For the traveler who couldn’t make a long ocean voyage during the early 1950s, there were still varied trips by water in the USA and Canada. Some were short one-day sails, while others took a week or more and led to some exciting adventures. Most were Canadian flag vessels.

From Duluth, to Miami, from New Orleans to Newfoundland, mainly pre-World War 2 ships, a verity of ocean liners, coastwise steamers, motor vessels, bay river and lake steamboats, freshly painted, served the retro fifties public.

Here are some of the travel choices for the fifties cruiser…

CANADA STEAMSHIP LINES

Three identical sister-ships, the St. Lawrence, Quebec and Tadoussac offered summer cruises in 1952, The three ships were all 350 feet in length, had a breadth of 70 feet, and were 8,000 tones GRT; the Richelieu was slightly smaller. They sailed on the St Lawrence and Saguenay Rivers, departing from Montreal and stopping at Quebec City, Murray Bay and Tadoussac (where the company owned hotels) and up the Saguenay to Bagotville (La Baie). 7 day cruises.

From the 1930′s until 1965 Canada Steamship Lines operated cruises from Montreal up the Saguenay River. These beautiful white ships were known as the “Great White Fleet”. One of the stops was Tadoussac. Here passengers could get off the ships for an hour or two and stroll into the town. Some elected to stay at the new (1942) Tadoussac Hotel that was owned by CSL.

CLARKE LINE

For a trip off the proverbial peahen path, you could take one of the Clarke Line’s yacht-like ships, such as the North Gaspe from Montreal to the little towns down the St. Lawrence and up the Gulf Coast into the Minigan and Harrington areas.

A vessel of the Clarke Steamship Company, the North Gaspé supplied the villages on the North Shore of Quebec. The St Lawrence River, a pre-eminent shipping route and fundamental natural resource, saw many ships on its waters despite the war. Many remote regions, such as the North Shore, depended on boats for their supplies. Aboard the passenger vessels, there were as many passengers as there were reasons to travel.

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April, 1912. The White Star liner “Titanic” leaving Queenstown harbour before making her maiden voyage en route for the USA.

New York’s Swann Gallaries will auction RARE & IMPORTANT TRAVEL POSTERS on November 11, 2011 at 1:30 PM.  This sale features many seldom-seen travel images from around the world, and a larger than usual selection of images that have not appeared in any reference books.  Swann Galleries was founded in 1941 as an auction house specializing in Rare Books. Today Swann has separate departments devoted to Photographs, Posters and Prints & Drawings, in addition to Books, Maps & Atlases and Autographs.

OTTOMAR ANTON (1895-1976 TO EUROPE BY ZEPPELIN. 1936]  The Graf Zeppelin, sister ship of the ill-fated Hindenburg, is depicted here from a perspective that has her practically stretching across the Atlantic Ocean. After several widely publicized voyages (including around the world in 1929, which made her the first airship to ever cross the Pacific Ocean non-stop), the Graf Zeppelin settled into a regular transatlantic route by 1930. When she was taken out of service in 1937, barely a month after the Hindenburg disaster, she had made a total of 143 Atlantic crossings. A separate variation shows the route map with stops in Spain, while this copy illustrates connections to Hamburg and Berlin. Estimate $3,000-4,000

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