An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. Only one ocean liner remains in service today.
As of 2024[update], RMS Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner still in service
RMS Lusitania arriving in New York in 1907. As the primary means of trans-oceanic voyages for over a century, ocean liners were essential to the transportation needs of national governments, business firms, and the general public.
In 1838, Sirius was the first ship to cross the Atlantic using continuous steam power.
The first voyage of SS Great Western (1838)
A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liners and in virtually all cruise ships has this cargo capacity been eliminated.
An ocean liner, Queen Elizabeth 2
An ocean liner, Normandie
A cruise ship, Freedom of the Seas
A ferry, Mega Smeralda