An ocean voyage. The steamship ticket shown above was purchased on 21 August 1924, and lists payment for passengers Melanie (32 years old), Josef (9), Jolan (8), Alexander (7), and Edith (4) Paktorovits. The contract was for a single second class cabin (Lodní třída: druhá), number H66 (Kabina čís.: H66), accomodating all of them (Lůžko čís.: vsechna) aboard the steamship Majestic II, sailing from Cherbourg to New York. The record shows that the total passenger charges were $435 (apparently paid in US dollars); this is equivalent to about $5000 in 2006 dollars. In addition, they paid for personal insurance, as well as insurance for their baggage, in Czech Koruny (Kc 14+200), along with some additional charge in dollars ($8). As I read it, they were expected to show up for boarding at 3 Quai Alexandre in Cherbourg by 26 August 1924, giving them 5 days for the train trip from Prague, taking them through the rest of Czechoslovakia, Germany, Belgium, and Northern France.
The White Star Line, Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Ltd., and Václavské náměstí. It's worth noting that the White Star Line was one of the two most famous maritime shipping companies ever, the other being its long-time rival and eventual merger partner, the Cunard Line. Cunard and White Star were both British companies (Cunard was from Halifax, Nova Scotia; White Star's beginnings were in the Australian trade), whose competition dated well back to the 19th century; the latter fell on hard times during the Depression and merged with the former in 1934, becoming Cunard White Star. Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Ltd., listed on the top line of my grandmother's ticket, was the White Star subsidiary formed in 1869 for their Atlantic trade. The ticket shows the company had an office in Prague, at No. 66 Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí čís. 66). Václavské náměstí is considered modern Prague's main boulevard, a center of both business and cultural life, and the site of many key events in 20th century Czech history (it's also a popular location for prostitutes and strip clubs).
The Majestic II. When I began to look for a few details about the boat that carried my grandmother and her children to the US in 1924, I quickly began to appreciate that the RMS Majestic II was not just any old steamship, but actually had a rather storied career. There are several good websites devoted to these old ships and the companies that owned them (see below for links), and I won't repeat absolutely everything I found out, but it's too fascinating not to want to relate some of it here in the context of my family's immigration.
It seems that the Majestic II was the largest ship in the world from the time of her maiden voyage in 1922 until the launching of the Normandie in 1935. During its lifetime, Majestic made regular voyages between New York City and Southampton, England, via Cherbourg, France. As can be seen from a representative log card reproduced at right, the trans-Atlantic crossing could be completed routinely in 5+ days, and the Majestic set two speed records, in 1923 and 1925, the latter crossing taking just 5 days. Numerous postcards, magazine advertisements, and other memorabilia of the time attest to the potential appeal of crossing the Atlantic aboard the record-holding luxury liner (956 feet long and weighing 56,551 tons), the flagship of the Cunard and White Star fleets. Interestingly, it was originally a German ship, conceived along with two sister vessels with the explicit intent of rivaling the great ships of the British Cunard and White Star Lines. This ship, the Bismarck, was not completed by its German owners; its construction was interrupted by World War I, during which it sat rusting in its berth, and afterwards it was given to Great Britain as a war reparation, in principle to compensate for losses suffered by the British merchant fleet. It was purchased jointly along with another German ship, Imperator, from the British Admiralty by the Cunard and White Star lines, and completed in 1922, after considerable delays (at one point deliberate sabotage by the German workers, obligated by the terms of the Versailles treaty to finish her for the British, was suspected). The Bismarck was then taken from Hamburg, where its fitting had been completed, repainted in White Star colors, and relaunched as the Majestic. The Majestic was operated officially by the White Star Line, but the implicit joint ownership with Cunard, which was not terminated until 1932, might be attested to by the jacket (above) that held my family's ticket purchased in 1924 (another possibility is that it simply indicates both lines were jointly represented by a shared travel agency in Prague). In any case, White Star was merged with Cunard in 1934; Majestic II, meanwhile, made her last trans-Atlantic voyage in 1936, was sold twice the same year, ending up once again the property of the British Admiralty, this time as a training ship, renamed HMS Caledonia. In 1939 the Caledonia burned, sank at its moorings, and was finally scrapped altogether (although the process was not completed until 1943).
