LUXURY RIDES THE WAVES

A new exhibition of photos evokes the golden age of ocean travel

- KATIE DALY

Effortlessly elegant in strings of pearls, her white poodle in her arms, a young Elizabeth Taylor gazes out across the Atlantic Ocean aboard Cunard's 12-deck Queen Mary ocean liner.

The year is 1950 and the starlet is returning home after a 14-week European adventure - one that took in Cannes, St Tropez and the Cap d'Antibes with her first husband, hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr.

Their marriage may have lasted only a year, but the magic of the era evoked by the image endures. It was the golden age of maritime voyages, when Hollywood embraced the glamour of life on the high seas.

Aboard that very same boat were two other names whose marriage caused a media frenzy: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Cunard is celebrating 185 years of ocean travel this year and to mark the occasion the luxury cruise line is staging Sea of Glamour, an exhibition of never-before-seen images from its archives.