Cunard Line

The Cunard Line, formerly Cunard White Star Line, is a British cruise line, operator of ocean liners RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) and RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2).

History

Cunard had its beginnings in 1838 when shipping magnate Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, Canada, along with engineer Robert Napier and businessmen James Donaldson, Sir George Burns, and David MacIver formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. The company successfully bid for the rights to a transatlantic mail shipping contract between England and America - winning this entitled it to use the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) prefix to its vessels' names. The company later changed its name to Cunard Steamships Ltd.

In May 1840 the 648 gross ton coastal paddle steamer SS Unicorn, the company's first steamship, made the company's first transatlantic trip. Under the direction of Captain Douglas, she carried 24 passengers, including Edward Cunard (Samuel's son), on a trip lasting 14 days, at an average speed of 8 knots.^[1], thereby meeting the contract requirement of a crossing in a fortnight. Regular passenger and cargo service by steamship was inaugurated by the paddle steamer Britannia, the first ship commissioned by the company. On 4 July 1840 she sailed from Liverpool to Halifax, arriving in 12 days^[2], then to Boston in 2 days 8 hours more.

Cunard faced many competitors from Britain, the United States and Germany, but survived them all. This was mainly due to a great focus on safety. Cunard ships were usually not the largest or the fastest but they earned a reputation for being the most reliable and the safest. The prosperous company eventually absorbed Canadian Northern Steamships Ltd and Cunard's principal competitor, the White Star Line, owners of the ill-fated RMS Titanic and the HMHS Britannic

Between 1914 and 1918 Cunard Line built its European headquarters in Liverpool. The grand neo-Classical Cunard Building was to be the second of Liverpool's 'Three Graces'. The headquarters were used by Cunard until the 1960s.

For more than a century and a half, Cunard dominated the Atlantic passenger trade and was one of the world's most important companies, with the majority of their liners being built at John Brown's Shipyard, Clydebank, Scotland. Its ships played important roles in the development of the world economy, and also participated in all of Britain's major wars from Crimea to the Falklands War, where Cunard's container ship Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by an Exocet missile.

The line began to decline in the 1950s as speedy air travel began to replace ships as the main transporters of passengers and mail across the Atlantic. Cunard tried to address this by forming BOAC-Cunard Ltd in 1962 with the British Overseas Airways Corporation to operate scheduled air services to North America, the Caribbean and South America. It was dissolved in 1966. In 1983 Cunard took over the luxury cruise line Norwegian American Line, and in 1994 another luxury cruise company, Royal Viking Line.

For much of the late 20th century and the first few years of the 21st the line's only vessel making transatlantic crossings was the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. From 2004 the "QE2's" service was limited to cruising (mostly from the UK) and the annual world cruise, while the transatlantic route was taken over by the new RMS Queen Mary 2, the first ocean liner to be built in 30 years and the largest passenger ship of any type. In 2006 she lost the record of the largest passenger ship to the cruise ship Freedom of the Seas, but QM2 remains the largest ocean liner ever built.

In 1998, Cunard became one of a number of lines owned by Carnival Corporation, now Carnival Corporation & PLC. On 1 January 2005 the business, assets and liabilities of Cunard Line Ltd were transferred to Carnival plc, ending the Cunard name as a business entity - the name still appears on the side of Queen Mary 2 and sails under the Cunard brand, but it is controlled by Princess Cruises in California.

Ships

The company operated some of the world's most famous liners and cruise ships, including:

• RMS Alaunia - launched 9 June 1913, sunk by mine 19 October 1916
• RMS Albania - bought 1911, sold 1912
• RMS Albania - launched 17 April 1920, sold 1930
• RMS Antonia - launched 1921, sold to the Admiralty 1942
• RMS Aquitania - launched 1913, scrapped 1950. The only ocean liner to serve in both World Wars.
• RMS Ascania - bought 1911, sunk 1918
• RMS Ascania - launched 1923, maiden voyage 1925, sold for scrap 1956
• RMS Aurania - entered service 1924, sold to the Admiralty 1942
• RMS Berengaria - originally SS Imperator of HAPAG, entered service for Cunard 1922, sold for scrap 1938
• RMS Britannia - first transatlantic passenger service in 1840
• RMS Campania - launched 1892, won Blue Riband, sold 1914
• RMS Carinthia - launched 1925, sunk by U-boat in 1940
• RMS Carinthia - launched 1955, sold in 1968
• RMS Carmania - launched 1905, sold for scrap 1932
• RMS Caronia - the "Green Goddess" entered service 1949, sold in 1968
• RMS Carpathia - entered service 1903, rescued RMS Titanic survivors in 1912
• MS Cunard Countess - entered service 1975, sold 1996
• MS Cunard Princess - entered service 1976, sold 1995
• RMS Etruria - built 1884, sold for scrap 1910
• RMS Franconia
• RMS Laconia - entered service 1912, sunk by U-boat in 1917
• RMS Laconia - entered service 1922, sunk by U-boat in 1942
• RMS Lancastria - entered service 1922 as the Tyrrhenia, sunk by bombing in 1940
• RMS Lucania - entered service in 1893, scrapped in 1909 after being damaged in a fire
• RMS Lusitania - entered service 1907, sunk by U-boat in 1915
• RMS Majestic - entered service 1922, scrapped in 1944
• RMS Mauretania - entered service 1907, scrapped in 1935
• RMS Mauretania - entered service 1939, scrapped in 1965
• RMS Olympic - entered service for Cunard 1934, withdrawn 1935
• RMS Parthia
• RMS Queen Elizabeth - entered service 1940, retired 1968
• RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 - entered service 1969
• RMS Queen Mary - entered service 1936, retired 1967
• RMS Queen Mary 2 - entered service 2004
• MS Queen Victoria - expected to enter service 2007. The ship will not carry the prefix RMS since it will not transport mail.
• MS Royal Viking Sun - entered service for Cunard 1994, transferred to Seabourn Cruise Line 1999
• MS Sagafjord - entered service for Cunard 1983, sold 1997
• RMS Samaria
• RMS Saxonia
• RMS Scythia
• SS Servia
• RMS Umbria - launched 1884, Liverpool to New York service
• SS Unicorn
• MS Vistafjord - entered service for Cunard 1983, renamed MS Caronia 1997, sold 2004

Firsts

Some of the "firsts" accomplished by Cunard include:

• First scheduled transatlantic passenger service (RMS Britannia, 1840)
• First passenger ship with electric lighting (SS Servia, 1881) - though this is disputed
• First twin-screw ocean liner (RMS Campania, 1893)
• First gymnasium and health centre aboard a ship RMS Franconia, 1911)
• Largest passenger ship (until 1911) (RMS Mauretania, 1907)
• Largest passenger ship (until 1996) (RMS Queen Elizabeth, 1940)
• Largest passenger ship (until 2006) (RMS Queen Mary 2, 2004)

Commemoration

A statue on the waterfront of Halifax, Nova Scotia commemorates Samuel Cunard and the founding of the Cunard Line, as well as a special display on the Cunard Line in the Steamship Gallery of the city's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

References

1. ^ Ships of the Cunard Line; Dorman, Frank E.; Adlard Coles Limited; 1955
2. ^ Hopwood, Peter. "Cunard Company" in The Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton, AB: Hurtig Publishers, 1988), Volume 1, p.555

Wikipedia information about Cunard Line This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cunard Line". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.