The June 7, 1865 issue of The New-York Times devoted two-thirds of its front page to publicizing steamship lines that offered Americans pleasant postbellum getaways:
The Way to Europe.
Enterprise and Prosperity of the Transatlantic Steamship Companies.
Great Ferries Across the Ocean.
Extensive Preparations and Extra Accommodations for the Summer Travel.
Interesting Facts Concerning the Seven Prominent Lines.
Unprecedented Rush of Americans to the Old World.
Thousands of our citizens who had no heart for making pleasure trips abroad during the past four year of internecine strife, are, now that the war is happily ended, casting about for the best, the safest, the cheapest and the most expeditious means of making the Transatlantic trip. For the especial benefit of this class, we have collected a variety of information concerning the several steamship lines, now in operation between this country and Europe, and publish it to-day, confident that it will prove timely and useful, not only to those who are contemplating a voyage across the Atlantic, but also to the general reader. We give an account of the seven leading steamship lines, all of which, it will be seen, are owned entirely by foreign companies; a fact which should carry with it considerable humiliation to ourselves as a maritime people. …
One of the companies mentioned in the article was the Cunard Line. The sinking of its Lusitania was a major event in another war fifty years on.
You can read about steamers crossing the Atlantic in 1870 here
model of Cunard’s 1860s RMS Scotia
