A title 'liner' derives from either 'Ship of The Line'. The liner was the major combat ship capable of ingesting its place in the Royal Navy's tactical 'Line of Battle' of the sailing era.

Ocean liners were a primary mode of intercontinental travel for across a century, from either the mid-19th century to the 1960s, when it were eventually supplanted by airliners.

In the "Golden Age" of ocean liners in the early a portion of the 20th century, many offered highly luxurious travel for a affluent pack; although potentially the finest ships carried big many poorer rider within cramped quarters on the lower decks. Older ships were typically given all over to carrying immigrants at moo cost.

A virtually all infamous liner was a Titanic, infamous for sinking on her maiden voyage from Britain to the United States in 1912. A Lusitania was lost in 1915 to a German U-Boat during World War I while on passge from the USA to Britain. A worst disaster was a loss of a Lancastria in 1940 off Saint-Nazaire, France to German bombing with the loss of over 3,000 lives. A Cunard Line's Mauretania of 1907 was widely considered the finest of all the liners of its generation, and in decades following many had a similar devotion to the SS Normandie.

Fallowing a Sixties collapse of the passenger ship business, several ocean liners continued inside utilise when cruise ships; as of 2003, a little total come however around service. Two or three thomas more, like Queen Mary, are still afloat but permanently docked and used for other purposes (see museum ship). Notable liners however within service include a stupendous Cunard Queen Mary 2, replacing the Queen Elizabeth 2 which has been retired to service as a cruise ship.