Who invented the first cruise ship?

Answer 1

No one single person invented the first cruise ship, they evolved over a period of decades, with contributions being made to design changes during this time from dozens of nautical engineers and naval architects.

Up until late Victorian times, the idea of taking an ocean cruise for fun, or as a holiday, was almost unheard of. People travelled overseas by ship because they HAD to, not out of choice- to emigrate, to visit friends or relatives abroad, to take up new jobs abroad, to get sea air for their health, and suchlike reasons. Although the great mid-19th Century steamers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western, Great Eastern and Great Britain (along with many others) were designed to make the voyage as comfortable for the passengers as possible, the trips were functional and not for leisure.

It was only from around the 1890s that the idea of holiday cruising began to arouse public interest, and thenceforth trans-Continental liners began to be designed more with this in mind, becoming more like hotels than their predecessors and incorporating leisure, social and sports facilities on board, as well as superior cabins. But no single person was responsible for this- like the motor car, it just evolved from many different contributors to the phenomenon.