The Only Way To Cross: The Golden Era of the Great Atlantic Express Liners- From The Mauretania to the France and the Queen Elizabeth 2 [signed]

Though we call them luxury liners, they are more accurately described as express liners - splendid, glittering steamships connecting the old world and new across the North Atlantic. Long before jets (and jet lag), these floating superlatives thundered on bruising schedule across the world's most dangerous ocean. The Only Way to Cross transports readers to that bygone maritime era, when dozens of liners steamed in and out of New York, accommodating the rich on lavish upper decks and hordes of immigrants deep within their holds. For those in first class, comfort, luxury, and privilege were endemic. Armchair travelers will relish anecdotes about the famous and infamous, the rich and eccentric. Royalty, financial barons, con artists, crooked gamblers, and stowaways rub shoulders within these evocative pages. But all is not rarified glitz. Beneath paneled veneer lies reassuring steel. Maxtone-Graham documents not only the vessels' engineering and architectural marvels, but also the perilous storms and fogs as well as the lives of the liners' permanent inhabitants; we encounter stewards, sailors, stokers, and the gruff, austere warmth of their masters on the bridge. The pages are immeasurable enriched by 200 archival photographs.