Sailing to France

1922

After the First World War, Americans travelled to France in ever increasing numbers. Five menus from the steamship Lafayette in 1922 illustrate the perceived romance of a transatlantic crossing.1 The trip began when the great ship was nudged out of her berth and pointed downstream toward the Atlantic. “Gentle vibrations tell you she is under way,” wrote one voyager of the era. “Small craft dip flags and toot as they go by; the Statue of Liberty, the shores of Staten Island, the flat back of Sandy Hook run past as though wound on rollers; the pilot goes over the side with a bag of farewell letters; a pursuing tug comes up and puts a tardy passenger aboard. Then, suddenly, like a sleep-walking dragon that wakes up, the liner shakes herself; her propellers lash the sea to suds; a wedge-shaped wake spreads out behind her, and the voyage is on in earnest.”2