Travellers' Checks | The RMS Laconia, first ship to sail around the world for pleasure, brought an American with pneumonia to Hong Kong
- The 130-day voyage carried 400 passengers from New York to New York via various ports
- All but two made the journey, after one man and his wife were forced to disembark due to illness
As was noted with interest by more than one Hong Kong newspaper, the RMS Laconia was the first ship to sail completely around the world, “purely for the purposes of pleasure”.
Owned by Britain’s Cunard Line, and chartered for the exclusive 130-day New York-to-New York voyage by the American Express Company, the 2,500-passenger vessel arrived in Victoria Harbour on January 17, 1923, carrying just 400 American tourists.
A press agent was also on hand to provide the local press with keenly anticipated cruise news and other pertinent details, such as the on-board presence of several millionaires, important company presidents and industrial magnates.
The Laconia’s previous port of call had been Keelung, where “the natives were amazed at the sight of so many Americans all together”. In Hong Kong, too, curious locals followed the passengers on their various coach tours to Repulse Bay, Victoria Peak and the New Territories.
Many sightseers returned to the ship “with bamboo coolie hats, Chinese fiddles, flutes and other quaint articles of which they seemed quite proud”, noticed The China Mail. “Some were wearing their bamboo hats, and this caused quite a crowd of Chinese to follow them.”
The American tourists were beguiled. “Just the cutest place ever, and the sweetest we’ve seen yet,” said one. “You certainly have some very nice buildings,” said another, “and I see you’re still putting ‘em up. There are signs of growth wherever I look, and I guess that Hongkong will figure large before it’s finished.”