title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The 1966 lineup remained essentially unchanged from 1965. One change of note was a new four-speed synchromesh transmission using the standard Saginaw gear set with 3.11:1 first gear ratio used by other GM 6-cylinder vehicles. The steering column was changed to a two-piece design with a universal joint, lessening the danger of intrusion during a front-end collision (actually a mid-1965 running change). A plastic air dam was installed below the front valence panel to conceal the front suspension and underbody, and lessen crosswind sensitivity. In front, The "lock door" emblem (covering the lockset for the trunk lock) was changed from red to blue and featured a shorter bar. At the rear, new larger taillight lenses were used featuring a thin chrome ring around the center of the light. Air conditioned cars received a new condenser that was mounted in front of the engine, eliminating the previous unit mounted atop the engine, requiring its removal for most engine service. The Corvair script nameplate was moved from atop the trunk lid to a position next to the driver's side headlight bezel. Sales began a decline as a result of Ralph Nader's book highlighting the Corvair's deficiencies – and the new Mustang offering V8s up to compared to the Corvair's top powertrain. Rumors of the upcoming "Panther" – the code name for the forthcoming Camaro, slated as a direct competitor for the Mustang – further undercut sales. A decision was made to discontinue further development of the Corvair. Production for the model year was down to 103,743.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: In 1967, the Corvair line was trimmed to the 500 and Monza Hardtop Coupes and Hardtop Sedans, and the Monza Convertible. This model year was the first with a collapsible steering column. A dual circuit master cylinder with warning light, nylon reinforced brake hoses, stronger steel (instead of aluminum) door hinges, "mushroomed" instrument panel knobs, and a vinyl-edged day/night mirror were all made standard equipment. Bucket seats in Monza models were now of the same "Astro" style as those on the new-for-1967 Camaro, featuring a new-thin-shell design. Chevrolet introduced a engine warranty on all Chevrolet models including the Corvair. Chevrolet was still actively marketing the Corvair in 1967, including color print ads and an "I Love My Corvair" bumper sticker campaign by dealers, but production and sales continued to fall off drastically. Only 27,253 copies were built. The chrome rings around the center of the taillights were made thicker.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: In 1968, the four-door hardtop was discontinued, leaving three models – the 500 and Monza Hardtop Coupes and the Monza Convertible. Air conditioning was dropped as an option, due to concerns about thermal loading added by the now-standard Air Injection Reactor ("smog pump") which probably hurt sales as factory air became more popular generally in automobiles. The GM multiplex stereo system was also discontinued when new units changed wiring adapters; the Corvair's 9-pin connector would no longer fit the new units. Additional safety features, including side marker lights, and shoulder belts for closed models, were fitted per the federal government's requirements. The steering wheel for 500s was the same as the base Nova's, while Monzas got the same wheel as the Camaro. An Impala-style "Deluxe" steering wheel was optional. All advertising was stopped and sales were down to 15,400.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The final 1969 model-year Corvairs were assembled with the Nova in Willow Run, Michigan, the same facility Corvairs had been built from the beginning. A total of 6,000 Corvairs were produced of which only 521 were Monza Convertibles. The Corvair was the only GM car in 1969 that did not get a locking steering column. Demand for Novas was high and a decision was made in November 1968 to move Corvair assembly to a special off-line area in the plant, dubbed the "Corvair Room", making Corvairs produced between that time and 14 May 1969 essentially hand-built by a dedicated Corvair team. Assembled bodies arrived from Fisher Body and awaited assembly in the off-line area.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: While the 1965 Corvair was received as a well-engineered high-performance driver's car, that accomplishment was overshadowed by the phenomenal market success of the Ford Mustang. GM saw advantages to the route adopted by Ford with the Mustang, a four-seat semi-coupe body on a standard compact (Falcon) chassis with a small-block V8 motor and four-on-the-floor offered as power options. The Corvair was not cheap to produce; developing and marketing a Mustang-style model based on the Nova platform had cost advantages. Unlike the Corvair, a derivative model could evolve within GM's standard lines of manufacturing technology. The 1965 publication of "Unsafe at Any Speed" sullied the reputation of the Corvair line, although the issues had nothing to do with the current model. Under competition from the Mustang and the publicity hit of "Unsafe," Corvair sales plummeted by over half in 1966. GM saw the advantages of developing the Camaro, not the Corvair.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: According to GM historian Dave Newell, Chevrolet had planned on ending Corvair production after the 1966 model year. Development and engineering changes were halted in 1966 on the year-old, redesigned second-generation cars with mainly federally mandated emissions and safety changes made thereafter. An increasing lack of interest from the company, especially from Chevrolet's General Manager John DeLorean, and a complete absence of Corvair advertising after 1967 reflected the company's priorities, including promotion of three redesigned models for 1968 – the Corvette, Chevelle, and Chevy II Nova. The Corvair was referred to as "the phantom" by "Car Life" magazine in their 1968 Monza road test, and by 1969 Chevrolet's Corvair four-page brochure was "by request only". During its final year of production, 6,000 cars were produced.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Chevrolet had proposed a third generation (1970 onward) Corvair, essentially a re-skin of the 1965–69 model resembling the 1973 GM A Body intermediates, particularly the 1973 Pontiac Grand Am, retaining Corvair proportions. Having passed the point of full-scale clay models, Chevrolet stopped developing the model in early 1968. Unlike the Turbo Hydramatic 400, the Turbo Hydramatic 350 transmission, introduced in the 1968 Camaro and later adopted by most Chevrolet models had been configured for use in the third generation Corvair.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The first-generation Corvair featured a "rear engine + swing axle design" similar to that of the Renault Dauphine and Volkswagen Beetle – a design which eliminates universal joints at the wheels and keeps the rear wheels perpendicular to the half-shafts, rather than the road surface. The design can allow rear tires to undergo large camber angle changes during fast cornering due to side g-forces causing "rebound" camber and decreasing the tread contact with the road surface, leading to a loss of rear wheel grip and oversteer – a dynamically unstable condition where a driver can lose control and spin. The problem is most severe in combinations having the engine and swing axle at the same end of the car: in most cases this is at the rear, and the Corvair is no exception. The rebound camber is worse because of the greater inertial mass over the rear wheels with this combination; the higher center of gravity during rebound causes additional problems. A station wagon body also exacerbates the tendency because it increases the weight at the rear (and raises the center of gravity). Oversteer is exacerbated by deceleration during cornering due to increased side g-force and lightened load on rear tires (lift-off oversteer). Understeer is common in front-engine cars due to more weight, and inertia, on the front tires. Both conditions are dangerous when a car is driven at its cornering limits. Design options to ameliorate swing axle handling:


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: While the Corvair "sedan" offered competent handling, "the average buyer more accustomed to front-engined cars, did not take [into] account the car's different handling characteristics." Chevrolet made a succession of improvements to the first-generation Corvair suspension. For the 1962 model year, the front anti-roll bar became available as an option. For the 1964 model year, the front anti-roll bar became standard equipment and the rear suspension was modified to include a camber compensating, transverse-mounted leaf spring extending between the rear wheels to limit rear wheel camber change, and carrying much of the rear weight combined with softer coil springs. Also in 1962, two Corvairs were tested around Riverside for 24 hours: one managed to survive the test, despite crossing the finish line with no fuel, at an average speed of , and burned a quart of oil, while the other one crashed around the esses.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: For the 1965 model year, the Corvair received a fully independent rear suspension closely resembling that of the contemporary Corvette. The redesigned suspension reduced the rear roll center to half its previous height, using fully articulated half-axles that offered constant camber on the rear tires in all driving situations. This eliminated the handling problems of the first-generation models.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Consumer protection activist Ralph Nader addressed the handling issues of the first-generation (1960–1963) Corvair in his 1965 book, "Unsafe at Any Speed". GM had over 100 lawsuits pending in connection with crashes involving the Corvair, which subsequently became the initial material for Nader's investigations. The book highlighted crashes related to the Corvair's suspension and identified the Chevrolet suspension engineer who had fought management's decision to omit – for cost reasons – the front anti-roll bar installed on later models. Nader said during subsequent Congressional hearings, the Corvair is "the leading candidate for the un-safest-car title". Subsequently, Corvair sales fell from 220,000 in 1965 to 109,880 in 1966. By 1968, production fell to 14,800. Public response to the book played a role in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: A 1972 safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960–1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporary competitors in extreme situations. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a press release in 1972 describing the findings of NHTSA testing from the previous year. NHTSA had conducted a series of comparative tests in 1971 studying the handling of the 1963 Corvair and four contemporary cars – a Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Volkswagen Beetle, and Renault Dauphine – along with a second-generation Corvair (with its completely redesigned, independent rear suspension). The 143-page report reviewed NHTSA's extreme-condition handling tests, national crash-involvement data for the cars in the test as well as General Motors' internal documentation regarding the Corvair's handling. NHTSA went on to contract an independent advisory panel of engineers to review the tests. This review panel concluded that "the 1960–63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests [...] the handling and stability performance of the 1960–63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic." Former GM executive and automotive engineer John DeLorean asserted in his book "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors" that Nader's criticisms were valid.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Journalist David E. Davis, in a 2009 article in "Automobile Magazine", noted that despite Nader's claim that swing-axle rear suspension were dangerous, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Tatra, and Volkswagen all used similar swing-axle concepts during that era. (The handling of other rear-engine swing-axle cars, particularly the Volkswagen Type I and II, has been criticized as well.) Some contend that Nader's lack of an automotive engineering degree or a driver's license at the time he wrote "Unsafe at Any Speed" disqualifies him as a critic of automotive safety. In response to Nader's book, "Mechanix Illustrated" reviewer Tom McCahill tried to get a 1963 Corvair to flip, at one point sliding sideways into a street curb, but could not turn over the vehicle.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: "Time" featured Ed Cole and the 1960 Corvair on its cover for the Corvair introduction in 1959 and said: "its fresh engineering is hailed as the forerunner of a new age of innovation in Detroit." "Time" reported in 1960: Chevrolet sold 26,000 Corvairs its first two days on the market, taking over 35% of Chevy's two-day total of 75,000. Chevrolet had intended to sell one Corvair for every five Chevrolets. By March 1960, the Corvair comprised 13% of Chevrolet's sales. Shortly after its introduction, the Corvair faced competition from the Ford Falcon and Mercury Comet and was plagued by problems,  although according to a 1960 "Time" report, "many were the minor bugs that often afflict a completely new car." Problems included an engine cooling fan belt that tended to pop off its 2-axis pulleys (unless the fan ran constantly, the air-cooled engine would overheat and seize), carburetor icing and poor fuel mileage "which sometimes runs well under 20 m.p.g." The 1960 model gasoline heater was cited as a problem, which itself could consume up to a quart of gas an hour – with Chevrolet engineers quickly modifying the Corvair's carburetors to improve economy.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The Corvair's reputation and legacy, as well as those of General Motors, were tarnished by accusations about its handling ability; the car was scrutinized in Ralph Nader's 1965 book "Unsafe at Any Speed". Ralph Nader's accusations were proven false by the 1972 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety commission report. Support for the tests, conducted at College Station, Texas was provided by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTl) Texas A&M University Research Foundation. The investigation concluded: "The 1960–1963 Corvair understeers in the same manner as conventional passenger cars up to about 0.4 g lateral acceleration, makes a transition from understeer, through neutral steer, to oversteer in a range from about 0.4 g to 0.5 g lateral acceleration. This transition does not result in the abnormal potential for loss of control. The limited accident data available indicates that the rollover rate of the 1960–1963 Corvair is comparable to other light domestic cars. The 1960–1963 Corvair compared favorably with the other contemporary vehicles used in the NHTSA Input Response Tests. The handling and stability performance of the 1960–1963 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic.”


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: In addition to its other body styles, Chevrolet marketed the Corvair also in van and pickup body styles, in rear-load or side-load configurations, as the Corvair Greenbrier.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Willow Run, Kansas City, Oakland, and Van Nuys were all Chevrolet assembly plants with adjacent Fisher Body plants.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: St. Louis and Flint were Chevrolet truck plants, although Chevy had full-size car plants in both cities and in St. Louis the plants were adjacent.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: 500 – base model Corvair with lowest trim level. Always came with rubber mats, bench seats, and very little trim.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: 700 – next trim level up from the 500 model. These models also came with rubber mats and bench seats, but had more extensive exterior trim and additional features as standard. (this model was discontinued after 1964).


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Lakewood – Corvair station wagon (1961–62) available as a 500 or 700. The Monza wagon was available in 1962 and is not really a Lakewood. All window glass was specific to this model due to its taller roofline.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Monza (900) – the top of the trim line for 1960–1963 only. In 1964, it was below the Monza Spyder, which was now its own model. For the 1965–66 model year, the Monza ranked below the Corsa in trim level. After the Corsa model was dropped, the Monza was once again at the top of the Corvair line for 1967 through 1969. Monzas usually came with bucket seats (although special bench seats were available in some years). Monzas had carpeting and special trim packages.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Spyder – the Monza Spyder was an option package during the 1962 and 1963 model years, and for 1964 became a full-fledged model. It was equipped with a turbocharged engine, "full instrumentation", special emblems, and all the "Monza" trim items.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Corsa – top of the line sport model for 1965–66. It was the only model available with the optional turbocharged flat-six. The base engine was the new four-carburetor "big valve" engine. Corsas had "full instrumentation", special emblems, and trim with a special "argent" silver painted rear cove area and pinstriping on the 1965 models. The optional 180 hp engine delivered an increase in power over the 1964 150 hp engine of the same displacement by slightly enlarging the carburetor, and increasing the size of the internal impeller and turbine blades.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: F.C. (forward control) – a Chevy term that applied to all Corvair 95 van models indicating that the driver and controls were forward of the front wheels


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The Corvair spawned a number of innovative concept vehicles including the Corvair SS, Monza GT, Monza SS, and Astro I. In Europe, Italian coachbuilder Bertone designed a very advanced one-off prototype for the 1963 Geneva Motor Show; the "Chevrolet Testudo". This was among the first designs of Giorgetto Giugiaro, the chief designer at Bertone at the time. The Testudo later suffered a collision with another Bertone concept car, the Alfa Romeo Canguro, while on track at the Monza circuit. There was also a Pininfarina built concept called the "Corvair Speciale", and two other Pininfarina concepts known as "Coupe I" and "Coupe II".


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT coupe toured together with the Monza SS (Spyder) in early 1963, making a public appearance at the New York International Auto Show. Although both cars were based on the Corvair drivetrain, each represented a futuristic development of the Corvair design. In the SS convertible, the engine (with a four-carburetor setup) was left in its stock location behind the transaxle, allowing for a shorter () wheelbase. The Monza GT is housed at the GM's Heritage Center in Detroit.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: A 1966 concept vehicle, the Electrovair II was a 1966 Monza 4-door hardtop modified with a 532 volt, electric motor replacing the gasoline engine – following a 1964 version known as Electrovair I. With the 1966 model, silver-zinc batteries were used and placed in the trunk and engine compartment, and the body was slightly modified to accept the conversion. The car was handicapped by the high cost of the batteries ($160,000), a limited driving range (), and short battery life.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Don Yenko, who had been racing Corvettes, could not compete successfully against the Carroll Shelby Mustangs after they arrived on the scene. Yenko decided to race modified Corvairs, beginning with the 1966 model. As the stock Corvair did not fit into any of the SCCA categories, Yenko modified four-carburetor Corsas into "sports cars" by removing the back seat and introducing various performance improvements. As the SCCA required 100 cars to be manufactured to homologate the model for production racing, Yenko completed 100 Stingers in one month in 1965. Although all were white, as the SCCA required for American cars at the time, [the normal competition trim for U.S.-built cars was white with 2 blue stripes] there was a great deal of variety between individual cars; some had exterior modifications including fiberglass engine covers with spoilers, some did not; some received engine upgrades developing 160, 190, 220, or 240 hp (119, 142, 164, or 179 kW). All were equipped by the Chevrolet factory with heavy-duty suspension, four-speed transmission, quicker steering ratio, "positraction" limited-slip differentials (50 with 3.89 gears, and 50 with 3.55 after Chevrolet discontinued the 3.89) and dual brake master cylinders (the first application of this by Chevrolet, to become standard equipment the next year). Because most of the engine cooling in air-cooled engines is done by circulating oil, an oil cooler was necessary for competition use, this was mounted externally on the rear body section above the left wheel.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The Stingers competed in Class D production dominated by the Triumph TR4. In its first race in January 1966, the Stinger finished in second by only one second. By the end of the 1966 season, Jerry Thompson had won the Central Division Championship and placed fifth in the 1966 Nationals, Dick Thompson, a successful Corvette race driver, had won the Northeast Division Championship, and Jim Spencer had won the Central Division Championship, with Dino Milani taking second place. The next year, Chevrolet dropped the Corsa line. The Monza line was initially not available with the 4-carburetor engine. These were eventually offered as a special performance option, along with the 3.89 differential. The Monza instrumentation did not have a tachometer or head temperature gauges, which had to be separately installed. The SCCA, on the other hand, had relaxed its ruling regarding color, and the cars were available in red or blue. It is believed that only fourteen 1967 Stingers were built. Dana Chevrolet distributed Stingers on the U.S. West coast and ordered an additional three similar cars to be built to Stinger specifications, but with the AIR injection system to meet California emissions laws, with Yenko's permission. A total of 185 Stingers are believed to have been built, the last being YS-9700 built for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company as a tire test vehicle in 1969–1970.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Longtime roadracer John Fitch was particularly interested in the Corvair as the basis for a spirited road and track-oriented car, due to its handling. The basic Sprint received only minor modifications to the engine, bringing it to , but upgrades to the shock absorbers and springs, adjustments to the wheel alignment, quicker steering ratio, alloy wheels, metallic brake linings, the obligatory wood-rimmed steering wheel (leather available for an additional $9.95) and other such minor alterations made it extremely competitive with European sports cars costing much more. Body options such as spoilers were available, but the most visually remarkable option was the "Ventop", a fiberglass overlay for the C-pillars and rear of the roof that gave the car a "flying buttress" profile.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Fitch went on to design and build a prototype of the Fitch Phoenix, a Corvair-based two-seat sports car, superficially resembling a smaller version of the Mako Shark based Corvette. With a total weight of , even with a steel body, and with the Corvair engine modified with Weber carburetors to deliver , the car delivered spirited performance for $8,760. The ability to produce automobiles on a small scale, along with Chevrolet's decision to terminate production of the Corvair, meant the end of Fitch's plan. He still retained the prototype, and occasionally exhibited it at car shows until his death. On 1 June 2014, the Fitch Phoenix went to auction at Bonhams in the Greenwich Concours and sold for 230,000 US dollars. The car is still in Connecticut with the new owner.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: In the early 1970s, Fitch sold his inventory to Art Hershberger of Princeton, Wisconsin. Hershberger made minor styling modifications to several Corvairs and sold them as Solar Sprints and Solar Cavaliers. The main distinguishing feature of the Solar was its Camaro taillights.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Gene Winfield, the automotive customizer, built two models in the mid 1960s that used the unique qualities of the lightweight and low Corvair engine.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The Reactor came when Winfield was tasked with showing the benefits of an aluminum bodied car. What he developed was an extremely low slung two seat front-mid-engine, front-wheel-drive car. He used the 180 hp turbocharged engine from the Corvair Corsa. Other drivetrain components came from the Citroën DS, including the front wheel drive transaxle and height adjustable suspension. Winfield was able to place this vehicle in the 1960s television programs , Batman, and Bewitched.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: A sports racing car – the Piranha – was developed around the same time, to demonstrate the use of a new plastic for the structural parts of the automobile – Cyclic ABS. This lightweight (1,400 lb) vehicle was developed in several generations, using a rear-mounted Corvair engine. Model car company Aluminum Model Toys began small scale production of actual cars through their division run by Gene Winfield. Winfield was able to obtain feature placement of this car on television as The U.N.C.L.E. Car in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Corvair flat-six engines were a popular alternative to Volkswagen engines in dune buggy applications and off-road racing. Corvair engines have been used to power light and experimental aircraft designs by Pietenpol, Zenith, and Sonex. Much development work on the conversion of Corvair engines into flight-worthy powerplants has been carried out by William Wynne, who among others has been refining the process since the 1980s.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: Matthew Wetzel, owner of the Matt's Off Road Recovery YouTube channel, uses a highly modified Corvair Station Wagon nicknamed "The Morrvair" to recover stuck and disabled vehicles from the deserts of Southern Utah. The Morrvair has been modified to be a front engine vehicle, and features an LS engine, Dana 60 & Dana 70 Axles, a custom built lift kit, and many other modifications typical of an off road vehicle.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The first-generation Corvair (1960–1964) has been credited with influencing car design worldwide. Styled in GM's advanced styling studio in 1957, under the leadership of then director Ned Nickels, the compact design was made using cues from earlier Oldsmobile and Chevrolet models. The most notable design feature, its high, wrap-around beltline, was "borrowed" by other carmakers not long after the Corvair's release. These cars included the BMW 1602/2002, NSU Prinz, Hillman Imp, Fiat 1300/1500, Volkswagen Type 34 Karmann Ghia and the Mazda 800.


title: Chevrolet Corvair

text: The Corvair's combination of power and lightweight introduced European manufacturers to an American market niche for small popular-priced sedans with more power and driveability than the contemporary European economy sedans and a more versatile and practical design than European sports cars. That overall concept was exemplified by Volkswagen's Type 34 Karmann Ghia and Type 3 "notchback" in 1961 and BMW's "New Class" sedans in 1962. BMW developed the concept further by mass-marketing higher performance high-quality sedans, setting the trend of the "sport sedan" category that would soon include offerings from a variety of European, and eventually Japanese, manufacturers.


title: Mental state

text: A mental state, or a mental property, is a state of mind of a person. Mental states comprise a diverse class, including perception, pain experience, belief, desire, intention, emotion, and memory. There is controversy concerning the exact definition of the term. According to "epistemic approaches", the essential mark of mental states is that their subject has privileged epistemic access while others can only infer their existence from outward signs. "Consciousness-based approaches" hold that all mental states are either conscious themselves or stand in the right relation to conscious states. "Intentionality-based approaches", on the other hand, see the power of minds to refer to objects and represent the world as the mark of the mental. According to "functionalist approaches", mental states are defined in terms of their role in the causal network independent of their intrinsic properties. Some philosophers deny all the aforementioned approaches by holding that the term "mental" refers to a cluster of loosely related ideas without an underlying unifying feature shared by all. Various overlapping classifications of mental states have been proposed. Important distinctions group mental phenomena together according to whether they are "sensory", "propositional", "intentional", "conscious" or "occurrent". Sensory states involve sense impressions like visual perceptions or bodily pains. Propositional attitudes, like beliefs and desires, are relations a subject has to a proposition. The characteristic of intentional states is that they refer to or are about objects or states of affairs. Conscious states are part of the phenomenal experience while occurrent states are causally efficacious within the owner's mind, with or without consciousness. An influential classification of mental states is due to Franz Brentano, who argues that there are only three basic kinds: presentations, judgments, and phenomena of love and hate.


title: Mental state

text: Mental states are usually contrasted with physical or material aspects. For (non-eliminative) physicalists, they are a kind of high-level property that can be understood in terms of fine-grained neural activity. Property dualists, on the other hand, claim that no such reductive explanation is possible. Eliminativists may reject the existence of mental properties, or at least of those corresponding to folk psychological categories such as thought and memory. Mental states play an important role in various fields, including philosophy of mind, epistemology and cognitive science. In psychology, the term is used not just to refer to the individual mental states listed above but also to a more global assessment of a person's mental health.


title: Mental state

text: Various competing theories have been proposed about what the essential features of all mental states are, sometimes referred to as the search for the "mark of the mental". These theories can roughly be divided into "epistemic approaches", "consciousness-based approaches", "intentionality-based approaches" and "functionalism". These approaches disagree not just on how mentality is to be defined but also on which states count as mental. Mental states encompass a diverse group of aspects of an entity, like this entity's beliefs, desires, intentions, or pain experiences. The different approaches often result in a satisfactory characterization of only some of them. This has prompted some philosophers to doubt that there is a unifying mark of the mental and instead see the term "mental" as referring to a cluster of loosely related ideas. Mental states are usually contrasted with physical or material aspects. This contrast is commonly based on the idea that certain features of mental phenomena are not present in the material universe as described by the natural sciences and may even be incompatible with it.


title: Mental state

text: Central to "epistemic approaches" is the idea that the subject has privileged epistemic access to her mental states. In this view, a state of a subject constitutes a mental state if and only if the subject has privileged access to it. It has been argued that this access is "non-inferential", "infallible" and "private". "Non-inferential access" is insufficient as a mark of the mind if one accepts that we have non-inferential knowledge of non-mental things, for example, in regular perception or in bodily experience. It is sometimes held that knowledge of one's own mental states is "infallible", i.e. that the subject cannot be wrong about having them. But while this may be true for some conscious mental states, there are various counterexamples, like unconscious mental states or conscious emotions that we don't know how to categorize. The most influential characterization of privileged access has been that it is "private", i.e. that mental states are known primarily just by the subject and only through their symptoms like speech acts or other expressions by other people. An influential but not universally accepted argument against this tradition is the private language argument due to Ludwig Wittgenstein. He argues that mental states cannot be private because if they were, we would not be able to refer to them using public language.


title: Mental state

text: Consciousness-based approaches hold that all mental states are either conscious themselves or stand in the right relation to conscious states. There is controversy concerning how this relation is to be characterized. One prominent early version, due to John Searle, states that non-conscious states are mental if they constitute dispositions to bring about conscious states. This usually leads to a hierarchical model of the mind seeing only conscious states as independent mental phenomena, which is often a point of dispute for opponents to consciousness-based approaches. According to this line of thought, some unconscious mental states exist independently of their conscious counterparts. They have been referred to as the "deep unconscious" and figures in the cognitive sciences and psychoanalysis. But whether this counterargument is successful depends both on allowing that the deep unconscious is actually mental and on how the dependency-relation denied by the deep unconscious is to be conceived.


title: Mental state

text: "Intentionality-based approaches" see intentionality, i.e. that mental states refer to objects and represent how the world is, as the mark of the mental. This circumvents various problems faced by consciousness-based approaches since we ascribe representational contents both to conscious and to unconscious states. Two main arguments have been raised against this approach: that some representations, like maps, are not mental and that some mental states, like pain, are not representational. Proponents of intentionality-based approaches have responded to these arguments by giving a hierarchical explanation of how non-mental representations depend on mental representations, akin to the relation between unconscious and conscious states suggested in the last paragraph, and by trying to show how apparently non-representational mental states can be characterized as representational after all.


title: Mental state

text: "Functionalist approaches" define mental states in terms of their role in the causal network. For example, a pain state may be characterized as what tends to be caused by bodily injury and to cause pain expressions like moaning. Behaviorism is one form of functionalism that restricts these characterizations to bodily reactions to external situations, often motivated by an attempt to avoid reference to inner or private states. Other forms of functionalism are more lenient in allowing both external and internal states to characterize the causal role of mental states. Phenomenal consciousness constitutes a difficulty for functionalist approaches since its intrinsic aspects are not captured by causal roles. For example, the causes and effects of pain leave out the fact that pain itself feels unpleasant.


title: Mental state

text: There is a great variety of types of mental states, which can be classified according to various distinctions. These types include "perception", "belief", "desire", "intention", "emotion" and "memory". Many of the proposed distinctions for these types have significant overlaps and some may even be identical. "Sensory states" involve sense impressions, which are absent in "non-sensory states". "Propositional attitudes" are mental states that have propositional contents, in contrast to "non-propositional states". "Intentional states" refer to or are about objects or states of affairs, a feature which "non-intentional states "lack. A mental state is "conscious" if it belongs to a phenomenal experience. "Unconscious mental states" are also part of the mind but they lack this phenomenal dimension. "Occurrent mental states" are active or causally efficacious within the owner's mind while "non-occurrent or standing states" exist somewhere in the back of one's mind but do not currently play an active role in any mental processes. Certain mental states are rationally evaluable: they are either "rational or irrational" depending on whether they obey the norms of rationality. But other states are "arational": they are outside the domain of rationality. A well-known classification is due to Franz Brentano, who distinguishes three basic categories of mental states: "presentations", "judgments", and "phenomena of love and hate".


title: Mental state

text: There is a great variety of types of mental states including "perception", "bodily awareness", "thought", "belief", "desire", "motivation", "intention", "deliberation", "decision", "pleasure", "emotion", "mood", "imagination" and "memory". Some of these types are precisely contrasted with each other while other types may overlap. "Perception" involves the use of senses, like sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste, to acquire information about material objects and events in the external world. It contrasts with "bodily awareness" in this sense, which is about the internal ongoings in our body and which does not present its contents as independent objects. The objects given in perception, on the other hand, are directly (i.e. non-inferentially) presented as existing out there independently of the perceiver. Perception is usually considered to be reliable but our perceptual experiences may present false information at times and can thereby mislead us. The information received in perception is often further considered in "thought", in which information is mentally represented and processed. Both perceptions and thoughts often result in the formation of new or the change of existing "beliefs". Beliefs may amount to "knowledge" if they are justified and true. They are non-sensory cognitive propositional attitudes that have a mind-to-world direction of fit: they represent the world as being a certain way and aim at truth. They contrast with "desires", which are conative propositional attitudes that have a world-to-mind direction of fit and aim to change the world by representing how it should be. Desires are closely related to agency: they "motivate" the agent and are thus involved in the formation of "intentions". Intentions are plans to which the agent is committed and which may guide actions. Intention-formation is sometimes preceded by "deliberation" and "decision", in which the advantages and disadvantages of different courses of action are considered before committing oneself to one course. It is commonly held that "pleasure" plays a central role in these considerations. "Pleasure" refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. The topic of "emotions" is closely intertwined with that of agency and pleasure. Emotions are evaluative responses to external or internal stimuli that are associated with a feeling of pleasure or displeasure and motivate various behavioral reactions. Emotions are quite similar to "moods", some differences being that moods tend to arise for longer durations at a time and that moods are usually not clearly triggered by or directed at a specific event or object. "Imagination" is even further removed from the actual world in that it represents things without aiming to show how they actually are. All the aforementioned states can leave traces in "memory" that make it possible to relive them at a later time in the form of episodic memory.


title: Mental state

text: An important distinction among mental states is between sensory and non-sensory states. Sensory states involve some form of sense impressions like visual perceptions, auditory impressions or bodily pains. Non-sensory states, like thought, rational intuition or the feeling of familiarity, lack sensory contents. Sensory states are sometimes equated with qualitative states and contrasted with propositional attitude states. Qualitative states involve qualia, which constitute the subjective feeling of having the state in question or what it is like to be in it. Propositional attitudes, on the other hand, are relations a subject has to a proposition. They are usually expressed by verbs like believe, desire, fear or hope together with a that-clause. So believing that it will rain today, for example, is a propositional attitude. It has been argued that the contrast between qualitative states and propositional attitudes is misleading since there is some form of subjective feel to certain propositional states like understanding a sentence or suddenly thinking of something. This would suggest that there are also non-sensory qualitative states and some propositional attitudes may be among them. Another problem with this contrast is that some states are both sensory and propositional. This is the case for perception, for example, which involves sensory impressions that represent what the world is like. This representational aspect is usually understood as involving a propositional attitude.


title: Mental state

text: Closely related to these distinctions is the concept of intentionality. Intentionality is usually defined as the characteristic of mental states to refer to or be about objects or states of affairs. The belief that the moon has a circumference of 10921 km, for example, is a mental state that is intentional in virtue of being about the moon and its circumference. It is sometimes held that all mental states are intentional, i.e. that intentionality is the "mark of the mental". This thesis is known as "intentionalism". But this view has various opponents, who distinguish between intentional and non-intentional states. Putative examples of non-intentional states include various bodily experiences like pains and itches. Because of this association, it is sometimes held that all sensory states lack intentionality. But such a view ignores that certain sensory states, like perceptions, can be intentional at the same time. It is usually accepted that all propositional attitudes are intentional. But while the paradigmatic cases of intentionality are all propositional as well, there may be some intentional attitudes that are non-propositional. This could be the case when an intentional attitude is directed only at an object. In this view, Elsie's fear of snakes is a non-propositional intentional attitude while Joseph's fear that he will be bitten by snakes is a propositional intentional attitude.


title: Mental state

text: A mental state is conscious if it belongs to phenomenal experience. The subject is aware of the conscious mental states it is in: there is some subjective feeling to having them. Unconscious mental states are also part of the mind but they lack this phenomenal dimension. So it is possible for a subject to be in an unconscious mental state, like a repressed desire, without knowing about it. It is usually held that some types of mental states, like sensations or pains, can only occur as conscious mental states. But there are also other types, like beliefs and desires, that can be both conscious and unconscious. For example, many people share the belief that the moon is closer to the earth than to the sun. When considered, this belief becomes conscious, but it is unconscious most of the time otherwise. The relation between conscious and unconscious states is a controversial topic. It is often held that conscious states are in some sense more basic with unconscious mental states depending on them. One such approach states that unconscious states have to be accessible to consciousness, that they are dispositions of the subject to enter their corresponding conscious counterparts. On this position there can be no "deep unconscious", i.e. unconscious mental states that can not become conscious.


title: Mental state

text: The term "consciousness" is sometimes used not in the sense of "phenomenal consciousness", as above, but in the sense of "access consciousness". A mental state is conscious in this sense if the information it carries is available for reasoning and guiding behavior, even if it is not associated with any subjective feel characterizing the concurrent phenomenal experience. Being an access-conscious state is similar but not identical to being an occurrent mental state, the topic of the next section.


title: Mental state

text: A mental state is occurrent if it is active or causally efficacious within the owner's mind. Non-occurrent states are called standing or dispositional states. They exist somewhere in the back of one's mind but currently play no active role in any mental processes. This distinction is sometimes identified with the distinction between phenomenally conscious and unconscious mental states. It seems to be the case that the two distinctions overlap but do not fully match despite the fact that all conscious states are occurrent. This is the case because unconscious states may become causally active while remaining unconscious. A repressed desire may affect the agent's behavior while remaining unconscious, which would be an example of an unconscious occurring mental state. The distinction between occurrent and standing is especially relevant for beliefs and desires. At any moment, there seems to be a great number of things we believe or things we want that are not relevant to our current situation. These states remain inactive in the back of one's head even though one has them. For example, while Ann is engaged in her favorite computer game, she still believes that dogs have four legs and desires to get a pet dog on her next birthday. But these two states play no active role in her current state of mind. Another example comes from dreamless sleep when most or all of our mental states are standing states.


title: Mental state

text: Certain mental states, like beliefs and intentions, are rationally evaluable: they are either rational or irrational depending on whether they obey the norms of rationality. But other states, like urges, experiences of dizziness or hunger, are arational: they are outside the domain of rationality and can be neither rational nor irrational. An important distinction within rationality concerns the difference between theoretical and practical rationality. Theoretical rationality covers beliefs and their degrees while practical rationality focuses on desires, intentions and actions. Some theorists aim to provide a comprehensive account of all forms of rationality but it is more common to find separate treatments of specific forms of rationality that leave the relation to other forms of rationality open.


title: Mental state

text: There are various competing definitions of what constitutes rationality but no universally accepted answer. Some accounts focus on the relation between mental states for determining whether a given state is rational. In one view, a state is rational if it is well-grounded in another state that acts as its source of justification. For example, Scarlet's belief that it is raining in Manchester is rational because it is grounded in her perceptual experience of the rain while the same belief would be irrational for Frank since he lacks such a perceptual ground. A different version of such an approach holds that rationality is given in virtue of the coherence among the different mental states of a subject. This involves an holistic outlook that is less concerned with the rationality of individual mental states and more with the rationality of the person as a whole. Other accounts focus not on the relation between two or several mental states but on responding correctly to external reasons. Reasons are usually understood as facts that count in favor or against something. On this account, Scarlet's aforementioned belief is rational because it responds correctly to the external fact that it's raining, which constitutes a reason for holding this belief.


title: Mental state

text: An influential classification of mental states is due to Franz Brentano. He argues that there are three basic kinds: "presentations", "judgments", and "phenomena of love and hate". All mental states either belong to one of these kinds or are constituted by combinations of them. These different types differ not in content or what is presented but in mode or how it is presented. The most basic kind is "presentation", which is involved in every mental state. Pure presentations, as in imagination, just show their object without any additional information about the veridical or evaluative aspects of their object. A "judgment", on the other hand, is an attitude directed at a presentation that asserts that its presentation is either true or false, as is the case in regular perception. "Phenomena of love and hate" involve an evaluative attitude towards their presentation: they show how things ought to be, and the presented object is seen as either good or bad. This happens, for example, in desires. More complex types can be built up through combinations of these basic types. To be disappointed about an event, for example, can be construed as a judgment that this event happened together with a negative evaluation of it. Brentano's distinction between judgments, phenomena of love and hate, and presentations is closely related to the more recent idea of direction of fit between mental state and world, i.e. mind-to-world direction of fit for judgments, the world-to-mind direction of fit for phenomena of love and hate and null direction of fit for mere presentations. Brentano's tripartite system of classification has been modified in various ways by Brentano's students. Alexius Meinong, for example, divides the category of phenomena of love and hate into two distinct categories: feelings and desires. Uriah Kriegel is a contemporary defender of Brentano's approach to the classification of mental phenomena.


title: Mental state

text: In cognitive psychology and the philosophy of mind, a mental state is a kind of hypothetical state that corresponds to thinking and feeling, and consists of a conglomeration of mental representations and propositional attitudes. Several theories in philosophy and psychology try to determine the relationship between the agent's mental state and a proposition.


title: Mental state

text: Instead of looking into what a mental state is, in itself, clinical psychology and psychiatry determine a person's mental health through a mental status examination.


title: Mental state

text: Mental states also include attitudes towards propositions, of which there are at least two—factive and non-factive, both of which entail the mental state of acquaintance. To be acquainted with a proposition is to understand its meaning and be able to entertain it. The proposition can be true or false, and acquaintance requires no specific attitude towards that truth or falsity. Factive attitudes include those mental states that are attached to the truth of the proposition—i.e. the proposition entails truth. Some factive mental states include "perceiving that", "remembering that", "regretting that", and (more controversially) "knowing that". Non-factive attitudes do not entail the truth of the propositions to which they are attached. That is, one can be in one of these mental states and the proposition can be false. An example of a non-factive attitude is believing—people can believe a false proposition and people can believe a true proposition. Since there is the possibility of both, such mental states do not entail truth, and therefore, are not active. However, belief does entail an attitude of assent toward the presumed truth of the proposition (whether or not it's so), making it and other non-factive attitudes different from a mere acquaintance.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: In 1934, Orff encountered the 1847 edition of the "Carmina Burana" by Johann Andreas Schmeller, the original text dating mostly from the 11th or 12th century, including some from the 13th century. was a young law student and an enthusiast of Latin and Greek; he assisted Orff in the selection and organization of 24 of these poems into a libretto mostly in secular Latin verse, with a small amount of Middle High German and Old French. The selection covers a wide range of topics, as familiar in the 13th century as they are in the 21st century: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of spring and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling, and lust.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: "Carmina Burana" is structured into five major sections, containing 25 movements in total, including one repeated movement and one purely instrumental one. Orff indicates "attacca" markings between all the movements within each scene.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Much of the compositional structure is based on the idea of the turning Fortuna Wheel. The drawing of the wheel found on the first page of the "Burana Codex" includes four phrases around the outside of the wheel:


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Within each scene, and sometimes within a single movement, the wheel of fortune turns, joy turning to bitterness, and hope turning to grief. "O Fortuna", the first poem in the Schmeller edition, completes this circle, forming a compositional frame for the work through being both the opening and closing movements.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Orff subscribed to a dramatic concept called "Theatrum Mundi" in which music, movement, and speech were inseparable. Babcock writes that "Orff's artistic formula limited the music in that every musical moment was to be connected with an action on stage. It is here that modern performances of "Carmina Burana" fall short of Orff's intentions." Orff subtitled "Carmina Burana" a "scenic cantata" in his intention to stage the work with dance, choreography, visual design and other stage action; the piece is now usually performed in concert halls as a cantata.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: A danced version of "Carmina Burana" was choreographed by Loyce Houlton for the Minnesota Dance Theatre in 1978. In honour of Orff's 80th birthday, an acted and choreographed film version was filmed, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle for the German broadcaster ZDF; Orff collaborated in its production.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Kent Stowell choreographed the work for Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. It premiered on October 5, 1993, with scenic design by Ming Cho Lee.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Orff's style demonstrates a desire for directness of speech and of access. "Carmina Burana" contains little or no development in the classical sense, and polyphony is also conspicuously absent. "Carmina Burana" avoids overt harmonic complexities, a fact which many musicians and critics have pointed out, such as Ann Powers of "The New York Times".


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Orff was influenced melodically by late Renaissance and early Baroque models including William Byrd and Claudio Monteverdi. It is a common misconception that Orff based the melodies of "Carmina Burana" on neumeatic melodies; while many of the lyrics in the "Burana Codex" are enhanced with neumes, almost none of these melodies had been deciphered at the time of Orff's composition, and none of them had served Orff as a melodic model. His shimmering orchestration shows a deference to Stravinsky. In particular, Orff's music is very reminiscent of Stravinsky's earlier work, "Les noces" ("The Wedding").


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Rhythm, for Orff as it was for Stravinsky, is often the primary musical element. Over all, it sounds rhythmically straightforward and simple, but the metre will change freely from one measure to the next. While the rhythmic arc in a section is taken as a whole, a measure of five may be followed by one of seven, to one of four, and so on, often with caesura marked between them. These constant rhythmic changes combined with the caesura create a very "conversational" feel – so much so that the rhythmic complexities of the piece are often overlooked.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Some of the solo arias pose bold challenges for singers: the only solo tenor aria, "Olim lacus colueram", is often sung almost completely in falsetto to demonstrate the suffering of the character (in this case, a roasting swan). The baritone arias often demand high notes not commonly found in baritone repertoire, and parts of the baritone aria "Dies nox et omnia" are often sung in falsetto, a rare example in baritone repertoire. Also noted is the solo soprano aria, "Dulcissime" which demands extremely high notes. Orff intended this aria for a lyric soprano, not a coloratura, so that the musical tensions would be more obvious.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: "Carmina Burana" was first staged by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937 under conductor (1892–1967) with the , staging by and sets and costumes by Ludwig Sievert. Shortly after the greatly successful premiere, Orff said the following to his publisher, Schott Music: "Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With "Carmina Burana", my collected works begin."


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Several performances were repeated elsewhere in Germany. The Nazi regime was at first nervous about the erotic tone of some of the poems, but eventually embraced the piece. It became the most famous piece of music composed in Germany at the time. The popularity of the work continued to rise after the war, and by the 1960s "Carmina Burana" was well established as part of the international classic repertoire. The piece was voted number 62 at the Classic 100 Ten Years On and is at number 144 of the 2020 Classic FM Hall of Fame.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: Alex Ross wrote that "the music itself commits no sins simply by being and remaining popular. That "Carmina Burana" has appeared in hundreds of films and television commercials is proof that it contains no diabolical message, indeed that it contains no message whatsoever."


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: The popularity of the work has ensured the creation of many additional arrangements for a variety of performing forces.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: In 1956, Orff's disciple Wilhelm Killmayer created a reduced version for soloists, SATB mixed choir, children's choir, two pianos and six percussion (timpani + 5), and was authorized by Orff. The score has short solos for three tenors, baritone and two basses. This version is to allow smaller ensembles the opportunity to perform the piece.


title: Carmina Burana (Orff)

text: An arrangement for wind ensemble was prepared by (born 1921), who wanted to both give wind bands a chance to perform the work and to facilitate performances in cities that have a high quality choral union and wind band, but lack a symphony orchestra. A performance of this arrangement was recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony under Eugene Corporon. In writing this transcription, Mas Quiles maintained the original chorus, percussion, and piano parts.


title: Ocean liner

text: An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships).


title: Ocean liner

text: Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes called "liners". The category does not include ferries or other vessels engaged in short-sea trading, nor dedicated cruise ships where the voyage itself, and not transportation, is the primary purpose of the trip. Nor does it include tramp steamers, even those equipped to handle limited numbers of passengers. Some shipping companies refer to themselves as "lines" and their container ships, which often operate over set routes according to established schedules, as "liners".


title: Ocean liner

text: Ocean liners are usually strongly built with a high freeboard to withstand rough seas and adverse conditions encountered in the open ocean. Additionally, they are often designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships, and have large capacities for fuel, food and other consumables on long voyages.


title: Ocean liner

text: The first ocean liners were built in the mid-19th century. Technological innovations such as the steam engine and steel hull allowed larger and faster liners to be built, giving rise to a competition between world powers of the time, especially between the United Kingdom, the German Empire, and to a lesser extent France. Once the dominant form of travel between continents, ocean liners were rendered largely obsolete by the emergence of long-distance aircraft after World War II. Advances in automobile and railway technology also played a role. After was retired in 2008, the only ship still in service as an ocean liner is .


title: Ocean liner

text: Ocean liners were the primary mode of intercontinental travel for over a century, from the mid-19th century until they began to be supplanted by airliners in the 1950s. In addition to passengers, liners carried mail and cargo. Ships contracted to carry British Royal Mail used the designation RMS. Liners were also the preferred way to move gold and other high-value cargoes.


title: Ocean liner

text: The busiest route for liners was on the North Atlantic with ships travelling between Europe and North America. It was on this route that the fastest, largest and most advanced liners travelled, though most ocean liners historically were mid-sized vessels which served as the common carriers of passengers and freight between nations and among mother countries and their colonies and dependencies in the pre-jet age. Such routes included Europe to African and Asian colonies, Europe to South America, and migrant traffic from Europe to North America in the 19th and first two decades of the 20th centuries, and to Canada and Australia after the Second World War.


title: Ocean liner

text: Shipping lines are companies engaged in shipping passengers and cargo, often on established routes and schedules. Regular scheduled voyages on a set route are called "line voyages" and vessels (passenger or cargo) trading on these routes to a timetable are called liners. The alternative to liner trade is "tramping" whereby vessels are notified on an ad hoc basis as to the availability of a cargo to be transported. (In older usage, "liner" also referred to ships of the line, that is, line-of-battle ships, but that usage is now rare.) The term "ocean liner" has come to be used interchangeably with "passenger liner", although it can refer to a cargo liner or cargo-passenger liner.


title: Ocean liner

text: The advent of the Jet Age and the decline in transoceanic ship service brought about a gradual transition from passenger ships to modern cruise ships as a means of transportation. In order for ocean liners to remain profitable, cruise lines modified some of them to operate on cruise routes, such as the . Certain characteristics of older ocean liners made them unsuitable for cruising, such as high fuel consumption, deep draught preventing them from entering shallow ports, and cabins (often windowless) designed to maximize passenger numbers rather than comfort. The Italian Line's and , the last ocean liners to be built primarily for crossing the North Atlantic, could not be converted economically and had short careers.


title: Ocean liner

text: At the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the inter-continental trade rendered the development of secure links between continents imperative. Being at the top among the colonial powers, the United Kingdom needed stable maritime routes to connect different parts of its empire: the Far East, India, Australia, etc. The birth of the concept of international water and the lack of any claim to it simplified navigation. In 1818, the Black Ball Line, with a fleet of sailing ships, offered the first regular passenger service with emphasis on passenger comfort, from England to the United States.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1807, Robert Fulton succeeded in applying steam engines to ships. He built the first ship that was powered by this technology, the "Clermont", which succeeded in traveling between New York City and Albany, New York in thirty hours before entering into regular service between the two cities. Soon after, other vessels were built using this innovation. In 1816, the became the first steamship to cross the English Channel. Another important advance came in 1819, when became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. She left the city of the same name and arrived in Liverpool, England in 27 days. Most of the distance was covered by sailing; the steam power was not used for more than 72 hours during the travel. The public enthusiasm for the new technology was not high, as none of the thirty-two people who had booked a seat boarded the ship for that historic voyage. Although "Savannah" had proven that a steamship was capable of crossing the ocean, the public was not yet prepared to trust such means of travel on the open sea, and, in 1820, the steam engine was removed from the vessel.


title: Ocean liner

text: Work on this technology continued and a new step was taken in 1833. "Royal William" managed to cross the Atlantic by using steam power on most of the voyage; sail was used only when the boilers were cleaned. There were still many skeptics, and in 1836, scientific writer Dionysius Lardner declared that: As the project of making the voyage directly from New York to Liverpool, it was perfectly chimerical, and they might as well talk of making the voyage from New York to the moon.


title: Ocean liner

text: The last step toward long-distance travel using steam power was taken in 1837 when left Liverpool on 4 April and arrived in New York eighteen days later on 22 April after a turbulent crossing. Too little coal was prepared for the crossing, and the crew had to burn cabin furniture in order to complete the voyage. The journey took place at a speed of 8.03 knots. The voyage was made possible by the use of a condenser, which fed the boilers with fresh water, avoiding having to periodically shut down the boilers in order to remove the salt. The feat was short-lived. The next day, , designed by railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, arrived in New York. She left Liverpool on 8 April and overtook "Sirius"s record with an average speed of 8.66 knots. The race of speed was commenced, and, with it, the tradition of the Blue Riband.


title: Ocean liner

text: With "Great Western", Isambard Kingdom Brunel laid the foundations for new shipbuilding techniques. He realised that the carrying capacity of a ship increases as the cube of its dimensions, whilst the water resistance only increases as the square of its dimensions. This means that large ships are more fuel-efficient, something very important for long voyages across the Atlantic. Constructing large ships was therefore more profitable. Moreover, migration to the Americas increased enormously. These movements of population were a financial windfall for the shipping companies, some of the largest of which were founded during this time. Examples are the P&O of the United Kingdom in 1822 and the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique of France in 1855.


title: Ocean liner

text: The steam engine also allowed ships to provide regular service without the use of sail. This aspect particularly appealed to the postal companies, which leased the services of ships to serve clients separated by the ocean. In 1839, Samuel Cunard founded the Cunard Line and became the first to dedicate the activity of his shipping company to the transport of mails, thus ensuring regular services on a given schedule. The company's vessels operated the routes between the United Kingdom and the United States. Over time, the paddle wheel, impractical on the high seas, was abandoned in favour of the propeller. In 1840, Cunard Line's began its first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship, sailing from Liverpool to Boston, Massachusetts.


title: Ocean liner

text: As the size of ship increased, the wooden hull became fragile. Beginning with the use of an iron hull in 1845, and then steel hulls, solved this problem. The first ship to be both iron-hulled and equipped with a screw propeller was , a creation of Brunel. Her career was disastrous and short. She was run aground and stranded at Dundrum Bay in 1846. In 1884, she was retired to the Falkland Islands where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship, and coal hulk until she was scuttled in 1937. The American company Collins Line took a different approach. It equipped its ships with cold rooms, heating systems, and various other innovations but the operation was expensive. The sinking of two of its ships was a major blow to the company which was dissolved in 1858.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1858, Brunel built his third and last giant, . The ship was, for 43 years, the largest passenger ship ever built. She had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers. Her career was marked by a series of failures and incidents, one of which was an explosion on board during her maiden voyage.


title: Ocean liner

text: Many ships owned by German companies like Hamburg America Line and Norddeutscher Lloyd were sailing from major German ports, such as Hamburg and Bremen, to the United States during this time. The year 1858 was marked by a major accident: the sinking of . The ship, built in Greenock and sailing between Hamburg and New York twice a month, suffered an accidental fire off the coast of Newfoundland and sank with the loss of all but 89 of the 542 passengers.


title: Ocean liner

text: In the British market, Cunard Line and White Star Line (the latter after being bought by Thomas Ismay in 1868), competed strongly against each other in the late 1860s. The struggle was symbolised by the attainment of the Blue Riband, which the two companies achieved several times around the end of the century. The luxury and technology of ships were also evolving. Auxiliary sails became obsolete and disappeared completely at the end of the century. Possible military use of passenger ships was envisaged and, in 1889, became the first auxiliary cruiser in history. In the time of war, ships could easily be equipped with cannons and used in cases of conflict. "Teutonic" succeeded in impressing Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, who wanted to see his country endowed with a modern fleet.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1870, the White Star Line's set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water. The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of immigration to the United States and Australia.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1897, Norddeutscher Lloyd launched . She was followed three years later by three sister ships. The ship was both luxurious and fast, managing to steal the Blue Riband from the British. She was also the first of the fourteen ocean liners with four funnels that have emerged in maritime history. The ship needed only two funnels, but more funnels gave passengers a feeling of safety and power. In 1900, the Hamburg America Line competed with its own four-funnel liner, . She quickly obtained the Blue Riband for her company. This race for speed, however, was a detriment to passengers' comfort and generated strong vibration, which made her owner lose any interest in her after she lost the Blue Riband to another ship of Norddeutscher Lloyd. She was only used for ten years for transatlantic crossing before being converted into a cruise ship. Until 1907 the Blue Riband remained in the hands of the Germans.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1902, J. P. Morgan embraced the idea of a maritime empire comprising a large number of companies. He founded the International Mercantile Marine Co., a trust which originally comprised only American shipping companies. The trust then absorbed Leyland Line and White Star Line. The British government then decided to intervene in order to regain the ascendancy.


title: Ocean liner

text: Although German liners dominated in terms of speed, British liners dominated in terms of size. and the Big Four of the White Star Line were the first liners to surpass "Great Eastern" as the largest passenger ships. Ultimately their owner was American (as mentioned above, White Star Line had been absorbed into J. P. Morgan's trust). Faced with this major competition, the British government contributed financially to Cunard Line's construction of two liners of unmatched size and speed, under the condition that they be available for conversion into armed cruisers when needed by the navy. The result of this partnership was the completion in 1907 of two sister ships: and , both of which won the Blue Riband during their respective maiden voyages. The latter retained this distinction for twenty years. Their great speed was achieved by the use of turbines instead of conventional expansion machines.


title: Ocean liner

text: In response to the competition from Cunard Line, White Star Line ordered the liners at the end of 1907. The first of these three liners, , completed in 1911, had a fine career, although punctuated by incidents. This was not the case for her sister, the , which sank on her maiden voyage on 15 April 1912, resulting in several changes to maritime safety practices. As for the third sister, , she never served her intended purpose as a passenger ship, as she was drafted in the First World War as a hospital ship, and sank to a naval mine in 1916.


title: Ocean liner

text: At the same time, France tried to mark its presence with the completion in 1912 of owned by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. Germany soon responded to the competition from the British. From 1912 to 1914, Hamburg America Line completed a trio of liners significantly larger than the White Star Line's "Olympic"-class ships. The first to be completed, in 1913 was . She was followed by SS "Vaterland" in 1914. The construction of the third liner, , was paused by the outbreak of the First World War.


title: Ocean liner

text: The First World War was a hard time for the liners. Some of them, like the "Mauretania", , and "Britannic" were transformed into hospital ships during the conflict. Others became troop transports, while some, such as the "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse", participated in the war as warships. Troop transportation was very popular due to the liners' large size. Liners converted into troop ships were painted in dazzle camouflage to reduce the risk of being torpedoed by enemy submarines.


title: Ocean liner

text: The war was marked by the loss of many liners. "Britannic", while serving as a hospital ship, sank in the Aegean Sea in 1916 after she struck a mine. Numerous incidents of torpedoing took place and large numbers of ships sank. "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" was defeated and scuttled after a fierce battle with off the coast of west Africa, while her sister ship served as a commerce raider. The torpedoing and sinking of "Lusitania" on 7 May 1915 caused the loss of 128 American lives at a time when the United States was still neutral. Although other factors came into play, the loss of American lives in the sinking strongly pushed the United States to favour the Allied Powers and facilitated the country's entry into the war.


title: Ocean liner

text: The losses of the liners owned by the Allied Powers were compensated by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. This led to the awarding of many German liners to the victorious Allies. The Hamburg America Line's trio (, "Vaterland", and "Bismarck") were divided between the Cunard Line, White Star Line, and the United States Lines, while the three surviving ships of the Kaiser class were requisitioned by the US Navy in the context of the conflict and then retained. The "Tirpitz", whose construction was delayed by the outbreak of war eventually became the . Of the German superliners, only "Deutschland", because of her poor state, avoided this fate.


title: Ocean liner

text: After a period of reconstruction, the shipping companies recovered quickly from the damage caused by the First World War. The ships, whose construction was started before the war, such as of the French Line, were completed and put into service. Prominent British liners, such as the "Olympic" and the "Mauretania", were also put back into service and had a successful career in the early 1920s. More modern liners were also built, such as (completed in 1927). The United States Lines, having received the "Vaterland", renamed her "Leviathan" and made her the flagship of the company's fleet. Because all U.S. registered ships counted as an extension of U.S. territory, the National Prohibition Act made American liners alcohol-free, causing alcohol-seeking passengers to choose other liners for travel and substantially reducing profits for the United States Lines.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1929, Germany returned to the scene with the two ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd, and . "Bremen" won the Blue Riband from Britain's "Mauretania" after the latter had held it for twenty years. Soon, Italy also entered the scene. The Italian Line completed and in 1932, breaking the records of both luxury and speed ("Rex" won the westbound Blue Riband in 1933). France reentered the scene with of the French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). The ship was the largest ship afloat at the time of her completion in 1932. She was also the fastest, winning the Blue Riband in 1935.


title: Ocean liner

text: A crisis arose when the United States drastically reduced its immigrant quotas, causing shipping companies to lose a large part of their income and to have to adapt to this circumstance. The Great Depression also played an important role, causing a drastic decrease in the number of people crossing the Atlantic and at the same time reducing the number of profitable transatlantic voyages. In response, shipping companies redirected many of their liners to a more profitable cruise service. In 1934, in the United Kingdom, Cunard Line and White Star Line were in very bad shape financially. Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain proposed to merge the two companies in order to solve their financial problems. The merger took place in 1934 and launched the construction of the while progressively sending their older ships to the scrapyard. The "Queen Mary" was the fastest ship of her time and the largest for a short amount of time, she captured the Blue Riband twice, both off "Normandie". The construction of a second ship, the , was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.


title: Ocean liner

text: The Second World War was a conflict rich in events involving liners. From the start of the conflict, German liners were requisitioned and many were turned into barracks ships. It was in the course of this activity that the "Bremen" caught fire and was scrapped in 1941. During the conflict, "Queen Elizabeth" and "Queen Mary" provided distinguished service as troopships.


title: Ocean liner

text: Many liners were sunk with great loss of life; in the Second World War the three worst disasters were the loss of the Cunarder in 1940 off Saint-Nazaire to German bombing while attempting to evacuate troops of the British Expeditionary Force from France, with the loss of more than 3,000 lives; the sinking of , after the ship was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, with more than 9,000 lives lost, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in history; and the sinking of with more than 7,000 lives lost, both in the Baltic Sea, in 1945.


title: Ocean liner

text: SS "Rex" was bombarded and sunk in 1944, while "Normandie" caught fire, capsized and sank in New York in 1942 while being converted for troop duty. Many of the superliners of the 1920s and 1930s were victims of U-boats, mines or enemy aircraft. was attacked by German planes, then torpedoed by a U-boat when tugs tried to tow her to safety.


title: Ocean liner

text: After the war, some ships were again transferred from the defeated nations to the winning nations as war reparations. This was the case of the "Europa", which was ceded to France and renamed "Liberté". The United States government was very impressed with the service of the Cunard's "Queen Mary" and "Queen Elizabeth" as troopships during the war. To ensure a reliable and fast troop transport in case of a war against the Soviet Union, the U.S. government sponsored the construction of and entered it into service for the United States Lines in 1952. She won the Blue Riband on her maiden voyage in that year and held it until Richard Branson won it back in 1986 with Virgin Atlantic Challenger II. One year later, in 1953, Italy completed the , which later sank in 1956 after a collision with .


title: Ocean liner

text: Before the Second World War, aircraft had not posed a significant economic threat to ocean liners. Most pre-war aircraft were noisy, vulnerable to bad weather, few had the range needed for transoceanic flights, and all were expensive and had a small passenger capacity. The war accelerated development of large, long-ranged aircraft. Four-engined bombers, such as the Avro Lancaster and Boeing B-29 Superfortress, with their range and massive carrying capacity, were natural prototypes for post-war next-generation airliners. Jet engine technology also accelerated due to wartime development of jet aircraft. In 1953, the De Havilland Comet became the first commercial jet airliner; the Sud Aviation Caravelle, Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 followed, and much long-distance travel was done by air. The Italian Line's and , launched in 1962 and 1963, were two of the last ocean liners to be built primarily for liner service across the North Atlantic. Cunard's transatlantic liner, , was also used as a cruise ship. By the early 1960s, 95% of passenger traffic across the Atlantic was by aircraft. Thus the reign of the ocean liners came to an end. By the early 1970s, many passenger ships continued their service in cruising.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1982, during the Falklands War, three active or former liners were requisitioned for war service by the British Government. The liners "Queen Elizabeth 2" and , were requisitioned from Cunard and P&O to serve as troopships, carrying British Army personnel to Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands to recover the Falklands from the invading Argentine forces. The P&O educational cruise ship and former British India Steam Navigation Company liner was requisitioned as a hospital ship, and served after the war as a troopship until the RAF Mount Pleasant station was built at Stanley, which could handle trooping flights.


title: Ocean liner

text: By the first decade of the 21st century, only a few former ocean liners were still in existence; some, like , were sailing as cruise ships while others, like , were preserved as museums, or laid up at pier side like SS "United States". After the retirement of "Queen Elizabeth 2" in 2008, the only ocean liner in service was "Queen Mary 2", built in 2003–04, used for both point-to-point line voyages and for cruises.


title: Ocean liner

text: Five ocean liners that were made before the Second World War survive today as they have been partially or fully preserved as museums and hotels. The Japanese ocean liner (1929), has been preserved in Naka-ku, Yokohama, Japan, as a museum ship, since 1961. "Queen Mary" (1934) was preserved in 1967 after her retirement, and became a museum/hotel in Long Beach, California. In the 1970s, (1843) was also preserved, and now resides in Bristol, England as another museum. The latest ship to undergo preservation is (1914). While originally being a cargo ship, it served as the Italian ocean liner Franca C. for Costa Lines from 1952 to 1959, and in 2010 it became a dry berthed luxury hotel on Bintan Island, Indonesia.


title: Ocean liner

text: Furthermore, a 1,000-ton front section of the Italian liner (1925), which includes the bridge, passenger cabins, main ballroom, two lifeboats on the boat deck and more, has been preserved since the end of her career in the 1960s in the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan.


title: Ocean liner

text: Post-war ocean liners still extant are "United States" (1952), docked and abandoned in Philadelphia since 1996; (1958), moored in Rotterdam as a museum and hotel since 2008; and "Queen Elizabeth 2" (1967), floating luxury hotel and museum at Mina Rashid, Dubai since 2018.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 2021, (1961) was purchased by Brock Pierce for over $1 million. Originally operated by the Portuguese shipping company Empresa Insulana de Navegação, it is currently being renovated into a hotel.


title: Ocean liner

text: Since their beginning in the 19th century, ocean liners needed to meet growing demands. The first liners were small and overcrowded, leading to unsanitary conditions on board. Eliminating these phenomena required larger ships, to reduce the crowding of passengers, and faster ships, to reduce the duration of transatlantic crossings. The iron and steel hulls and steam power allowed for these advances. Thus, "Great Western" (1,340 GRT) and "Great Eastern" (18,915 GRT) were constructed in 1838 and 1858 respectively. The record set by "Great Eastern" was not beaten until 43 years later in 1901 when (20,904 GT) was completed. The tonnage then grew profoundly: the first liners to have a tonnage that exceeded 20,000 were the Big Four of the White Star Line. The Olympic-class ocean liners, first completed in 1911, were the first to have a tonnage that exceeded 45,000. , completed in 1935, had a tonnage of 79,280. In 1940, raised the record of size to a tonnage of 83,673. She was the largest passenger ship ever constructed until 1997. In 2003, became the largest, at 149,215 GT.


title: Ocean liner

text: In the early 1840s, the average speed of liners was less than 10 knots (a crossing of the Atlantic thus took about 12 days or more). In the 1870s, the average speed of liners increased to around 15 knots the duration of a transatlantic crossing shortened to around 7 days, owing to the technological progress made in the propulsion of ships: the rudimentary steam boilers gave rise to more elaborate machineries and the paddlewheel gradually disappeared, replaced first by one screw then by two screws. At the beginning of the 20th century, Cunard Line's and reached a speed of 27 knots. Their records seemed unbeatable, and most shipping companies abandoned the race for speed in favor of size, luxury, and safety. The advent of ships with diesel engines, and of those whose engines were oil-burning, such as the "Bremen", in the early 1930s, relaunched the race for the Blue Riband. The "Normandie" won it in 1935 before being snatched by in 1938. It was not until 1952 that set a record that remains today: 34.5 knots (3 days and 12 hours of crossing the Atlantic). In addition, since 1935, the Blue Riband is accompanied by the Hales Trophy, which is awarded to the winner.


title: Ocean liner

text: The first ocean liners were designed to carry mostly migrants. On-board sanitary conditions were often deplorable and epidemics were frequent. In 1848, maritime laws imposing hygiene rules were adopted and they improved on-board living conditions. Gradually, two distinct classes were developed: the cabin class and the steerage class. The passengers traveling on the former were wealthy passengers and they enjoyed certain comfort in that class. The passengers traveling on the latter were members of the middle class or the working class. In that class, they were packed in large dormitories. Until the beginning of the 20th century, they did not always have bedsheets and meals. An intermediate class for tourists and members of the middle class gradually appeared. The cabins were then divided into three classes.


title: Ocean liner

text: The facilities offered to passengers developed over time. In the 1870s, the installation of bathtubs and oil lamps caused a sensation on board RMS "Oceanic". In the following years, the number of amenities became numerous, for example: smoking rooms, lounges, and promenade deck. In 1907, RMS "Adriatic" even offered turkish baths and a swimming pool. In the 1920s, SS "Paris" was the first liner to offer a movie theatre.


title: Ocean liner

text: The British and the Germans were the most famed in shipbuilding during the great era of ocean liners. In Ireland, Harland & Wolff shipyard of Belfast were particularly innovative and succeeded in winning the trust of many shipping companies, such as White Star Line. These gigantic shipyards employed a large portion of the population of cities and built hulls, machines, furnitures and lifeboats. Among the other well-known British shipyards were Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, the builder of RMS "Mauretania", and John Brown & Company, builder of .


title: Ocean liner

text: Germany had many shipyards on the coast of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, including Blohm & Voss and AG Vulcan Stettin. Many of these shipyards were destroyed during World War II; some managed to recover and continue building ships.


title: Ocean liner

text: In France, major shipyards included Chantiers de Penhoët in Saint-Nazaire, known for building . This shipyard merged with Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire shipyard to form the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard, which has built ships including . France also had major shipyards on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.


title: Ocean liner

text: Italy and the Netherlands also had shipyards capable of building large ships (for example, Fincantieri).


title: Ocean liner

text: There were many British shipping companies; two were particularly distinguished: Cunard Line and White Star Line. Both were founded during the 1830s and engaged in strong competition against one another, possessing the largest and fastest liners in the world in the early 20th century. It was not until 1934 that financial difficulty caused the two to merge, forming . The P&O also occupied a large part of the business.


title: Ocean liner

text: The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company operated as a state-owned enterprise with its close relationship with the government. Over the course of its history, it took over many shipping companies, becoming one of the largest companies in the world before legal problems led to its liquidation in 1931. The Union Castle Line operated in Africa and the Indian Ocean with a fleet of considerable size.


title: Ocean liner

text: Two rival companies, Hamburg America Line (often referred to as "HAPAG") and Norddeutscher Lloyd, competed in Germany. The First and Second World Wars dealt much damage to the two companies, both forced to renounce their ships to the winning side in both wars. The two merged to form Hapag-Lloyd in 1970.


title: Ocean liner

text: The ocean liner industry in France also consisted of two rival companies: the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (commonly known as "Transat" or "French Line") and Messageries Maritimes. The CGT operated on the North Atlantic route with well-known liners such as and SS "France", while the MM operated in French colonies in Asia and Africa. Decolonization in the second half of the 20th century led to a sharp decline in profit for the MM, and it merged with the CGT in 1975 to form the Compagnie Générale Maritime.


title: Ocean liner

text: The Netherlands had 3 main companies, on the one hand they had the Holland America Line that operated mostly on the north Atlantic route and with well known ships like the and . Unlike the French and German industry the Holland America line had no domestic rival and thus only had to compete with foreign lines. the other two dutch lines were the "Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland" (SMN), otherwise known as the Netherland Line and the "Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd" (KRL) they both offered regular service between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch colony in South East Asia now known as Indonesia and had a long-lasting friendly rivalry.


title: Ocean liner

text: In the United States, the United States Lines tried to impose itself on the international scene but failed to compete with European companies. In Italy, the Italian Line was founded in 1932 as a result of a merger of three companies. It was known for operating liners such as and . The Japanese established Nippon Yusen, also known as NYK Lines, which ran trans-Pacific liners such as the "Hikawa Maru" and the "Asama Maru".


title: Ocean liner

text: The most important of all routes taken by ocean liners was the North Atlantic route. It accounted for a large part of the clientele, who traveled between ports of Liverpool, Southampton, Hamburg, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Cobh, and New York City. The profitability of this route came from migration to the United States. The need for speed influenced the construction of liners for this route, and the Blue Riband was awarded to the liner with the highest speed. The route was not without danger, as storm and icebergs are common in the North Atlantic. Many shipwrecks occurred on this route, among them that of , the details of which have been recounted in numerous books, films and documentaries. This route was the preferred route for major shipping companies and was the scene of fierce competition between them.


title: Ocean liner

text: The South Atlantic was the route frequented by liners bound for South America, Africa, and sometimes Oceania. The White Star Line had some of its ships, such as the "Suevic", on the Liverpool-Cape Town-Sydney route. There was not the same level of competition in the South Atlantic as there was in the North Atlantic. There were fewer shipwrecks. The Hamburg Süd operated on this route; among its ships was the famed SS "Cap Arcona".


title: Ocean liner

text: The Mediterranean Sea was frequented by many ocean liners. Many companies benefited from migration from Italy and the Balkans to the United States. Cunard's served on the Gibraltar-Genoa-Trieste route. Similarly, Italian liners crossed the Mediterranean Sea before entering the North Atlantic Ocean. The opening of the Suez Canal made the Mediterranean a possible route to Asia.


title: Ocean liner

text: Colonization made Asia particularly attractive to shipping companies. Many government officials must travel there from time to time. As early as the 1840s, the P&O organized trips to Calcutta via the Suez Isthmus, as the canal had not yet been built. The time it took to travel on this route to India, Southeast Asia, and Japan was long, with many stopovers. The Messageries Maritimes operated on this route, notably in the 1930s, with its motor ships. Similarly, the "La Marseillaise", put into service in 1949, was one of the flagships of its fleet. Decolonization caused the loss in the profitability of these ships.


title: Ocean liner

text: The construction of some ocean liners was a result of nationalism. The revival of power of the German navy stemmed from the clear affirmation of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to see his country become a sea power. Thus, the SS "Deutschland" of 1900 had the honor to bear the name of its mother country, an honor which she lost after ten years of a disappointing career. and RMS "Mauretania" of 1907 were built with the help of the British government with the desire that the United Kingdom would regain its prestige as a sea power. of 1952 was the result of a desire by the United States government to possess a large and fast ship that is convertible into a troop transport. and of 1932 were constructed at the demands of Benito Mussolini. Finally, the construction SS "France" of 1961 was a result of Charles de Gaulle's desire to build on French national pride and was financed by the French government.


title: Ocean liner

text: Some liners did gain great popularity. "Mauretania" and "Olympic" had many admirers during their careers, and their retirement and scrapping caused certain sadness. The same was true of "Île de France", whose scrapping aroused strong emotion from her admirers. Similarly, "Queen Mary" was very popular with the British people.


title: Ocean liner

text: Some ocean liners are known today because of their sinking with great loss of lives. In 1873, struck an underwater rock and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing at least 535 people. In 1912, the sinking of the RMS "Titanic", which took approximately 1,500 lives, highlighted the overconfidence of the shipping companies in their ships, such as the failure to put enough lifeboats on board. Safety measures at sea were reexamined following the incident. Two years later, in 1914, sank in the Saint Lawrence River after colliding with the SS Storstad. 1,012 people died.


title: Ocean liner

text: Among the other sinkings are the torpedo sinking of the RMS "Lusitania" in 1915, which resulted in the loss of 1,198 lives and provoked an international outcry, the naval mine sinking of the HMHS Britannic in 1916, and that of , which caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Aden in 1932, killing 54 people. In 1956, the sinking of , with the loss of 46 lives, after a collision with MS "Stockholm" made the headline.


title: Ocean liner

text: In 1985, was hijacked off the coast of Egypt by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front, resulting the death of one of the hostages being held by the hijackers. In 1994, she caught fire and sank off the coast of Somalia.


title: Ocean liner

text: Ocean liners have a strong impact on popular culture, whether during their golden age or afterwards. In 1867, Jules Verne recounted his experience aboard in his novel "A Floating City". In 1898, writer Morgan Robertson wrote the short novel "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan", which features a British ocean liner "Titan" that hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic with great loss of lives. The similarities between the plot of the novel and the sinking of the 14 years later led to the assertion of conspiracy theories regarding "Titanic".