Travel
[We publish on. this page articles and notes which may help our reader:9 in_nzaking their plane for"travel at home and abroad. They are written by correspondents who .have visited the places described. We shall be glad to answer questions arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The 'SPECTATOR, 99 (lower Street, W .C.1.] The Great White Empress
How curiously unspectacular is the snail-slow departure from her moorings of a great ocean liner, at any rate in this country, where we have not yet followed the gay Australian custom of linking friends on shore and on board with coloured paper streamers, which snap-one by one as the vessel steams out to sea.
And yet the stage was-set, down to the last detail. Nothing was missing -to- render -memorable the departure of the great white Empress of Britain ' as she set sail recently from South- ampton on her maiden voyage to Quebec.
A great express starting on a long journey comes almost suddenly to life.; one moment we have clasped our friend's band, have looked into his eyes, have caught and answered his farewell, the next he is a pigmy who in an instant is lost in a crowd while we are tearing and throbbing along the permanent way. Speed and contrast have added drama to our going.
And yet, as I said, the stage was set. The most wonderful ship 'in the world was about to make her maiden trip : the Prince was to see her off : Mary Pickford and Douglas Fair- banks were our _ fellow-passengers : the President of the Canadian Pacific, who had spent three million pounds on building and equipping the ship, was also on board. I hung over the top deck of the ' Empress of Britain,' her mighty sides gleaming white, many coloured flags fluttering above my head and wondered why, at such a moment, with no element' -missing calculated to produce a dramatic effect, I should still feel so flat.
We were waiting for the arrival of the Master of the Merchant Service who was to fly from London to wish us God speed. I was standing near two of the crew. Far below telegraph boys kept arriving with sheaves of farewell telegrams : motor cars full of sightseers drew up along the quay : officials gathered into groups and dispersed again • finally, two men came and stood beside the gangway, one Captain Latta, the Skipper of the ship, and the other the powerful-looking Mr. W. E. Beatty, President of the greatest travel system in the world. " The Prince is now due," said one of my neighbours looking down at the two men. " Beatty will get a Knighthood for this " (meaning the ship, I supposed), said the other. A decorous British orderli- ness pervaded the whole scene.
And then suddenly into the midst of the quiet and leisurely 'Proceedings dashed two cars : doors were flung open; hardly -had a man in the first car jumped out, than the Prince, who was in the second, was on the ground walking rapidly towards the two waiting men and proceeded straightway on board, talking rapidly to his companions. Here was the speed, the movement, the drama I had been missing. Instantly everything became alive as that bronzed and alert young Englishman appeared. Some years ago the Prince launched the 'Empress of Britain' on the Clyde and he has taken an interest in her career ever since. a rapid inspection, he went ashore, the siren sounded, an elderly sailor ran danger- ously along the edge of the quay unwinding heavy ropes that were the last visible link between us and the land : one by one they splashed into the dirty water : very slowly we drifted past the quay, but still so near that friends on shore could talk to friends- afloat ; fragments of futile little remarks reached my ears ; some gay looking girls laughed noisily and an elderly man made pathetic gestures of farewell, as inch by inch, almost imperceptibly, we floated out to sea. I say floated advisedly. I have been analysing the differences between the ' Empress of Britain ' and every other liner I have ever travelled on. The Empress' floats : other ships throb. It is true the voyage has been a calm one, so calm, indeed, that at times, sitting in the library, or drinking tea in the Mall, or watching couples dance in the ballroom, or lying in, my comfortable bed,. I have wondered whether I could really be at sea at all, for even when we rolled majestically we merely vibrated, but never did anything as plebeian as throb. The newspapers have been full of descriptions of the beauty, the magnificence, the luxury of the ' Empress of Britain.' Nothing_ has been exaggerated : She is literally the last word in ship construction and interior_ decoration. The Canadian Pacific had the vision and good sense to employ artists to assist in designing schemes of decoration for the different rooms, and in almost every instance they have been entirely successful. - -- The dining saloon, the Salle Jacques Cartier, was designed by Frank Brangwyn. His splendid frescoes of fruit and flowers decorate the walls. Both here and in all the other public rooms, glass, coloured and plain, is used with admirable) effect. Staynes and Jones, the architects, are responsible for the cabins and the delightful library, and card room, and the Mall, wide passage-ways connecting the somewhat overpowering Mayfair Lounge with the covered-in deck and the Knickerbocker Bar, and the Children's Playroom, both amusingly decorated by Heath Robinson..The Cathay. Lounge is the work of Edmund Dulac. It is a superb apart- ment in black and red and silver without a discordant note, even the blotting paper being scarlet to match the general colour scheme. Indeed, the use of the correct colour for blotting paper in the various rooms is indicative of the attention to the smallest detail which is noticeable throughout the ' Empress.
Sir John Lavery undertook to decorate the ballroom, known as the Empress Room. It is perhaps the most original and exotic of all. The walls are silver, and carved seahorses and scallops decorate the furniture and pillars. The curtains are coral-coloured velvet bound with silver, and the chairs arc sea-green. Overhead the ceiling depicts accurately the stars at the hour the ship was latmched. When the room was finished, so the story goes, Sir John felt that something was needed and consulted his wife, whereupon Lady Lavery promptly suggested coral-coloured ostrich plumes as the finishing touch. No one can deny their decorative value.
The six days at sea, full of diversity, slipped by pleasantly, smoothly, rapidly.
The millionaires amongst us withdrew into their self-con- tained flats, while the rest of us enjoyed the luxury of a modern hotel combined with the discreet yet personal service found as a rule only in long established and exclusive clubs.' No praise can be too high for the general courtesy and atten- tion of both staff and officers, from the smallest page boy to the Purser, Mr. Pearch.
Shortly after my breakfast, an attentive stewardess brought me the daily paper, the Canadian Pacific Gazette, containing the latest news by wireless from both sides of the Atlantic : once a day at least I went for a swim in the enchanting Olympian Pool, with its blue glass mosaic pillars and tortoise fountain and translucent salt_ water, while others played tennis or squash racquets ; at lunch we ate meals of the best country house variety, to the strains of dance music from the Savoy ; in the afternoons wewent to the Cinema or shopped or had electric baths, and in the evenings we danced. Nothing was forgotten • no smallest detail for our comfort and enter- tainment overlooked.
If we are not a nation of innkeepers, at any rate we know how to build and how to navigate ships. W. W.
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