The Atlantic Swell

For a change, the Atlantic below, as well as the sky above, was crowded with tourists. Since 1957, the last year before jets went into transatlantic service, ships have experienced a worrisome 25% decline in passengers. But reservations are now running about 6% ahead of last year, and such luxury liners as the France, Rotterdam and Cristoforo Colombo are booked solidly through mid-September. For the first time in five years, the ship lines expect to break the 1,000,000-passenger mark.

The airlines this year will carry at least 21 times that many passengers, but the transatlantic ship lines have improved their own position by concentrating on what the speedy jets cannot offer. Says Sir John Brocklebank, chairman of Britain's Cunard Steamship Co.: "With jet travel, there is no need for an Atlantic ferry." Instead, the lines sell the idea of leisure, roominess, food, fun and salt spray.

Cunard has ripped out the Edwardian trappings of two of its ships, installed bowling lanes and nightclubs and rechristened the ships Carmania and Franconia. Along its Mediterranean stops, the American Export Lines provides variety in entertainment by picking up Spanish flamenco dancers in one port, carrying them to the next, and then taking aboard another set of locals. The Italian Line hires hostesses--often some one who can claim a titled name--to help passengers get acquainted.

For a long time, the hotly competitive ship lines and air companies refused to cooperate so that passengers could travel by air one way, by sea the other--though many potential passengers did not care to, or did not have the time to, make a round trip by boat. This has now changed, and an estimated 30% of all Atlantic sea passengers this year will be traveling on the split ticket.

Savoring their new prosperity and enjoying once more the sight of long waiting lists, the ship lines are returning to an old and irritating habit of peak-season travel: overbooking. In the somewhat unrealistic fear of sailing with empty cabins because of late cancellations, at least one line has been double-selling several hundred berths--just the kind of behavior calculated to drive passengers back to the airplane.

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