This new book is a massive history of American and British steamship travel on the North Atlantic, covering the period between 1820 and 1910. It focuses on the changing styles and engineering advancements that were made in these two countries over the decades, as well as on the powerful men whose rivalries drove the industry forward. The book highlights the entrepreneurs who built the ocean liner companies, but gives equal insight into the engineering specialists who made the rapid advancement in steamship technology possible.

It is a story about men, and about machines, and the ever increasing demand for speed that drove both to their limits, and sometimes beyond. The ships covered begin with the first vessel made expressly for an ocean crossing voyage, Isambard Brunel’s daring steam driven, paddle wheeler Great Western in 1838. The story follows the advancements made through the decades as ships came and went bringing fame or, sometimes, folly, and ends with the innovative, turbine powered, Cunard liner Mauretania around 1910.

It is one of the most readable books on the subject to see print in quite a while. The text is interesting and informative, with a fluid, breezy style that reads as smoothly as a good novel. The introduction sets the scene of what is to come with Britannia’s triumphant entrance into Boston harbor. The author then steps back with a short but detailed look at the Atlantic passenger traffic dominated by the American sailing packets just before the advent of steam. As he does throughout the book, Fox captures the experience of the sailing ships to perfection, buttressing his wonderful descriptions with excerpts from first hand accounts.

After this brief introductory chapter about sail, the book plunges into the heart of its subject matter, the ever increasing role and final dominance that the maritime steam engine played in transatlantic travel. The coverage of the many steamship lines, along with their respective achievements and flaws, is expansive, if somewhat erratic. Most readers of ocean liner histories will be familiar with the big names, like the Cunard Line, White Star Line, Collins Line, the Inman Line (later the American line), etc. But there is also much material about other companies that came and went over the years like the Allan Line, the Anchor Line, the Guion Line, the North German Lloyd line, the Red Star line and others. This wide ranging coverage does come at a price though, as some of the more important lines don’t get the attention they deserve. The importance of the White Star Line to the industry seems particularly lacking.

It’s not just a book about steamship companies, though. It is a story of shipbuilding firms as well, and the engineers whose genius made the mechanical march of progress possible. The engineering works in Scotland, South Britain and Ireland are where the author focuses his attention for this aspect of the tale. He covers in detail the intense rivalries that existed between the shipbuilders, which could be just as fierce as amongst the shipping magnates. Entrepreneurs and engineers were critical in equal measure to the success of the ocean greyhounds, and rarely has a book so wonderfully interwoven the contributions both groups made to the advancement of Atlantic steamship travel.

As mentioned above, this book does restrict its focus to American and British companies, with some of the German innovation entering into the picture only towards the end of the book. Of the achievements of other countries, like France, there is no mention at all. At its heart though, this is a book about Samuel Cunard and his Cunard Line. The prominently displayed Cunard funnels on the front cover are a not so subtle hint where Fox’s admiration lies. Other important maritime merchants are mentioned to varying degrees, including Isambard Brunel (of Great Eastern fame), Edward Knight Collins (Collins Line), William Inman (Inman Line), Thomas Henry Ismay (White Star Line), and Albert Ballin (Hamburg-American Line) to name a few. Some companies get more attention than others, and not always in proportion to the importance of their contributions. Thomas Ismay, for example, gets very little coverage, and the achievements of the White Star Line ship innovations are mentioned briefly, then mostly glossed over.

One oddity, this book, by far, has the most biased, negative description of Thomas Ismay’s son Bruce that has ever seen print. The author describes J. Bruce Ismay as the senior Ismay’s “doofus son Bruce”. The younger Ismay is characterized as a bumbler, erratic in his behavior, and a lunatic. This is taking things a bit too far. There is no doubt that Bruce Ismay could be a difficult man, but he was skilled at running a large conglomerate. His appointment as President of the Morgan combine, the International Mercantile Marine would never have happened if he were the total incompetent that Fox makes him out to be. In a book where every other major player’s strengths and weaknesses are skillfully addressed, this aberration about Bruce Ismay is glaring.

Overall, however, if you are interested in the history of the first roughly 100 years of Anglo-American steamship progress, this lively, engrossing book will both educate and entertain in equal measure. I can only hope the author will consider penning a second volume taking up the story from 1910 until air travel finally made the majestic liners obsolete.

The first British printing, also in hardcover, was released in September, 2003 under the title, The Ocean Railway, isbn# 0002571854.