Speed, luxury, elegance! 

This is what we picture when we think of the Titanic; a big, black, holed beauty that captured the world's attention with her gorgeous looks and tragic story. Moving over 100 years into the future, her descendants are vastly different from her, being enormous cruise ships flooded with amenities and fun that were simply unimaginable in 1912.

Welcome to Fast Facts Friday. My name is Eleanor. Just a quick disclaimer for our younger audience before we dive in. This story may be disturbing to some, so viewer discretion is advised. Okay, everyone, let's get into it. 

When looking at Ocean travel, two types of ships tend to stand out, ocean miners for their beauty, efficiency and iconic stories, and cruise ships for the amenities, enormous size and the beautiful locations they visit. When we stop and look at their designs, purposes and history, they are wildly different, and we will explore that today. 

First, let's look at design and purpose. Ocean liners are designed for transoceanic travel, built to withstand the waves at open sea while providing a smooth, comfortable journey for passengers. Typically, they have sharp knife-like bows to cut through the ocean, and sleek, streamlined holes that are thicker and typically double holes for safety. Their engines are typically more powerful as they can reach higher speeds, for greater efficiency. As for amenities, they typically have fewer but more luxurious amenities, focusing on comfort and luxury opposed to entertainment. The water draft is often deeper on an ocean liner for greater stability and unpredictable seas, and the ships themselves are often narrower and smaller than cruise ships.Typically, classic ocean liners are equipped with a rounded stern called a cruiser spoon stern.

For ocean liners, the journey is usually more important than the destinations or ports of call. Ocean liners used to be the primary mode of long distance travel before commercial air travel, and the only modern ocean liner still transporting passengers today is RMS Queen Mary Two.

Cruise ships, however, are often much larger, designed for leisure and entertainment with a wide variety of onboard activities and amenities to keep their passengers entertained during the voyage. Cruise ships can travel long distances, but this isn't their intended purpose, and so they travel at much slower speeds. The priority is comfort with spacious cabins, activities, amenities and gourmet dining options. Their air draft is usually far greater than their water draft, and they are equipped with stabilizers for added stability. They are usually much larger and wider, having a softer, rounded bow for floating over waves instead of cutting through them. Their Sterns are typically a transom or raked stern that is flatter and wider.

For cruise ships, the locations are usually more important than the journey itself, and they stop in numerous ports of call. Cruise ships became the way that the shipping industry survived when immigration to the United States was limited and the growth of the commercial airline industry began to dismantle the ocean liner's popularity.

Thus, their history is very intertwined. The concept of luxury cruises evolved from the ocean liners during the early 20th century, the ocean liners were absolute marvels of engineering. They combined speed, luxury and comfort to offer passengers a once in a lifetime experience while traveling from point A to point B. The ocean liners' bread and butter was immigration, with third class immigrants traveling to the United States until the immigration act of 1924 greatly reduced the number of legal immigrants allowed into the US, and thus ocean liners had shifted to beginning luxury cruises. 

From this and the growing popularity of air travel, cruise ships were born. The demand for transatlantic voyages greatly declined, and cruise ships inset focused on leisure and entertainment, Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International were two leading cruise lines that began offering innovative and exciting onboard experiences.

Cruising in any capacity can be fun and exciting, and we love creating fun, exciting content. If you are enjoying this episode and want to hear more about ships, their careers and their wrecks, check out our main show, shipwreck Sunday, every Sunday night at 4pm Pacific Standard Time.

Okay, let's look at the passenger experience on both ocean liners and cruise ships. One of the major differences a passenger would notice on board these ships is speed. Ocean liners were designed to be speedy, with many coonarders retaining the blue ribbon for the greatest speed record across the Atlantic. Ocean liners oftentimes provide weekly services across the Atlantic, so they were incredibly fast. Cruise ships focus on comfort and amenities over speed and efficiency, so they are much slower. They also usually don't travel as far, so speed isn't necessary. In terms of size, cruise ships are usually much larger and spacious, with the ratio of their length to width more even than that of ocean liners, which are typically a one to ten ratio in terms of width to length. Ocean liners are more compact, narrow and focused on maximizing speed and efficiency. Ocean liners were very swank and bougie with elegant interiors, lavish dining rooms, grand staircases and opulent cabins. Cruise ships, while still offering luxury, tend to be more relaxed and casual, focusing on informal dining and entertainment options, some even including roller coasters or water parks. 

Ocean liners evolved out of changing necessities to become cruise ships, and now they are all but extinct. Their legacy will always live on in infamous stories like Titanic, or in exhibits that still exist, like RMS, Queen Elizabeth Two and RMS, Queen Mary, ocean liners that exist as floating hotels. Hopefully, if demand increases enough, more ocean liners will come about and the legacy won't die with Queen Mary Two. 

Cruise ships, like icons of the seas, push the boundaries of what is possible in terms of amenities and onboard experiences, truly embodying what it means to be a cruise ship. Though, cruise ships share some similarities with ocean liners. They are fundamentally different with different purposes. Ocean liners with the epitome of luxury, elegance and efficiency, while cruise ships are more casual and fun oriented, both have played a big role in the history of maritime travel and still continue to offer unique experiences to passengers around the world. 

Ocean liners will always be a fan favorite for ship fanatics around the world, with the cruise ship being more mixed to this community and a fan favorite for casual vacationers worldwide. Cruise ships can still be gorgeous, interesting vessels, and hopefully they can continue to honor the past as well as embrace the future. We will always mourn the loss of ocean liners in the past and hope for the best for the future of these amazing vessels. 

If you liked that story and wanted to hear something similar, check out our ocean liners playlist in the cards. Stay tuned this Sunday with a story of SS Ile, a French ocean liner that played a huge role in the sinking of SS Andrea Doria. Thank you for tuning in to fast facts Friday. Have a lovely weekend and we'll see you next time.