Every Thursday at 4 p.m. a Union Castle express liner left Southampton for the Cape. William H Miller tells the story of the post-war Union Castle ships.

The Union-Castle Line's heritage spans over a century. It provided the mail service to South Africa for 120 years and established an unrivalled reputation for punctual schedules. From the middle of the nineteenth century it ran 'like clockwork' until its demise in 1977, a victim of emerging competition from jet aircraft, increasing fuel costs and the containerisation of cargo.As a company, the Union-Castle Line used the latest technical innovations of the day, constantly striving to improve speed, reliability, customer comfort and safety. Its lavender-hulled ships were some of the most impressive vessels of the time. Yet the story of the Union-Castle Line is also one of people - the passengers and crew ensured that the line survived for so long. This book tells some of their fascinating stories, including tales of shipwrecks, war service, missing gold bullion, escaped wild animals and even the occasional murder on board.Utilising previously unpublished diaries, letters and photographs, this illustrated volume chronicles the shipping line from its glorious beginning to its tragic end. It is a multifaceted history of the Union-Castle Line, which examines some of the company's shipwrecks as well as the fond legacy of the line today.

Great British passenger ships

The 1950s was a fascinating decade for the great liners. After the global devastation of two decades of war and Depression, shipyards were creating one new liner after another, it seemed, to rebuild and renew passenger ship services all over the world. There were the likes of the Kungsholm and Oslofjord from Scandinavia, the French Flandre and a succession of new liners from P&O-Orient, the Italian Line, Messageries Maritimes and many more. The new hopeful era of the 1950s was highlighted by such brilliant, headline-making ships as the speedy United States, breaking records on an unprecedented scale, the engines-aft Southern Cross and the mastless Orsova. Showcased beautifully by the stunning images and nostalgic outlook of prolific maritime historian William H. Miller, this book shines a well-earned spotlight on some of the world's most popular passenger liners.

This in-depth history of the interior design of ocean liners surveys the transient history of interior design in relation to the development of passenger shipping, from commissioning by the line owners, methods and sources for the original creation of designs through to its construction, use and influence. It is a short-lived branch of architecture and design, lasting an average of fifteen years. As the design and taste mirrors and reinforces cultural assumptions about national identity, gender, class and race, not only did the interiors of ocean going liners reflect the changing hierarchies of society and shifting patterns in globalization, but the glamour and styling of the liners were reflected back into the design of interiors on land. Combining design history, architecture history, material and visual cultures, Designing Liners is a richly multidisciplinary work for those studying or researching this application of interior design.