In early 1938, Canadian Pacific thought that it could do a standard world cruise in 1939. But in July, increasing hostilities between Japan and the Soviet Union, as well as continuing troubles in China, led CP to revise the itinerary. The cruise would go to from Bangkok north to Hong Kong, then turn south again to the Philippines and Bali, then west to South Africa and South America. Not only would it not cross the Pacific Ocean, it would never even enter that ocean.
Click image to view and download a 111.8-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection. The Chung collection also has a smaller brochure.
The cover of the booklet advertising the cruise not only has a painting that wraps around the back, the back cover folds out to make an extra large picture. This extravagance served no purpose other than to display the large illustration that is signed “Simpson.” This refers to Charles Walter Simpson, a Canadian artist whose work for both CP and CN we’ve seen several times before.
Click image to view and download a 9.7-MB PDF of this brochure from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This brochure is dated April 15, 1938, when CP thought it could follow the old itinerary. It shows fares that are unchanged from the 1938 cruise. The cover art, which is unsigned, depicts a Balinesian mask.
Click image to view and download a 14.0-MB PDF of this brochure from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This brochure is dated July 19 and shows the revised itinerary. The first half of the cruise was the same as usual, but after March 4 (day 57), it is completely different. The revised cruise was still 127 days long, so fares were exactly the same as in 1938.
Click image to view and download a 15.6-MB PDF of this brochure from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This brochure shows an itinerary starting in Monaco and ending in Southampton. It is in French and the fares are quoted in livres. The cover illustration is by Ellis Silas, who did a painting for one of the booklets for the 1936 world cruise.
Click image to view and download a 3.6-MB PDF of this brochure from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
CP knew it would have a tough time filling up the Empress of Britain, so it advertised the last 45 days of the trip, from Durban or Capetown, South Africa to Southampton or Cherbourg, France, to South Africans. This brochure includes some fares in South African pounds, which were nearly equal in value to British pounds in 1939.
The Chung collection doesn’t have a list of passengers on the 1939 tour. But other sources say the cruise attracted only 164 passengers. This is by far the smallest number of any CP world cruise — the next smallest was 283 in 1932-33 — mainly because people were wary of travel with war clouds on the horizon.
Click image to view and download a 15.4-MB PDF of these 14 sketches from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
Flora and Martin DeMuth almost certainly were on the 1939 cruise. The above memograms were selected and slightly revised from previous voyages (including the South America-Africa cruises) and used to advertise the 1939 world cruise.
Click image to view and download a 3.0-MB PDF of menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This menu was used on the cruise on February 27 when the ship was on its way from Ceylon to Penang. The cover art is unsigned but inside the menu attributes it to Flora DeMuth. The menu itself was the usual fattening eight- (or more) course meal.