Matson Shipping Lines – South Seas Dreams

NAVIGATING THE ART OF ADVENTURE

Hawaii steamship

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Now that a new year is dawning there are endless possibilities to consider and a world to explore. What will we do next? Where will we go? What dreams will we dream?

New Dreams

couple-in-moonlight

1963 Matson Lines Ocean Liner Cruise Ship Pacific

Paradise on beach

From the early to mid-1900s, long before we lived in a 24/7 global, connected world, the Matson Shipping Lines sailed to exotic places that most people only dreamed about.

tahiti

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its world-class luxury liners provided the fastest, finest and most elegant service available to the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia.

girl with yellow floweraustralia

new-zealand

Offering the promise of South Seas adventures and tropical paradises, the cruise line commissioned top artists and photographers to create advertising posters that would lure travelers to book passage on its ships traversing the Pacific Ocean.

 

Artists Frank Macintosh, John Kelly, Eldridge Logan, Louis Macouillaird, Richard Moore and Eugene Savage all painted iconic island scenes for Matson.

luau

Even famed photographers Edward Steichen and Anton Breuhl got on board to celebrate the Matson dream.

Matson horizontal ship

samoa menu

Ladies with fruit basket

Steichen photo ad in VogueThe advertising posters were showcased in adventure and travel magazines ranging from National Geographic to Holiday and in glossy fashion magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.

1949-matson-cruise-line-lurine-captains-table

That era of glamorous adventures on the high seas may have come to an end, but the posters and the dreams live on.

honemooners A

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

SurfWriter Girls

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Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.

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