Arriving by air at the Phuket airport my tired son told me he had flown from Manchester a day earlier. Allowing for a 90-minute break in Dubai he had been up in the air – sort of – and hermetically sealed in a winged tube for 18 hours.

That’s progress? Run that past me again.

A dreamer who later in life would also travel by air to Europe and the United States, I was often given to daydreaming. The youngest seaman on the RMS Britannic, the last of the White Star Line’s Ocean liners, pondered: ‘If travel by air had evolved before the arrival of the super liners would passengers today be nostalgic about air travel? Surely not.’

Imagine: Air travel has been around since the late 1800s. And then, in the 1950s, the shipowners had put their heads together. When they left the drawing room they had decided to make superliners to cross the earth’s oceans.

As ocean liners offered much more than their airlines the onset of the superior way of travel would put the final nail in the coffin of shitty air travel

Ocean travel offered an albeit too brief life of elegance and self-indulgence. For days, and in some cases, weeks passengers could enjoy a lifestyle beyond the dreams of the stay-at-homes.

In what way could a winged sardine compare to ocean travel by superliner? Several generations of great ships on which one could live a lifestyle previously reserved for the super-rich and Hollywood’s greatest movie stars.

Next time you fly, ask the cabin crew for directions to your private cabin, the nursery or the gym for a workout, the cinemas, the ballroom or the casino.

Ask the trolley dolly when the airliner’s many dance halls, casinos, bars and restaurants open. Stroll and relax along spacious decks, watch the passing seascape, and do a bit of whale or porpoise watching. Wonder at the vastness of God’s creation.

If you want to swim in the pool, play deck sports, deck shuffleboard or quoits (ring tennis), forget it. A postcard that could be purchased with much more besides in the shopping malls and stores on the RMS (MV) Britannic.

Passengers loved to read the liner’s informative newspaper printed on board. The ship’s bank was busy doing what banks do; likely ripping off their customers.

For passengers, there was much to keep them happy and occupied. To stroll and enjoy the sea breezes with your partner and family along the endless promenades and boat decks.

Otherwise, there were endless opportunities to meet fellow travellers. To sip wine, dine or enjoy sports and games, restaurants and cinemas, work out at the gym, dance the night away or relax in one’s cabin.

Wonderful opportunities to meet interesting people and maybe become attached to your future husband or wife as one took the eight-day route across the Atlantic to the United States or Canada.

Ocean travel to South Africa, Latin America and Australia or New Zealand, of course, took longer: lucky devils, they were. Was there ever a better way to travel?  Will there ever be again?

I wanted to meet the salesman who convinced folk that airline travel was superior to travel by ocean liner. That guy, whoever he was, could sell combs to bald men.

Instead, fasten your seat belts and jam yourself between your fellow passengers. Doze upright or sit stiff as a tailor’s mannequin. Did we give up ocean travel for this?

In my fertile imagination, I thought of a traveller’s clear preference for a slower more sedate way of travel.

Far better than to face the humiliation of being herded like cats (or sheep), take off your shoes, and belts, stand over here – no, there. Searched including body searches and after endless shuffling shoehorned into a steel dart and a bucket seat with negligible legroom.

You don’t risk thrombosis on an ocean liner. And for what, being hurled across the skies to their destinations to get there a few days earlier. And, how would you spend those extra hours? Pampering yourself – just like you could do for days or weeks on an ocean liner.

How could airlines rival the ocean liners which was a far more sedate way to travel. Eureka! The term sedation starts to make sense.

Would travellers miss out on the opportunity to dress to the nines, attend onboard functions, dance the night away in ballrooms, enjoy the theatre and go to the movies? To shop till you drop, read the liner’s newspaper as they bask in the mid-ocean sunshine.

‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ (L. P Hartley: The Go-Between). PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES

BRITANNIC WAIVES THE RULES Michael Walsh The Last White Star Liner (1845-1960). In 68 lavishly illustrated stories the company’s last deckboy vividly recalls shipboard life. The liner’s colourful characters and jaw-dropping incidents both on board and in New York’s notorious Hell’s Kitchen. A unique collector’s item. LINK TO BOOK → LULU.COM AMAZON.CO.UK

THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL  ex-Liverpool seaman Michael Walsh, regular television, radio and newspaper personality. Bestseller: 70 stories and over 100 pictures. A first-hand account of the British ships, seafarers, adventures and misadventures (1955 – 1975). A tribute to the ships and seamen of the then-largest merchant marine in history. BOOK LINKS AMAZON https://tinyurl.com/329wa4eh LULU https://tinyurl.com/3kuja2s5