Maiden Voyages Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans is a captivating book focusing on women passengers and workers who sailed the seas during the ocean liners’ golden age. A well-written, intriguing book that pulls you into another place, another time.

📚 PUB DAY BOOK REVIEW 📚

Title: Maiden Voyages
Author: Sian Evans
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
@stmartinspress
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publication Day: 8/10/2021

Maiden Voyages is a non-fiction journey aboard ocean liners giving us the basic history of them, stories of women stewardesses who worked on them and as a bonus some history that went along this era.

Here is a list of the Ocean liners included in the book. And yes it does include the Titanic!

🚢 Britannia
🚢 SS Bothnia
🚢 Orinoco
🚢 Titanic
🚢 Carpathia
🚢 Aquitania
🚢 Olympic
🚢 Lusitania
🚢 Britannic
🚢Carpathia
🚢 Saxonia
🚢 Laconia II
🚢 Majestic
🚢 Mauretania
🚢 Carinthia
🚢 Caronia
🚢 Zeeland
🚢 Tovarisch
🚢 Megantic
🚢 Berengaria
🚢 Mauretania
🚢 Lancastria
🚢 Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth
🚢 Transylvania
🚢 SS Cameronia
🚢 Normandie
🚢 Empress of Britain
🚢 Columbia
🚢 Regina
🚢 Franconia
🚢 Athenia
🚢 Georgic
🚢 City of Benares
🚢 Volendam
🚢 Balchi
🚢 Cicilia
🚢 Aguila
🚢 Saturnia
🚢 SS Argentina
🚢 Plantano
🚢 Samaria
🚢 Caronia II
🚢 La Cordillera
🚢 Parthia

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ That’s a lot of freaking boats! And even though some of them are only briefly mentioned it still felt repetitive and this topic of the book was bogged down for me. I wish the focus was more on just the women. I quite liked their stories; especially Violet Jessop’s. I did also enjoy the historical parts and while I like glitz and glam; some of the passengers couldn’t help but feel like name dropping. For fans of non-fiction, the book Come Fly The World (Pan-Am), and Titanic fans too. This book would be great for a high school history teacher as a fun way to introduce history lessons.

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin’s Press @stmartinspress for sending me a review copy via @netgalley.

Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans is a great book for anyone interested in the niche topic or doing their own research on trans-Atlantic ship travel in the first half of the 20th century.

Great book for secondary sources! Lots of well-researched information. As someone who has written countless research papers throughout high school, college, and even during my career, I love a good secondary resource. This book will be invaluable to anyone interested in trans-Atlantic ship travel, as well as exploring the means women undertook to support their families during the first half of the twentieth century. While not a light-hearted adventure story, this book is a much better read than textbooks or research papers.

The women highlighted were loveable and admirable. I enjoyed reading their adventures!
The author did an amazing job in a) choosing the women she would research and include AND b) bringing their stories to life. These women were remarkable individuals and their stories live on through this book. Reading how formidable and strong and focused these ladies were is inspirational to any reader.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in this niche topic or doing their own research.

Stars 3.5
Would I Recommend? Yes

Listen, so many of these reviews are only helpful if the people read and enjoy the same kinds of books that you do. I was very excited about this book, because I was looking forward to being immersed in the stories of women on ships. Perhaps they were on the way to a better life, perhaps they worked in a generally male dominated industry. But instead, this book spends A LOT of time talking about the ships themselves. SO, if that is what interests you, you might just love this one. But if you were hoping for a more human angle, this book doesn't really offer it. It's all relative, like many other things! Happy reading!

Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans

Clever title for a book about women seafarers. You’ll be wiser and entertained as you follow this nicely written account of the importance of transatlantic trips before air travel.

Several standout personalities changed the course of “men’s/women’s work” as ladies went to work on ships from the 1920s until today. Crew were needed for a myriad of jobs onboard, and women filled these positions to earn money for their families and a chance to travel.

These crossings existed for various reasons through the decades. Some trips were for pleasure, others were wartime dangerous. Famous stars and world leaders cruised, as did sea vamps and orphaned children, widows and war brides, evacuees and refugees.

Cunard and White Star from Southampton England to New York City or Canada did the most crossings, but other ships played a role. The author covers it all in this most interesting story of women at sea.

My gratitude to #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley.

3.5, rounded up. The narrative is a little unfocused, but I enjoyed learning more about the history of women working aboard ocean liners. I thought I would be more interested in the celebrities (Hedy Lamar, etc.) mentioned at the beginning of the book, but I actually found the other female employees more compelling because of the research Evans did into their lives.

It's always a treat to read about amazing women in history; if you enjoy that as well, pick this up.

Deeply researched, well cited book about cross-Atlantic ocean travel for all social classes of women from Victorian era until the advent of air travel. MAIDEN VOYAGES is especially interesting for the attention it pays to working women of the era, the oceanliner hostesses and maids, whose backbreaking work and unflattering uniforms were meant to create a sense of the upper class home for wealthy passengers. I have visited old oceanliners, seen many reconstructed rooms but never considered the housekeeping or ‘downstairs’ staff; this is the Downtown Abbey component referred to in the book description. The book provides a fascinating look behind the scenes. I had somehow expected more detail about specific women who glamorously travelled the ocean; that is not quite this book. Although, I must add, this is a very good one. It moves from detail about the big passenger ships, to social information about women working in ships to world politics and back to passengers. There’s much to learn and appreciate. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I was approached by an employee of St. Martin’s Press to see if I would consider reading this non-fiction book about women who went to sea in what was considered the “golden age of ocean liners”. It was described as being a book that would appeal to fans of Downton Abbey. I have to confess that I have never watched a single episode of that show. I might love it but the prospect of so many seasons to watch has been intimidating. This request to read did however, come at an opportune time in that I had just finished reading one book about the sinking of the Lusitania and was in the process of reading Eric Larson’s book Dead Wake on the same. Not only that, but my great grandfather was a Chief Steward with the White Star Line. He even worked under the captain of the Titanic, and I have over twenty years of his ship records as well as letters and photographs that belonged to him so I felt that this book could well be of interest to me.
It was not a book that I felt had to be read quickly in one sitting but rather to enjoy more slowly as I learned about individual characters. It contains a lot of information about different women who had varying motivations for going to sea. For many, the motivating factor was the death of a husband who had been a seafaring man. Fortunately, the various companies were willing to hire these widows so that they could continue to provide for their families. The author clearly did extensive research on how these companies functioned and what were the roles available to women from the turn of the century (1900) on until the postwar period when airplanes began to take over the transportation of people for business and for pleasure. It was fascinating to read about these women, some of whom were hired as early as age 16 to work as chambermaids or conductresses who would help supervise those who were emigrating, many of whom were third class travelers. The pay was reasonable but if you worked with third class, tips were not something that would often come your way whereas those who worked with first or second class travelers could count on them to add to their earnings.
I particularly appreciated learning more about the job descriptions and chain of command on the ocean liners as I felt it gave me a better understanding of what life would have been like for my great grandfather. I know that I had family members who travelled quite a number of times back and forth between Liverpool and Montreal. I have always wondered how they afforded this, and whether there were perks for family members of those who were high ranking officers. Sadly, this was not information covered in this book.
I have a fascination with war-time history and was not disappointed in the depth of coverage that was given to this time period throughout the book. While for some of the women it meant a temporary end to their seafaring days, for others it meant coming back as a nurse or working in some other capacity. There were some heartbreaking stories told of the impact this had on lives. One such woman was Violet Jessop, a woman of Irish descent who first went to sea when her mother became ill and could no longer go to sea. She worked as a stewardess and later as a nurse. During her lengthy career she became known as “The Unsinkable Stewardess” because she survived three different sinkings including the Titanic and later the Britannic which is believed to have hit a mine in wartime. Edith Sowerbutts was another fascinating woman who had a lengthy career. Part of her early work as a conductress included trying to make sure that unsuspecting women were not being trafficked for sexual purposes.
The parts of the book that I enjoyed the most were the stories of the women who took up the call to go to sea and made careers out of it. They were not, however, the only women who went to sea. One storyline that particularly caught my attention was the story of Mary MacLeod who emigrated to the USA. She came from the Isle of Lewis and her story began with a description of a sea disaster that very few people in North America have ever heard of. It is the story of the Iolaire disaster when due to large numbers of soldiers returning from the Great War, an extra ship was needed to take the men back to the Isle of Lewis on New Year’s eve. This was never an easy crossing and for sailors unfamiliar with the area in it was a recipe for disaster. It is also a story of personal significance to me because my great uncle wrote of how the island was affected by this disaster in his memoirs – “Outside the Isle-of-Lewis there are few people who will now remember the Iolaire disaster. On the afternoon of 31st December 1918 over 500 naval leave men, in addition to soldiers and civilians, were waiting at Kyle of Lochalsh for the steamer to Stornoway. The number was far beyond the capacity of the Sheila, and admiralty yacht Iolaire was detailed to take the excess. It took on 260 naval leave men in addition to its own crew of 23. The crossing is about seventy miles and usually took the mail steamer about six hours. It was a dark night with flurries of rain, but the visibility was not exceptionally bad. The fairly strong wind was from the south and so mainly astern, but the crossing was good. The lights of the lighthouse and the beacon, at the entrance to Stornoway Harbour, were quite visible, but for some unknown reason the Iolaire passed the opening and ran at full speed on a reef, known as the Beasts of Holm. Holm is about two miles from Stornoway; the time was about midnight on the last day of the year.” (Dr. Fraser Rose from Wednesday’s Child Volume 3) There were 78 survivors and over 200 drowned including the captain and crew. My maternal great-grandfather, a preacher, loaned out his horse and carriage so that locals could go to the area to find out if their loved ones had survived. He lost 23 members out of his congregation but families all across Lewis were deeply affected both through wartime deaths and this disaster. This disaster no doubt impacted Mary MacLeod’s decision to emigrate to the USA at the age of 18. What made her story unusual and worthy of inclusion in this book was her eventual marriage to Frederick Trump, father of the infamous Donald Trump.
The reader will not be disappointed by lack of detail in this non-fiction book. There are many fascinating stories and excellent footnotes at the book end. I found it a fairly lengthy read which perhaps could have been improved with a little culling of some of the detail which at times felt mildly repetitive but overall the author did an excellent job of exploring a marvelous era and giving the reader a good understanding of the important role that women had to play in ensuring the success of the travel industry of this time period. It is an excellent addition to the literature on this subject. I’m very glad that I had a chance to read it.
Many thanks to #NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read an advance reader’s copy. All the opinions are entirely my own.

Maiden Voyages
By Siân Evans
St. Martin’s Press, 10 August 2021

“In an engaging and anecdotal social history, Siân Evans's Maiden Voyages explores how women’s lives were transformed by the Golden Age of ocean liner travel between Europe and North America.”

Maiden Voyages is an interesting look at the history of women working on the great ships, beginning in the late 19th century to the golden era of ocean liners and transatlantic travel. I learned more about a couple of women I’ve heard of and met many amazing women who had, until now, been forgotten. There were many more interesting women crossing the Atlantic than the “unsinkable” Molly Brown.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters about women on ocean liners during World War I and II. Though pleasure travel largely ceased during the wars, and most of the women who worked on the ships lost their jobs, there were times of extreme danger where women proved themselves just as capable as men.

Siân Evans has written a fascinating book about interesting women and a way of life previously unknown. Well-written and extensively researched, this book is definitely worth reading.

This is a very good book, though there is not a lot about the women that sailed and a LOT about the ships, the trips themselves, and the wars the ships and travelers were in. The parts that WERE about women and how they worked and sailed on these ships was both interesting and captivating [I found myself wanting to go sailing myself, and then reminded myself that I don't LIKE sailing. LOL] and really makes you admire the women that did the work that they did, from stewardesses, guides, and then in the war, nurses, matrons, WRENS, and the like. They worked just as hard [if not harder in some instances] as the men and are quite often overlooked, which is close to criminal to me. They deserved [and continue to deserve] so much more. The parts about the war will break your heart and if you don't tear up and feel the feels when they are talking about the bombing of passenger ships that carried children to Canada, then you need to check yourself. It was all I could do to finish that part of the book.

Very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sian Evans, and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maiden Voyages is an engaging history of the women who worked the massive ocean liners that crossed the Atlantic in the first half of the twentieth century. It was an interesting profile of some untraditional career women in a time when having a career was unusual in itself. The great liners were societies in themselves, and their stories make great reading as well.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans is a non-fiction book about how the ocean liners provided the opportunity for employment and class change for women. It starts off with a history of the ocean liner and then talks about the different women and their employment on the liners.
Great book and so very interesting to read. Thank you Siân Evans for this amazing read and eye opening experience. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.
#Netgalley #StMartinsPress

Rather than another history book focusing on an industry, author Sian Evans chose to dig deeper and craft a story about women and their contributions to maritime history. My personal knowledge was limited, possessing only a modest amount of details concerning – what else? – the Titanic. This book opened a whole new world of facts.

The book naturally includes many of the points of interest concerning the ocean liners who sailed the Atlantic, so readers are educated on the overall history while informing us on how women fit in and, in some cases, changed the history to include them. As you might suspect, females were not welcomed with open arms. This was a man’s industry, and it took a while for women to earn a grudging respect for what they were allowed to do. Some women continued to push back, and their stories are included.

“Maiden Voyages” not only talks about the women that worked in these large ships. There were many reasons why people chose to travel from Europe to America and vice versa, and for a golden period of time, this was the only way to bridge the difference between continents. The rich, the entertainers, the card cheats and blackmailers, they are all here and their stories are shared.

I found the book extremely entertaining as well as enlightening. The author doesn’t focus on facts and figures, but targets the stories of those people who participated in this niche in history. Five stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans is Historical Nonfiction and is about travel on ocean liners by various classes of women. The lives of the people and how they evolved through the years from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Jobs on ships changed and became available according to wars, prohibition, peace and especially need. The information in this book about the different ships in this era could be a book in itself.
I really enjoyed reading about how lives were changed because of various opportunities offered to women at sea. I found some of the people so appealing, I would like to read more about their adventures and lives. Loved the real History.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. 5 Stars

From the blurb: "Maiden Voyages captures the golden age of ocean liners through the stories of the women whose transatlantic journeys changed the shape of society on both sides of the globe." 

I found this to be a fascinating social history. The women whose lives are depicted not only shaped society, but in some cases shaped the future. A wide range of women's histories are shared - from the wealthy celebrities of the day whose names are easily recognized, to the nearly impoverished immigrants seeking a better way of life, as well as women from every class in between. The women who served as the earliest stewardesses of the twentieth century opened the door for future jobs for women prior to the Great War, which then led to gradual expansion during and following both of the World Wars. There were many famous women one would expect to read about in such a history, but there were many others who came as a surprise including E.M. Delafield, Mary Anne MacLeod (mother of future President Donald Trump), and Laura Ashley, to name a few.

I thought the summary statements were a little repetitious from chapter to chapter, but overall this was an interesting and inspiring glimpse into a unique slice of otherwise familiar history.

#MaidenVoyages #NetGalley

I had been really excited to be asked to read this book because it was presented as a book about women in history and what they did to pave the way for today’s women via cruise ships, both as workers and travelers.

I jumped in with both feet and was quickly lulled to sleep (where’s the lifeboat?). It is very little about these women and very much about the ships. The author definitely knows what she is talking about and absolutely did her research, so much so that I feel like I know every tiny little detail about the ships mentioned in the book, however, not so much about the women's roll in it all. So basically, this is a book about just the ships, which some people may thoroughly enjoy. Unfortunately, I did not.

Fascinating! A historical look at luxury ocean liners and the women who worked on them or traveled on them. A look at the class system on these ships, as included in the movie, the Titanic. So much research seems to be put into these antidotes and glimpses into history. Again, fascinating!

An extraordinary amount of detail combines with vignettes of remarkable women who voyaged the Atlantic Ocean by ship before plane travel became more practical. I only read a few chapters before ordering a hard copy of this book to make it easier for me to go back and reread something of interest.
Nonfiction books require more time and patience to read because of the details and information that need to be absorbed. That’s why historical fiction is way more palatable, pleasurable and popular. One can always follow up later if knowledge of the facts is of interest. I wager millions more people have seen the movie “Titanic” than have watched a documentary on the ship.
As excellent as this book is, not sure if the subject will have enough appeal to make it widely read.

Interesting history about Transatlantic cruises before during and after both wars. Great stories about the first brave women that worked on the seas.

The book drug a bit sometimes - long chapters and too much in depth facts. I was expecting more stories about the women - less about the war.

I wasn't sure what exactly to expect when I started reading this, but I feel like what I got from this book was definitely unexpected. There is a lot of historical ground covered in this book including both World Wars, the Titanic, the meeting of the parents of a recent president, and much more. However, it was the individual women's stories that I was expecting more of, and that is where this book is at its best. For instance, it was interesting to hear about Josephine Baker's time at sea on her way to Paris and also other lesser known women who worked or traveled aboard ocean liners during this period. At times I felt like this book could have benefited from focusing more on the stories and less on the overall history of the times. Nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable read overall.