Ships

Ships are a frequent plot device in many Agatha Christie stories. Ships were the most common mode of long distance transport during Christie's time. Air travel was only just beginning to become popular and was still expensive. Just as trains were the default mode for travel across Britain and Europe or across continents, the default method for travelling to and from the Far East, or across the oceans, was by ship. For Christie, ships could serve as a mobile Locked-room, like in Death on the Nile. Ships were also places where different people could come together and be with one another for a fairly long period of time. Relationships could be formed, or chance encounters could take place which had implications for the subsequent development of a plot.

Poirot Stories

 * The Million Dollar Bond Robbery - a large sum of Liberty Bonds go missing while being transported across the Atlantic on the Olympia. Poirot, asked to investigate, laments that his The Method of Laverguier is unsuitable to combat sea-sickness over long voyages, otherwise he would enjoy travel on ocean liners. There, "one meets "the elite, the haute noblesse of the criminal world!"
 * Death on the Nile (novel) - the S. S. Karnak was the scene of several murders. The only plausible suspects were felllow passengers.
 * Cat Among the Pigeons - Joan Sutcliffe and her daughter Jennifer return to Britain on the Eastern Queen after being evacuated from Ramat.
 * Problem at Sea - Poirot solves a murder on a Mediterranean cruise on an unnamed ship. Another "locked room" mystery but surprisingly no sign of sea-sickness on the part of Poirot.
 * One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - Amberiotis met Mabelle Sainsbury Seale on the Maharanah coming back from India.

Miss Marple Stories

 * Sleeping Murder -

Other Stories

 * The Man in the Brown Suit - many adventures take place on board the Kilmorden Castle. For Anne Beddingfeld, finding this ship involved solving a coded message.
 * The Secret of Chimneys - Anthony Cade travels from Cape Town to Southampton on the Granarth Castle.
 * The Secret Adversary - Jane Finn travels onboard RMS Lusitania.
 * Sing a Song of Sixpence - Sir Edward Palliser meets Magdalen Vaughan on the Siluric and on parting, promises that she could call on him whenever she needed help. Ten years later, she does.
 * The Sittaford Mystery - Mrs Willett and her daughter meet Brian Pearson on Phidias travelling from Cape Town to England.
 * The Voice in the Dark - Sisters Beatrice and Barbara Barron, along with their maid Alice Clayton, were onboard the Uralia when it sank.
 * Why Didn't They Ask Evans? - John Savage met Mrs Templeton on board a ship (not named) coming from America to Britain.

Adaptations featuring ships

 * The Million Dollar Bond Robbery (Agatha Christie's Poirot episode) - the Olympia is replaced with the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary. Archival footage is used, made into "Pathé News" films of the event.