Today's idle curiosity: a century ago, if you wanted to leave London in a hurry and go far away, would there be a ship *tomorrow*?
Quick count of ads in one paper: between 11/4/1923 and 21/4/23 there were eleven passenger sailings from London to India/Australia/the Far East. Eight to the US/Canada/Caribbean. Double that easily if you took the train to Liverpool or Southampton and met your ship there.
Not exactly the five hundred flights a day from Heathrow, but it's a pretty impressive level of connectivity.
(One interesting detail: the ads are all very emphatic about the sailing days but omit day of arrival - I guess if you booked a three-week passage, you knew what you were letting yourself in for. They also generally omit actual prices, which would have been exorbitant)
@bradpatrick Surprisingly difficult to get a handle on prices from the papers, but I think varied by route - the Atlantic passage would have had a greater mix of luxury down to steerage emigrants, whereas prices for the India routes were a bit narrower - eg this 1927 ad quoting £30 third, £66 first.
@generalising @bradpatrick that seems remarkably affordable. I'm guessing wages have increased beyond inflation, however.
@generalising Was the spread of pricing from steerage to first class the same as now? My $299 coach flight vs $10,000 first class?