What would it be like if Ocean Liners became a reliable means of transit once again? I know the
first thought that comes to your mind is probably, “Definitely not, they are a thing of the past,
airplanes are better, end of discussion”. But I don’t think that’s the end of the discussion,
I have a few arguments to make about how ocean liners might actually return in the future.
But first, here is the obligatory explanation about the differences between an ocean liner
and a cruise ship for the people who are watching and don’t know the difference. And yes,
I need to explain this for the rest of the video to make sense. For those new to this topic,
RMS Titanic was an ocean liner, not a cruise ship. The difference is that Ocean Liners were
designed to get you from point A to point B and do it on a reliable schedule. A cruise
ship might take you from Florida to the Bahamas, but if extreme weather rolls in,
the cruise line will do everything it can to either sail around the bad weather even if it
means getting to the port much later than usual, or they’ll even cancel the trip to
the port. Ocean Liners did not have that kind of flexibility. If you needed to get from New
York to Southampton and a massive North Atlantic storm was in your way, the ship needed to sail
right through it. This is why Ocean Liners were constructed differently, the hull extended much
higher above the waterline than that of modern cruise ships, to better withstand massive waves,
as a result, they also put their lifeboats much higher up for protection. Ocean Liners developed
more robust steel frames and maintained thicker steel plates all the way around the ship than
cruise ships have. This was so the ship could withstand the rigorous flexing when they crested
huge swells. Ocean Liners needed to get to their destinations as quickly as possible to compete
with other lines, so the ships would progressively be built faster through the decades. Ships like
RMS Queen Mary and SS United States had a service speed of 29 knots, which was just a regular speed
they maintained across the ocean, the fastest cruise ships in the world would be quite lucky
if they could reach 25 knots at full speed. Queen Mary’s top speed was almost 33 knots,
and SS United States was officially recorded to reach just over 38 knots. You can also see
a difference on the exterior of the ships, Ocean Liners have longer bows that are designed to cut
through massive ocean waves, whereas Cruise Ships have shorter bows designed for riding
over a wave at a slower speed. Ocean Liners have stepped sterns designed for breaking up
the impact of a wave that might slam into its aft end, whereas a Cruise Ship will develop
a stern that best suits its passenger capacity. I don’t say all of this to make cruise ships seem
weak, I’m simply stating facts. Cruise ships were designed for leisure and entertainment,
while Ocean Liners were designed for getting people to a destination as fast
as possible. While a cruise ship might just survive the worst the sea can throw at it,
an ocean liner will get through it with minimal disruption to its voyage and its passengers.
I doubt it's any mystery why ocean liners are not a significant transport industry anymore,
they were replaced by something much faster and statistically safer, airliners. The end of the
1960s also saw the end of the Ocean Liner industry, though some stragglers remained,
offering pleasure cruises to popular destinations while storms raged on the North Atlantic. It got
to the point where by the late 1990s and early 2000s, the only remaining Ocean Liner still
doing transatlantic crossings on a regular schedule was Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2,
also known as the QE2. As that ship approached the end of its service life, there was a big
question looming over the heads of Cunard and fans of ocean liners…will there be another?
As it turns out, there would be. Cunard ended up putting in an order for a successor that
they would call Queen Mary 2, and at the time of her maiden voyage in the year 2004, she was the
largest, fastest, and most luxurious passenger ship on the ocean. She took over the task of
doing regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings, and continued long after QE2 was retired in 2008.
The year 2024 will see the luxurious Queen Mary 2 reach her 20-year milestone and she’s still a
classy-looking ship two decades after going into service, most passenger ships only see an average
of 40 years in service. Queen Mary 2 as it so happens, is the last remaining Ocean Liner still
serving as a liner. So as QM2 reaches the halfway point in her service life, people are starting to
wonder yet again…will there be another? Not only do I think there will be another, I’m starting to
see ways that other cruise ship lines might want to jump on that proverbial ship before it sails.
First of all, let’s talk about air travel. Many of you have been on a plane before,
but for those who haven’t yet, let me explain a few pros and cons. Pro: You can practically
fly anywhere in the world, including over major oceans. Con: You are stuffed into a metal tube
with two-hundred other people and hardly have any room to stretch out. Pro: If traveling a distance
of a thousand miles or more, you get to your destination faster than any other transportation
method, including the time it takes to get into the airport terminal and wait for takeoff. Con:
getting into the terminal, particularly if you live in the United States, is one of the most
stressful and time-consuming transit obligations you’ll ever do. I’m out of pros, so we’ll continue
with cons. Con: bad weather can either cancel your flight or even re-direct it mid-air. Con:
food on airplanes is often terrible. Con: people who are sensitive to altitude changes and whose
ears don’t pop easily, like mine, can be in pain throughout the whole flight. Con:
you can pay a hefty price and select the seat you most desire, only for you to later be bumped to a
worse seat and still expected to pay the same high price, it’s true, it recently happened to a friend
of mine. Con: you may really despise the person you’re forced to sit next to for 1-16 hours. Con:
there’s no room in the overhead compartment for your carry-on luggage. Con: you breathe
the same air everyone immediately around you is breathing out, that includes any other kinds of
wind they release. Con…you know what, I could be listing these all day, let me just put it this
way…there are a lot of reasons in this day and age why someone like me would rather chew off
their own arm than pay for the worst transport experience of their life aboard a jet airliner.
Oh and let me add that if the technology aboard the airplane were to malfunction catastrophically,
it could lead to the whole thing dropping out of the sky with no survivors. However, on a ship, if
technology fails catastrophically, then the ship is set adrift at sea where another ship can come
to the rescue, it might be a terrible experience like those who had to live on that cruise ship
that became poop central, but, you’ll very likely live to tell the tale and be compensated for it.
So you might wonder why, if it is so terrible, the airline industry is growing so rapidly. That
brings me to my next point, there is still a high demand to get around. Let’s put it this way. There
is a huge amount of people that fly from LA to San Francisco and the amount is only growing,
but just as there are huge amounts of people booking those flights and driving up the cost
of a ticket, there are just as many people, if not more, who want to travel, but do not see a
decent way of getting there besides using an airplane. This is why the high-speed
rail industry is experiencing a boom. That is a subject with its own controversies and issues,
but the point is, that the idea of a high-speed train gives you the option to not take a plane.
If we’re talking about crossing the North Atlantic to get from North America to Europe,
the most efficient way is by plane, but as costs rise and the experience of flying worsens, more
and more people such as myself will be looking for an alternative. I plan to take a trip to the UK to
film and vlog lots of historic places (there’s a link below if you want to donate to help me book
that trip a lot sooner) -just a shameless plug for you. But when I considered flying there, I decided
I just didn’t want to. In my honest opinion, just my take on it, flying to the UK is not something
that would be my first choice. That’s how much I hate the experience of flying. That’s why I
chose my transit method to be aboard the Queen Mary 2. Her regularly scheduled crossings and
luxury experience is something that appeals to me. Though I will admit the crossing is quite pricey,
the cheapest passenger cabin is only a little bit more expensive than an airplane ticket,
and I get a week to relax on my way there. The only thing is that not everyone has the luxury
to spend a week at sea. But let me put it this way, The Queen Mary 2 was designed to cross the
North Atlantic in 5 days, but in recent years they’ve slowed her down to about 7 to 8 days,
the reason being that her passengers aren’t in any rush to get across the ocean,
but if they were, she could easily speed up. If there was a high enough demand for ocean
travel, the industry would build ships that would go faster than Queen Mary 2, heck they
might even build a ship that could match the high speeds that SS United States was once capable of.
So now you might be wondering, “Well Alex, if people really preferred sailing on Queen Mary 2
to get across the Atlantic, then why don’t we see it?” To which that brings me to my final point. A
transatlantic crossing on Queen Mary 2 is so popular, it’s booked up almost a whole year
in advance. When I save up the money I need to take that voyage, I have to book the voyage at
least 9 months ahead of time because the ship is so darn popular. There is a huge demand for
people to take the transatlantic crossing aboard the ship. Now, it may not always be working-class
people but don’t be fooled into thinking that all of QM2’s passengers are wealthy. They
aren’t. Just look at all the travel vloggers who chose to take a crossing aboard the ship,
they almost always say that the passengers are just regular people who saved up their
money over time. So it is possible to do it. And, in the old days of transatlantic travel,
there were tons of ships competing against each other, which helped to maintain competitive
prices and prevented them from ballooning out of control. The original RMS Queen Mary got everyone
across the Atlantic in less than 4 days and a third-class ticket was reasonable. So when people
ask me if Cunard will build another ocean liner to succeed QM2, not only do I think they will,
but I think they may do it even sooner than you’d expect. I’d say, within ten years,
Queen Mary 2 may have a more modern running mate helping to keep up with the growing demand.
If you ask me what I think the transport industry will look like in ten years. I say Cunard might
have two ocean liners moving people across the North Atlantic on regularly scheduled crossings,
while other companies might have at least one ocean liner in their fleet helping to move
people across the most popular transit routes of the world. These ships will have a service speed
of at least 28 knots, if not more, and will cater to people who can spare the time to get to their
destination. I’m not saying it will be a huge return of the industry, but I am saying there will
be enough demand to support a small renaissance of the ocean liner. If you enjoyed this video, be
sure to give it a thumbs up, and subscribe to the channel for more videos about the age of steam.