Passage East

In 1814, the first shipment of cotton piece goods left Lancashire, England, for Calcutta, India, trade that would open the eyes of the West to the riches of Eastern culture. Over the course fo a century, bustling commerce grew up between East and West, carried on the decks and in the holds of great sailing ships and steam-powered vessels. Maxtone-Graham and Marshall bring to life this remarkable era.

As a child, Ian Marshall made his own "passage to India" through the Suez Canal aboard one of the great British luxury liners that carried everyone from military men to ladies' maids to the East. Marshall grew up to be an architect, but his love of the sea and the ships that sailed it never abated; he turned his artistic talents to portraiture, producing two books of maritime watercolors, Armored Ships and Ironclads and Paddlers, which captured exactly the power and majesty of warships. In Passage East, he does it again, this time evoking an era of privilege and class consciousness that vanished along with the Raj. Photographs and sketches illuminate Marshall's text and all work together to make this both a beautiful piece of art and a fascinating work of history. An added bonus is the detailed introductory essay by marine historian John Maxtone-Graham.