Elain Brown Culture 07.04.2022 19:Jul PM EDT

Did You Know That the First Ever Cruise Ship is the Prinzessin Victoria Luise?

Cruise ships have been a common go-to for vacations.

Instead of being on land and traveling elsewhere, searching for tourist spots and looking for places to eat, more and more people are now opting to hop on a cruise ship.

The tradition of going on vacations on cruise ships started during the 19th century.

The world has developed an appetite for travel. Traveling by sea was nothing new, but it wasn't exactly speedy. Thomas Newcomen changed that in 1712 when he invented the steam engine, a revolutionary way to harness kinetic energy and convert it to power.

Building the First Cruise Ship

In 1819, the first American ship to sail across the Atlantic Ocean with the assistance of a steam engine set sail.

According to howstuffworks, the invention of the steam engine and the increase in the number of people moving to the United States from other countries both contributed to the boom of the passenger ship business in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The business models of shipping firms have shifted to place more emphasis on tourism than the transfer of passengers.

In the year 1900, the American-Hamburg Company constructed the very first ship to be created with the express purpose of going on cruises.

The cruise ship industry started with the vision of Albert Ballin. Ballin was the son of Danish immigrants and took over his father's immigration business in 1974.

He turned the family company into an independent shipping line.

Prinzessin Victoria Luise

According to the Smithsonian, in January 1891, the ship named Augusta Victoria was repurposed to test the experience of leisurely cruising for wealthy tourists. During the testing of the improvised ship, the idea of going to warmer climates such as the Caribbean in the winter was first experienced.

However, Ballin realized that using the Augusta Victoria has numerous limitations in providing a pleasurable experience to guests.

There were complaints from passengers about the machinery. The passengers were forced to put up with poor machinery, little deck space, and a lack of amenities while they were onboard.

Augusta Victoria was too big to enter the more compact ports located in close proximity to well-known tourist sites.

In addition, the sleeping accommodations were not refined for first-class passengers; as a result, the ship was deemed a temporary substitute only.

In 1899, Ballin commissioned the shipbuilders Blohm & Voss to create a vessel that would be uniquely outfitted for the Prinzessin Victoria Luise, the name he had in mind for the ship.

The Prinzessin Victoria Luise had dimensions of 406 feet in length and 52 feet in width, and her gross tonnage was 4,409.

In February of 1901, it was described as the world's very first cruise ship that had been purpose-built specifically for tourism.

The creation of the cruise ship was a success, and Ballin was given full credit for the achievement. It was called the actual breakthrough in pleasure cruising.

The Crash of Cruise Ships

The magic and the success of Prinzessin Victoria Luise did not last long.

In December of 1906, on a trip in the Caribbean, it ran into an undiscovered ridge off the coast of Jamaica and capsized.

It was discovered that Captain H. Brunswig had attempted to enter the harbor without assistance and had mistakenly identified the lighthouse at Plumb Point as the lighthouse at the port he was supposed to be at, the Port Royal Lighthouse.

One of the contributing factors to the crash was the wrong chart used by the captain. This is due to a recent volcanic eruption that occurred off the coast of Jamaica, which altered the contour of the seabed in that area.

The world of leisure cruising came to a pause as a result of the collision of Prinzessin Victoria Luise, as well as the collisions that occurred with the Titanic and the Lusitania.

Going on cruise ships only began again after World War I, the Depression, and World War II.