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Another pitch in the booklet highlights the exclusivity of the cruise:
“Our cruises have the world-wide reputation of being composed of the best class of Americans travelling abroad. They appeal to the cultured and discriminating.” Incredibly the piece continues by demonstrating what they mean by “discriminating”.
 “The only qualification necessary [to apply to go on the cruise] is that all persons applying must be of good character and standing in society. It is our purpose to make the Cruise a select party of congenial people and hence we carefully select our membership. We reserve, therefore, the right to reject any applicant at any time. Cripples and chronic invalids are not accepted.”
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“Cripples and chronic invalids are not accepted” - Extract from Clark’s 1930 promotional booklet
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It is difficult to know, given American culture at this time, how offensive that last sentence in particular would be amongst the wider US public, but clearly it is unacceptable today and indeed would be illegal to discriminate on these grounds. Nonetheless it gives a clear insight into the elite snobbery that existed at the time amongst the American ruling establishment and reminiscent of Nazi ideology which was beginning to take hold in centre of Europe at the time. In September of the same year the Nazis, under Hitler, would come to power with just 18% of the vote (6,371,000 votes), changing what had been a European democracy into a far-right conservative dictatorship and ultimately setting the world on the course of global conflict, a conflict that would spell the end of the Lancastria.
After setting out the “ground rules” on participation in the cruise Clark finally turns to describe the “mammoth” Lancastria itself:
“THE SUMPTUOUS CUNARD NEW OIL-BURNER “LANCASTRIA
“The palatial “Lancastria” is not only a new Cunarder with all the that the name implies (in fact Lancastria was 8 years old by this time and had steamed tens of thousands of miles), but she is also a big ship and like other Cunarders she has been especially designed to burn fuel-oil.
“The interior decoration has been carried out upon the same lines that have made Cunard liners famous throughout the world as models of luxury and taste. Contrary to the general impression, a single funnel does not indicate diminution of power and the space that would have been devoted to others, and the gigantic “uptakes” from the engine-room has been made available in her passenger accommodation; she is unusually spacious for a ship of her size. 
Graphic of Lancastria’s crew>
“Among those things that help to make a voyage on the Lancastria a most pleasant experience are the spacious open and covered promenades, the orchestra and the wireless newspaper. Every modern invention that makes for safe navigation has been installed, such as numerous watertight doors, gyroscopic compasses, long-range “wireless” and submarine signalling apparatus.”
Click here for Part 3
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