The.Liners.Ships.of.Destiny.1997.1to4of4.txt
C4.The.Liners.Ships.of.Destiny.1997.1to4of4
Information
The Liners : Ships Of Destiny / Directed, written and edited by Peter Butt ; Produced and researched by Rob McAuley.
Developed with the assistance of the New South Wales Film and Television Office, Sydney, Australia ; Produced in association with Channel Four, The Learning Channel, Primetime/Pathe and Australian Broadcasting Corporation; a Rob McAuley production ( 1997 ).
Narrator: Sandy McCutcheon.
Summary : The Liners tells for the first time the global story of these great ships - an epic story inextricably linked with epic world events. It's a remarkable voyage from the earliest days of the first paddle-wheeled superliner; through their use in times of war as well as peace; into the present and beyond, for a preview of giant ocean-going cities already in the advanced planning stages.
THE LINERS : SHIPS OF DESTINY - EPISODE 1 : MAIDEN VOYAGE
Synopsis :
In the first programme in the series looks at the quantum leap forward from the converted sailing ships of the early 19th century to the majestic floating palaces at see 100 years later, which began with the building of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western in 1837.
THE LINERS : SHIPS OF DESTINY - EPISODE 2 : SHIPS OF WAR
Synopsis :
Despite the outbreak of World War I, the trans-ocean liners continued to py their opulent trade across the Atlantic until, in 1916, the Lusitania was attascked and sunk, with horrifying loss of life, by the German navy. Con- tinued attacks over the following months were one of the major factors that saw America enter the war and, ironically, Germany's greatest liners, strand- ed in New York harbour, were impounded and used to ferry the troops over to France. Post war years saw the liners of all nations sailing the seas again this time taking immigrants to America and, in the Prohibition years in America, providing legal off shore havens for revellers. However, the key years were 1927-1936, as France, Germany, Italy and Britain launched liners that were to become legends.
THE LINERS : SHIPS OF DESTINY - EPISODE 3 : THE GREAT DUEL
Synopsis :
The third programme in the series looks at the development of the luxurious and spectacular liners of the 1930s, which saw the British `Queen Mary' and the French liner `Normandie' set records for both style and speed and of their Second World War service as troop ships, along with other liners. The programme looks at some of the liners that were lost during the war, including the Italian `Rex', the German `Wilhelm Gustloff', and the `Cap Arcona', which was carrying concentration camp survivors, 5000 of whom died. The immediate post-war years on the Atlantic route was a bonanza period for British liners, with the shipping companies, especially Cunard, owners of the `Queen Mary' and the `Queen Elizabeth', making a lot of money from transatlantic customers. New competition arose from the US, however, with the launching of the new super-liner, the `United States', which broke the pre-war record of the `Queen Mary' for crossing the Atlantic. The only possible source of competition to the lucrative trade was to come from the emerging commercial operations of the airline companies with their new jet engines.
THE LINERS : SHIPS OF DESTINY - EPISODE 4 : ENDLESS VOYAGE
Synopsis :
The last programme in the series on the history of ocean-going liners. With passenger aeroplanes in the ascendant, liner companies responded to dwindling demand in the sixties by building larger and more extravagant ships. It was an audacious move but a highly successful one and major operators still compete to build the biggest and best liner. Today, cruisers are expanding into fully-fledged entertainment centres.
Part 1: Maiden Voyage
Maiden Voyage begins with by looking at the initial move away from traditional sail ships and the development of the first ocean-going steam powered ships and the the subsequent formation of the major cruise lines P&O and Cunard. As the years pass we see how the rivalry between Germany and Britain intensified with Germany's launching of the world's first superliner, the Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse in 1897, a four-stacker that went on to capture the much coveted Blue Riband from Britain. We see how the Britain responded with the production of two of their own giant liners, Mauretania and Lusitania, ostensibly to win back the Blue Riband and dominance of the North Atlantic passenger trade. Maiden Voyage also focuses on the building and and subsequent sinking of the Titanic, whilst also providing an insight into the events leading up to World War One.
Part 2: Ships of War
Ships of War focuses firstly on the invaluable role that ocean liners played during the First World War, from Winston Churchill ( who was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time ) 'taking the attack to Germany' and the huge vessels being used as 'hospital ships', all the way to the sinking of the Lusitania and the subsequent entry of the Americans into the war. The programme then moves into the immediate post-war years as the greatest migration of people in history, from the old world to the new, continued. The Roaring Twenties really roared and the rich had never had it so good, and the introduction of prohibition saw the liners capitalise by offering 'booze cruises to nowhere'. Then in 1927 France introduced the Ile de France, and a new era in liners began. It was now not so important what the liner looked like from the outside, but more how they were fitted and decorated on the inside. This was the dawn of the Art Deco era and new luxury liners that excluded taste and style would re-define sea travel forever.
Part 3: The Great Duel
The Great Duel picks up the story during the the great economic depression of the 1930's when all works on Cunard's new project, the Queen Mary, had ceased. However, following Germany's mighty Bremen winning the much coveted Blue Riband and the subsequent unveiling of France's Normandie, the biggest and most luxurious ship in the world, Britain's maritime reputation was now at stake and so work re-commenced of the Queen Mary. Indeed, a great duel had begun for dominance of the oceans between the world's two largest and fastest ships. This great rivalry between the pride of France and the new Cunard Queen saw new speed records set, and the eventual capturing of the Blue Riband by the Queen Mary. In fact the Queen Mary had set a record time for the crossing of the Atlantic that would stand for almost two decades. The Great Duel also includes the years that directly led up to World War Two, with the Nazis very own "strength through joy" cruises, the launching of the world famous Queen Elizabeth, and also how the liners played their part during the war effort.
Part 4:
Endless Voyage tells the captivating story of the of the necessary evolution that took place between the end of the war and present day. The 'jet age' had forced liners into the most dramatic struggle of their long and illustrious history and by the 1960's 95% of Transatlantic crossings were made by jet. The liners reacted in the only way they could, they found a way to embrace the jet age and worked together with the jets to in focusing their attention on the cruise holiday market : the jets would fly the passengers to Miami and the ships would take care of the rest. Cruise holidays were now a global enterprise and new, huge and decadently luxurious liners were being launched. Where speed used to the liners main criteria, it is now size and luxury which ticks the necessary boxes, illustrated perfectly by the mighty QE2 and the "floating city", Carnival Destiny, which has helped to usher in a new era for the liners.
Related Documentaries
Seapower History of Naval Warfare
Secrets of the Titanic
Warship - A History of War at Sea
U-Boat War
Technical Specs
Video Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate: 1768 kbps
Video Resolution: 560x416
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.346:1
Frames Per Second: 25.000
Audio Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 127kb/s VBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 54:39.560
Number Of Parts: 4
Part Size: 782,393,344 Bytes
Subtitles: none
Ripped by: DocFreak08
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