balanced on the Schlick system, representing a total combined indicated horsepower of from 38,000 to 40,000. They were so disposed that two sets were placed fore and aft on each shaft, so as to make it possible to fix a transverse watertight bulkhead between them, as well as a longitudinal one, thus increasing the number of the watertight compartments and consequently the safety of the ship.

Each two sets of her enormous engines, connected to a propeller shaft 42 meters long, which drove a four-bladed bronze propeller of 7 meters' diameter. The steam was produced by 12 double and 7 single-ended boilers, working at a pressure of 15 atmospheres, and arranged in 4 groups, each of which had a funnel of 5 meters in diameter, and 40 meters in height.

Prinzessin Victoria Luise's design was based closely on Kaiser Wilhelm's steam yacht Hohenzollern of 1894, incorporating features from the design of the  most prestigious contemporary first class transatlantic liners -  without the impediment of having to cater for second class and steerage passengers - or cargo!

Kaiser Wilhelm's steam yacht Hohenzollern of 1894

Prinzessin Victoria Luise's dining room and lounge were covered by an ornate glass dome and there was a well-appointed library and a writing room. There was even a state apartment for the Kaiser - although there is no record of him ever having used it. A letter on headed notepaper from the Prinzessin Victoria Luise showed that Franklin D. Roosevelt and his mother Eleanor cruised in her in 1904,

  

She was used for cruises in the Baltic and Atlantic until becoming stranded on an uncharted reef at Plum Point near Kingston, Jamaica, on 16th December 1906, after which she became a total loss. The only victim of the tragedy was her Captain, who, sadly, shot himself.

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1903

In 1903, France's Société Générale des Transports Maritimes à Vapeur bought the SS Île-de-France, fitted her out and allocated her to leisure cruises, which was extremely original at that time.

No less than eight tourist vessels visited Spitzbergen during the Summer of 1906, the majority of them British, French, Dutch and German. Among them was the French Tourist Steamer, the Ile de France, of 3,488 tons.

In a venture organised by the Société Générale des Transports Maritimes à Vapeur (SGTM)  in conjunction with the Revue Generale des Sciences, the Ile de France cruise, led by the eminent Swedish geologist Nils Otto Nordenskiold, cost 1,850 Francs - plus a supplement of 400 Francs for those wishing to join the various hunting trips.

 

For her tonnage and dimensions, the ship's facilities exceeded that of many luxury yachts. There was accommodation for 214 tourists in roomy cabins, of which 42 had a single bed, 71 with two beds and 10 with three beds (there were no bunk beds). Each cabin was furnished with a large washbasin for each person, a chest of drawers, a cupboard, coat pegs, a sizeable mirror, shelves, a desk, a cane bench, a chair for each person, two lamps, an electric ventilator and an adjustable heater. The ship was lit by electric lights throughout and equipped with central heating, which in winter was sufficient to keep all the cabins, rooms and corridors warm. The ship had seven bathrooms, each provided with a shower. There were two saloons on the upper deck; the largest of which seated 184 diners, while the smaller one served as a lounge, used especially by women. Men were therefore invited to use it with discretion and only when there was room. A spacious smoking room also located on the upper deck, providing a meeting place for men. There was a large open space at the rear of the upper deck where tourists could set out their deckchairs and where there was a shelter in case of bad weather. The Ile de France also carried a steam launch of 35 horsepower, which could simultaneously tow all the launches.  

The cruise departed Dunkirk in July, with 184 passengers, including the artist Felix Fournery and Emile Gallois, the writer Rene Bazin, the photographer Paul Grenor and the cameraman Emile Lauste. The ship reached Lofotoen on Bastille Day, and at Tromso horses and Norwegian hunters were embarked, together with Johan Kjeldsen, an experienced ice pilot, whose role was to ensure the safe navigation of the ship through the ever shifting ice floes.

Captain Johan Kjeldsen, Ice Pilot

Forty-eight hours after leaving Tromso, the ship entered Recherchefjorden, and anchored alongside several Norwegian whaling vessels and the German tourist liner Oceana.......

  

  "Chasseresses ou non"  huntsmen or not, the Ile de France's lavish brochure had pictured polar bears and a variety of hunts, with the prey consisting of whales, reindeer, au lagopede des Neiges, aux petits echassiers et au grands palimpedes de l'ocean boreal - eider, bernache goose, arctic petrels, pigeons, cormorants, the scarce blue fox, and great seals of the ice-pack.

Activities unsuited to the more genteel passengers of the Cruising Yacht Vectis I would suggest.....À chacun ses goûts...

After leaving Virgohamna, the ship's French Captain, lured on by the remarkably favourable weather and ice conditions, took the Ile de France into Raudfjorden, a remote and rarely visited fjiord on the north coast. Suddenly, and without warning, at 0800 in the morning the ship shuddered to a grinding halt, having hit a submerged rock near the fjiord's entrance. As the tide turned, she began to list dangerously and orders were given to jettison ballast, together with 50 tons of coal reserves. Unfortunately, this manoeuvre had little effect and the ship was left stranded in a precarious and exposed position.

Fortunately, the German photographer and explorer Theodore Lerner was in the vicinity, in his chartered 12 ton steamer Express, which proved under-powered to tow off the Ile de France. He quickly set off in search of a larger, more powerful ship, and located the Dutch cruiser Friesland in nearby Liefdefjorden, but by the time he returned most of the French tourists, fearing that their ship would sink, had been ferried ashore with a limited supply of food and water. At high tide the following day, and much to the relief of her Captain and crew, the Il de France was refloated. Soon her relieved passengers were back on board, proclaiming "Vivre Lerner! Vivre la Holland"   

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1904

Encouraged by the success of their former ship, the Ceylon,  P&O converted the Rome to a cruise ship, renaming her The Steam Yacht Vectis.

Built by Caird and Company of Greenock, and launched on 14th May 1881, Rome and her sister ship Carthage were the first P&O ships to accommodate second class passengers aft and the first class amidships. At 5,545 tons, she had been engaged on P&O's regular mail runs to India and Australia.

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Rome departing Tilbury in 1886, from The Illustrated London News.

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At first, it was very much for the upper classes, People were interested in sailing for pleasure, but you had to have money and time to spare.

P&O’s first cruise ship, Vectis, entered service in 1904, and after cruising was recommended in the British Medical Journal for its health benefits, thousands of people signed up to see the world.

Renamed and extensively refitted, the stylish Cruising Yacht Vectis carried 150 passengers in first class accommodation, on cruises to Norway. Sailing from Tilbury on 6th July, she visited Bergen, the North Cape and Spitzbergen. Tickets cost between forty and seventy guineas, with Thomas Cook & Son providing shore excursions at extra cost.

 

Vectis's hand-picked  deck and purser's officers wore Royal Navy style frock coats, with eight gold buttons, distinctive P&O cap badges and the Company's rank insignia. The ship's Commander, Captain Thompson is at the centre of the photograph, while the moustachioed officer on the right is the ship's Purser.

    

Encouraged by her success, she was joined by the ss Malwa for cruises throughout the Mediterranean during the summer months. 

By 1909, Vectis and Malwa were well established.....

A comprehensive 1909 Itinerary, National Maritime Museum Archive

 

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Malwa at the Russian port of Kronstadt, Saint Petersburg's main seaport. in 1909, when Russian naval officers were entertained on board. Painting by William Lionel Wyllie, P&O Heritage.

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Meanwhile, passengers struck a rather stolid pose for a group portrait on board the Cruising Yacht Vectis.

'....there are beautiful drawing and lounge rooms, the finest smoking room we have ever seen, the dining room is splendidly situated and the meals are excellent and well served, the steward in charge, Mr Dust, the most courteous of officials we have had the pleasure of meeting, the cabins are light and well ventilated and the beds most comfortable; our cabins being No 78 and 79, our neighbour, the barber Mr Sales, who is most obliging and intelligent; it was a pleasure to be shaved by him, and his shop is the largest we have ever seen on any ship. There are three dark rooms for photographers which I have found most useful. The promenade deck is very spacious, eight trips round it the mile. This splendid ship carries a crew of 196 and has accommodation for 183 passengers and a coaling capacity of 1,800 tons. Wrtten by Edward Rawdin, a seasoned passenger who completed three cruises aboard the Vectis..

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Among Vectis's passengers on her inaugural cruise were the acclaimed marine artist William Lionel Wyllie and his wife Marion.

Together with 148 fellow passengers, they boarded Vectis in the London River.

A prolific painter, William was working right up until his death in 1931, aged 79.

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On board Vectis, Marion, researched and began writing Norway & Its Fjords, which was published by Methuen & Co of London in 1907.

........they lay drowsily extended in various positions of comfort on their chairs on the broad white after-deck, the happy moment after lunch; too soon to get to work or play, the tremor of the great screw acting as the mother's foot on the cradle rocker.

From: Norway and its Fjords by Marion A. Wyllie. With sixteen illustrations in colour, by William Lionel Wyllie, RA.

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'Our ship steams steadily on, and it would seem as though there is no end to the labyrinth of ice-worn rocky islets...' Marion Wyllie, Norway and its Fjords.

Vectis at Kristiania - William Lionel Wyllie

Originally called Christiania, from 1877 the name was spelled Kristiania, and in 1925 was changed back to the city's original name, Oslo. 

'The ship is still plunging through the waves, and now the passengers, who still brave the elements, have dwindled to a very small party. The island of Karmo comes in sight on the starboard bow, and all sorts of jagged rocks go by as we plunge northward. A long journey outside the Skjaergaard is not a pleasant prospect in weather like this, but all at once we notice that our wake is not right astern , but trends away to the starboard quarter.....'

Vectis at Kristiania

'It is clear that kind-hearted Captain Thompson has made up his mind to take us up inside the islands.

The sight of many pale faces, and all those empty chairs, has moved him to take the longer, and to him, no doubt, more troublesome route. Soon, we are under the lee of Skudesnas, and one by one limp, red-eyed bodies, with hair out of curl and rumpled clothes, make their appearance, blessing the Skjaergaard and good Captain Thompson.'

Much of the coast of Norway is penetrated by fjords and fringed by countless islands, islets, rocks and reefs, known as the Skjaergaard - a Norwegian word, literally meaning a rock rampart.

Vectis anchored in Recherche Bay on the west coast of Spitsbergen.

'Wherever the Vectis steamed, the Ile de France had just left. Her name in giant letters of white was painted on the cliffs of the Naero Fjord. In Recherche Bay we enquired of the sailors on board the whalers, Had the Ile de France been there? Had the passengers shot any bears? 'Yes' was the answer to the first question; 'No' to the second. Had they caught any foxes? 'No'.

It was not the season for the one or the other.'

In October 1912, Vectis was sold for £11,040 to the French Government, who proposed to convert her to a hospital ship, but in 1913, she was sold to Italian shipbreakers.

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