20th-century, Atlantic ocean, passenger-ships, historical-places-events, historical research, history-and-culture, nonfiction, women, WW1, WW2, post WW1, post WW2, memoirs*****
This book is a history geek's dream!
The detailed research through archives and personal records and correspondence of some of the women who worked as stewardesses and more for the Cunard and White Star lines is beyond impressive. As advertised, there are many stories of individual women who needed to go to sea to support those at home, including one woman who served on the Titanic, Lusitania, and another torpedoed ship! There are selected notes about well known women of the era between the wars such as Josephine Baker and Nancy Astor and mentions of film stars Rudolph Valentino, Johnny Weissmuller, and Douglas Fairbanks.
Luxury shipping is detailed from the beginning of the 20th century. These same ships and many of the women were also in service during each of the world wars, including the ill fated Kindertransports. It is interesting to note that the Queen Mary was not only the best in luxury, but as of 1927 had a Jewish prayer room and also a rabbi to keep kosher in the kitchen.
Another geeky tidbit is that the Aquitania made 580 crossings in 40 years and was the only Trans Atlantic liner to have served in both world wars putting on 3 million miles and transporting 1.2 million passengers.
Fantastic book for geeks like me!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Maiden Voyages so I may provide an honest review.

Extensively, or perhaps exhaustively researched, this book takes a look at the combination of women and transatlantic sea travels from myriad points of view. I enjoyed how author Sian Evans included her family's historical connection and found the stories of the unique roles of women working onboard the ships to be particularly interesting as they have not widely (to my knowledge) been written about previously. As the spotlight shifted to the era's Hollywood stars and Royalty, I found the writing to be redundant and a bit tedious but perhaps that is just because some of these stories, such as the back story of the relationship between the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, are quite well known. Even without focusing on the importance of the women who were passengers and employed at sea, it is an interesting overview of the role the major ship lines had on transatlantic travel and how the industry constantly pivoted and reinvented itself in response to demand, the outbreak of war, and humanitarian efforts in the early 20th century.

I must give enormous credit to Sian Evans who has combined social history, military history and delicious anecdotes in this non-fiction delight about women who worked at sea. I loved the style of personalizing the general history with anecdotal stories about specific women who either staffed the ships or traveled on them. I was totally fascinated and I admired the author’s selection of women to highlight.

Personally, I am a great fan of the history of the great sailing ships, referred to as the Atlantic ferry. I probably was on one of the final sailings of the United States and I am a frequent traveler on the Queen Mary II and the Queen Elizabeth. So, this book was really engaging for me. As a historian, obsessed with British history I loved the stories about famous characters who the author connected to their travels.

The story of a poor Scot, headed on a ship to become a domestic certainly will bring a smile to the face of every reader as we learn she became the mother of Donald Trump. Obviously, ease of immigration impacted his life.

This book is endlessly fascinating and I highly recommend it. Thank you Netgalley for this very special book.

A slice of social history unlike anything I've ever read before. This book includes women you'll recognize and many more that disappeared into history. It was eye opening and a true pleasure to read.

I love the idea of this book. Narratives on several women who were traveling. I absolutely love to travel and this book immerses you in both travel and history. It’s extremely informative and interesting at the same time I highly recommend it.