The first round-the-world passenger cruise took place 100 years ago. Here's what it was like on board
CTV
On March 30, 1923, exactly 100 years ago, the world's first continuous passenger cruise ship arrived back in New York City after completing a 130-day voyage.
On March 30, 1923, exactly 100 years ago, the world's first continuous passenger cruise ship arrived back in New York City after completing a 130-day voyage.
This six-month trip was the first of its kind, paving the way for the world cruises of today, taking in destinations including Japan, Singapore, Egypt and India and traversing the Suez and Panama Canals. The voyage took place aboard the SS Laconia, a Cunard passenger liner chartered by the American Express Company for the occasion.
Among the Laconia's were two twentysomething sisters, Eleanor and Claudia Phelps. Eleanor and Claudia were brimming with excitement as the Laconia left port on Nov. 21, 1922, snapping photographs and jotting down observations in their respective diaries.
While Claudia worried that her journal-keeping would "die halfway to San Francisco" -- the Californian city being only the Laconia's second stop -- ultimately, she and Eleanor kept up their travel logs for the duration of the 130-day voyage.
As the Laconia circumnavigated the globe, Eleanor and Claudia, who were travelling with their mother, scribbled down observations, collected souvenirs and took photographs, pasting them in their leather-bound diaries.
Today, the Phelps sisters' Laconia collection, which includes their travel diaries, photographs, slides and film footage, is owned by the University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections.
In the last page of her travel log, Eleanor tried to sum up the experience, but felt she could only come up short: "How can one come to a conclusion or express an opinion on the world as I saw it in 130 days?" she wrote.
