Cruise ships and ocean liners have been a popular form of leisure travel for well over a century, with luxury seafaring still capturing the imagination of many a traveller to this day. Over the years, former transatlantic liners once reserved for the wealthiest morphed into today's 'floating palaces' filled with ordinary holidaymakers. These ships have, in some instances, played important roles in major historic events.

Scroll on to see incredible, sometimes surprising, images of cruise ships and ocean liners from the last 200 years. To enjoy them FULL SCREEN on a desktop, click the icon in the top right...

The world's first cruise ships were 19th-century mail delivery vessels. Founded in 1837, what became the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company – or P&O, as we now know it – sold its first leisure cruise tickets from Southampton to the Mediterranean in 1844.

Despite being primarily used as a form of transport, these trips to far-flung destinations such as Athens, Gibraltar and Malta are widely considered to be the origins of cruises as we know them today. Other ships soon followed suit.

Love this? Follow us on Facebook for more history and travel inspiration

The most famous mid-19th century cruise was that taken by US author Mark Twain on wooden paddle steamer SS Quaker City, the first ever cruise to depart North America. The writer boarded the steamer, which had served as a Union ship in the US Civil War, along with dozens of wealthy Americans for a package tour of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land in 1867.

While its tiny cabins and austere décor was far from glamorous, the ship was immortalised in Twain's finest work, The Innocents Abroad.

SS Prinzessin Victoria Luise was the world's first purpose-built cruise ship. Launched in 1900 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), the ship was named after German emperor Wilhelm II's only daughter and was designed to be on par with Europe's finest hotels.

The 407-foot (124m) vessel boasted a ballroom, art gallery, library and 120 luxurious staterooms. Its first cruise to Venezuela and the West Indies lasted 35 days, with later destinations including the Mediterranean and the Nordics.

SS Prinzessin Victoria Luise – which also featured a basic gym, smoking room, dark room for photographers and entertainment including a string quartet – made leisure cruising available to people who couldn’t otherwise afford the upkeep of such vessels. Many other shipping lines soon followed suit, including the White Star Line which commissioned RMS Titanic.

However, Victoria Luise's sailing career was short-lived and abruptly ended in 1906 when she ran aground off the Jamaican coast. 

Construction on the most infamous passenger liner of all time began in March 1909, at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, and was finished three years later. It's thought that roughly 3,000 people were involved in the building of it.

RMS Titanic boasted 10 decks, three main engines, a 100-tonne rudder, 2,000 plates of rolled steel and a hull held together by three million metal rivets. The doomed ship – once the largest ever made – is pictured here being worked on in 1910, its name visible high up on the port bow.

Cunard's RMS Franconia made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York, via Queenstown, in February 1911 and shortly afterwards went on a cruise to the Mediterranean – a journey she did annually. The ship had some of the finest interiors in the North Atlantic, but the jewel in her crown was the highly-equipped gymnasium, which was the first of its kind on the high seas.

Sadly, her life was short-lived as she was sunk by a German U-boot in 1916 while serving as a British troopship during World War I. 

As images go, they don't come much more haunting than the last known photo of the RMS Titanic. Taken on 11 April 1912, at Crosshaven in County Cork, Ireland, the ship here had just left Queenstown (now known as Cobh) with approximately 2,200 passengers on board.

Just before midnight on 14 April 1912, during its maiden voyage to the US, the ship which had been labelled 'unsinkable' hit an iceberg on its starboard side that tore open six of its 16 compartments. Just three hours later, it had sunk into the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The tragic incident shocked the world and resulted in the death of over 1,500 people. 

Built by Harland & Wolff, Red Star Line's SS Lapland was a transatlantic ocean liner whose maiden voyage was on 10 April 1909 – three years to the day before her half sister ship RMS Titanic began its fateful journey. Indeed, it was the Lapland that took 172 survivors of the Titanic's crew home to England on 20 April 1912, along with 1,927 sacks of mail intended for her return voyage.

From 1926, Lapland's first-class rooms were transferred to cabin class passengers under new ownership.

SS Homeric was one of three German war reparations ships acquired by White Star Line after World War I. Pictured is her palatial dining saloon during this time. Homeric was known for being extremely stable in rough seas, but her slow speed ended her transatlantic career in 1932.

From then on, she sailed from the UK to the Mediterranean and was one of the first liners to be exclusively used as a cruise ship. Homeric played a role in King George V's Silver Jubilee fleet review in 1935, but was sold for scrap a year later amid the Great Depression.

Like so many other merchant ships of the time, RMS Scythia's maiden voyage in 1921 was a transatlantic one – although she also went on to carry US tourists on cruises to the Mediterranean. In 1930, the ship introduced a number of deck games and races contested by third class passengers, which provided a rare interaction with first and second-class guests, who were able to place wagers on the 'sports'.

A movie theatre was added two years later, featuring famous music hall acts.

Built for the Blue Star Line in 1927, SS Arandora Star originally carried passengers from London to South America before being converted into a full-time luxury cruise ship two years later, running voyages to places such as Norway and Iceland. Pasengers, including these pictured, enjoyed games and entertainment while at sea. However, tragedy struck after the ship was requisitioned during World War II.

In 1940, Arandora Star was torpedoed by a German U-boat while carrying hundreds of internees and prisoners of war to Canada, killing more than 800. 

Launched in 1913, the ship that became known as RMS Atlantis travelled between Southampton and South America and served as an armed merchant ship during World War I. She was converted into a luxury cruise ship in 1929 and became the world's largest vessel solely devoted to cruising – heading to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the West Indies and the Pacific Islands. Guests enjoyed many facilities onboard, like this small swimming pool, pictured.

However, Atlantis' fortunes changed at the outbreak of World War II, when she was moored in Nazi-controlled Danzig. 

RMS Atlantis managed to flee Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland) and was ordered back to Southampton, where she was converted into a hospital ship, with 400 beds and 130 medical staff on board. Among other roles, she served in the Norwegian Campaign of 1940, during which she was bombed five times.

Having survived World War II, Atlantis' final, and quieter, years were spent carrying British emigrants to Australia and New Zealand, until she was eventually scrapped in 1952. Pictured is the mini golf course when she was still a cruise ship in 1930.

SS Lapland, which had brought home the Titanic crew, spent her final years cruising to the Mediterranean before being scrapped in 1934. With the introduction of cabin class, she proved highly popular with this new category of passenger who was able to enjoy access to grand public rooms like the lounge, library and smoking room, as well as leisure activities like shuffleboard (pictured).

This conversion also created the new class of tourist-third cabin, which offered comfortable accommodation at reduced rates.

Matson Navigation Company's 'White Ships', including SS Lurline, were key to the development of US tourism to Hawaii and the South Pacific. From 1927, Matson provided its clientele with luxury accommodation both afloat and ashore at its Waikiki hotels and Lurline became known as the most glamorous way of travelling to Hawaii.

In 1934, Amelia Earhart travelled with her Lockheed 5C Vega plane strapped to the deck of the ship for her record-breaking solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland.

Swedish American Line's MS Gripsholm made the record books in 1927 by being the world's first diesel-powered transatlantic liner, with her main duty being the Gothenburg to New York route. From 1927, the ship was used for winter cruises, with facilities including an ornate library (pictured), Pompeian swimming pool, Finnish saunas and electric light baths for the sun-deprived – first to the Mediterranean and then further afield to places such as India. 

She later served as a diplomatic vessel during World War II.

The SS Normandie is widely considered to have been the most elegant cruise liner ever. The ship's interior was like no other of the era, showcasing the very best in French opulence.

It was designed in an Art Deco theme and its main dining hall (pictured) – complete with Lalique chandeliers – was the longest room afloat at the time. Firmly focused on a first-class clientele, the ship also featured an indoor pool, a winter garden and theatre – the latter of which was the first ever to be fitted to a liner.

Much of the SS Normandie's £48.1 million ($60m) construction cost was subsidised by the French government. As an investment, it must have seemed particularly worthwhile when she won the prized Blue Riband for fastest transatlantic crossing on her maiden voyage in 1935. The grand salon, pictured, was the ship's most palatial room and was likened, at the time, to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

However, just six years later, this grand dame of the seas was seized in New York for US military service and capsized after catching fire during her subsequent retrofitting as a troopship. What remained was scrapped in 1946.

MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a cruise ship built for the Nazi's Kraft Durch Freude ('Strength Through Joy') programme, which subsidised trips for German workers (pictured). Being a ship without social classes, all the cabins were a similar size – with the exception of one larger cabin, which was reserved for Adolf Hitler.

Requisitioned by the Nazis during World War II, the ship sank after being hit by a Soviet torpedo. Resulting in the death of over 9,000 people, it was the deadliest maritime disaster in history.

German-built, what became RMS Empress of Australia was acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway after World War I. In 1922, she was fitted with luxuries like a French Regency-style dining room, oak-panelled smoking room and indoor pool, before being dispatched to her home port of Vancouver.

Six years later, she became an all-first-class round-the-world cruise ship. In 1939, Empress of Australia was deemed fit for a king and served as the royal yacht for George VI's and Elizabeth's tour of Canada. Pictured is the royal bedroom.

During World War II, MS Gripsholm was chartered by the US government for repatriation voyages. Serving under the International Red Cross with a Swedish crew, the former cruise ship made 33 voyages to exchange women, children, diplomats and prisoners of war, among other civilians, between the Allied and Axis powers.

To avoid being attacked by either party, she was conspicuously painted in Swedish blue and yellow colours, with the word 'DIPLOMAT' emblazoned across each side.

HMT Empire Windrush is best known for giving its name to the 'Windrush generation', in reference to the Caribbean immigrants who came to help rebuild the post-war UK, many of whom docked at Tilbury, Essex, in February 1948. What is less known is that the ship was originally called the MV Monte Rosa.

Built in Hamburg in 1930 as a cruise ship for Nazi-approved holidays, it then served as a German military ship during World War II before being seized by the British in 1945.

Renamed the Empire Windrush after World War II, she served as a British troop carrier and in 1948 brought hundreds of people from the Caribbean to the UK to help with labour shortages as Commonwealth citizens. While she was not the only ship to do so, her name became synonymous with the wider mass-migration movement up until 1973. Pictured is the lounge in 1951.

In 2018, it emerged that many of this 'Windrush generation' had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights – a scandal which remains unresolved.

The so-called 'Cruise of the Kings' on board the royal yacht Agamemnon was a 1954 voyage around the Mediterranean, Aegean and Ionian seas. It featured around 100 royals from across Europe.

Perhaps unsurprisingly organised by King Paul (pictured at the front) and Queen Frederica of Greece, the idea was to promote the Greek islands as a holiday destination and bring together the royal families of Europe after World War II – although others claim it was also something of a royal matchmaking exercise.

Completed in 1960, SS Oriana was the final ship built for the British shipping company the Orient Line. She initially served as a liner on the UK to Australia and New Zealand route but, with air travel becoming increasingly affordable and popular, was then turned into a full-time one-class cruise ship. Pictured, a crew member adds some finishing touches to the ballroom before her maiden voyage.

Oriana operated cruises out of Sydney until 1986, when she was taken out of service and became a floating hotel in Japan and then China. She was scrapped in 2005 after suffering storm damage a year earlier.

P&O's SS Canberra was launched in 1961, just as air travel was nudging out transatlantic travel by sea. It had plenty to offer passengers including a casino, library, gym, beauty salon, theatre and even a nursery (pictured). She ran on the Britain-Australasia route for nearly a decade before being refitted as a single-class cruise ship in 1972.

Ten years on, she was called up to serve in the Falklands War, sailing into the war zone to offload troops and collect wounded soldiers. Her subsequent hero status made ticket sales for her final years as a once-again-revamped cruise ship soar, until her scrapping in 1997.

Launched in 1955, SS Nevasa first served as a troopship for nearly a decade before being converted into an educational cruise ship, with capacity for 308 cabin passengers and 1,090 students in dormitory berths. She left Southampton in 1966 in her new guise as a floating school and operated nearly 200 voyages.

Right up until 1975, the ship carried nearly 188,000 British schoolchildren to European ports like Valletta. She was eventually sent to Taiwan for breaking up amid spiralling fuel prices. 

Cunard's flagship Queen Elizabeth 2 was the last transatlantic liner built in Britain. Renowned for its luxury (including this VIP lounge, pictured in 1969) and comfort, she was a liner and then a cruise ship until being sold in 2008. She's now moored in Dubai as a floating hotel.

The ship was supposed to be named Queen Elizabeth, but Queen Elizabeth II surprised everyone at the launch by naming the vessel after herself. After talks with the Palace, the ship was named QE2 (using Arabic numeral 2) to distinguish her from the actual monarch.

Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972 and revolutionised the industry with a vision to make cruising accessible to everyone, regardless of wealth. The company operated three ships – the Mardi Gras, Carnivale and the Festivale – during the 1970s, before launching the Tropicale in 1982, the first new cruise ship built in many years.

The company made the headlines in 1998 when a large fire broke out in the laundry room aboard the Ecstasy, while she was off the coast of Miami.

Cunard's flagship, Queen Elizabeth 2, was briefly used by the UK government to take more than 3,000 servicemen and women across the South Atlantic during the Falklands War with Argentina. Life on board the QE2 proved quite an experience for its military passengers, with much of her usual crew remaining on the ship as volunteers.

There were waiters with printed menus in the dining hall, while servicemen and women were asked to wear civilian shoes to avoid damaging the carpets. Exercise was mandatory, and soldiers had to train on the upper deck each day (pictured).

Carnival Fantasy was the first of Carnival's fantasy-class liners, featuring plenty of lounges, clubs, theatres and other entertainment venues like the casino, pictured. It ran cruises from 1990 until she was scrapped in 2020.

The 2,000-capacity fantasy-class liners, which sailed from the US to destinations such as the Bahamas, were among the final large cruise ships to have all lifeboats on the upper deck. These days, they're placed in a recess on the promenade deck level – as new ships are too high.

Royal Caribbean's MS Freedom of the Seas claimed the title of world's largest cruise ship from Cunard's Queen Mary 2 when she launched in 2006. With most of her sailing career going between the US and the Caribbean, the ship features various pools, a surf simulator (pictured), a library, a nine-hole mini golf course, 1,300-plus capacity theatre and a rock climbing wall.

The accolade of world's largest cruise ship now belongs to a sister ship, MS Icon of the Seas. 

Now check out the clever tips that will transform your next vacation at sea