The Captain's Ball. How Far Back Do These Things Go?

[Shangas]

Hi Folks,

I'm currently writing a short story set in the early 1930s/late 1920s on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

I'm thinking of including a captain's ball in the story, but I have questions about this.

For those who don't know, a Captain's Ball is a formal dinner and dance (or just a party) hosted by the captain of the ship on the last night at sea, before the ship docks the next day.

I've searched high and low for information about this, but I can't find any! So I'd like to ask...

1. How far back did captains' balls go? Did they hold them on ocean-liners back in the Golden Era (or even further back?). Or are they a modern thing? What few details I've found suggests the former is the case, but I really don't know.

2. What would the dresscode be? Black tie or White tie, presumably? (For the chaps. Ball-gowns for the ladies).

3. Would it just be dinner and dancing and music? Or would there be more things happening?

4. Would there have been any traditions or ceremonies that took place?

I've searched and browsed...but I can't find anything! Help, please!

 

[vitanola]

I've read a description of a "Captain's Ball" on the Beringeria in October of 1929, and Cornelia Otis Skinner mentions one in her book "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay", her account of a European voyage which she made with her father in the summer of 1920.

 

[Shangas]

That'll be very handy. The ship in my story is the Berengaria.

 

[Espee]

By the way, Cornelia Otis Skinner did a solo comic sketch, as various characters on a ship which is about to dock in New York City. I have it on a Rudy Vallee radio show.

 

[vitanola]

That'll be very handy. The ship in my story is the Berengaria.

Did you know that the Berengaria carried the first ocean-going stock brokerage between 1928 and 1930? The broker had seats on the New York and the London exchanges, and would excecute trades for customers via A special Radiomarine Corporation of America/Marconi wireless station which was dedicated to the use of the brokerage.

 

[Espee]

Did you know that the Berengaria carried the first ocean-going stock brokerage between 1928 and 1930? The broker had seats on the New York and the London exchanges, and would excecute trades for customers via A special Radiomarine Corporation of America/Marconi wireless station which was dedicated to the use of the brokerage.

Wow, I can picture the ship being met at both ports by Occupy protestors.

 

[Shangas]

i've heard of such things on ships before. I think it was the Acquitania that even had a shipboard newspaper. Breaking stories on both sides of the Atlantic were cabled in across the ocean by telegraph and then it was typed up and printed for passengers to read, hot off the press during their voyage.

 

[vitanola]

Wow, I can picture the ship being met at both ports by Occupy protestors.

Well something of the sort happened on board the Berengeria on a voyage from Southampton to New York during which the Panic occurred in October of 1929. the First Calss passengers were allowed access to tbe brokerage, where they were able to mitigate some of their losses (Helena Rubenstein actually turned a profit in her trades during this trip) all the while the second class passengers,many of whom were heavily exposed to the market, were kept away from the brokerage by a locked gate and armed stewards. Quite a number of the Second Class passengers returned to New York utterly ruined as a result.