Cunard & Liverpool

Cunard’s first UK voyages departed from the City of Liverpool. It was here where the Line was established and from 1840 the four purpose built steamers, Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia sailed from Liverpool to the USA and Nova Scotia.

While Cunard moved its express services in 1919 to Southampton, Liverpool remained an important port. Secondary services were run from Liverpool to Canada and America, while the fleet remained registered in Liverpool. Despite the great Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth both being Liverpool-registered, neither ship visited the port.

Cunard maintained its headquarters in Liverpool through to the 1960s, when it finally moved its head office functions to Southampton and London. QE2 was the first Cunard ship to carry the Queen prefix to visit Liverpool, despite being registered in Southampton. This event attracted 1 million spectators.

In 2028 Cunard will host a rendezvous of the current four Queens in Liverpool. This will be the first time four Cunarders have been in the port since the golden age of transatlantic travel. If you’d like to be part of the event, you can make booking enquiries here.

Cunard & Southampton

From November 1919 Cunard moved its New York express liner service from Liverpool to Southampton. The first Mauretania was chosen to establish the route, sailing on 18 November 1919 to New York via Cherbourg.

Since that time Cunard has created a long-standing relationship with the City of Southampton; with the port being the home-base for many of its liners, including Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, the QE2 and QM2.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Cunard establishing its Southampton home, Queen Mary 2 completed a November 2019 Transatlantic Crossing. It honoured the connection, and a variety of on-board activities and events were hosted aboard.

Events included a travelling historical exhibition carried on board, with items from Sea City Southampton on display. Chris Frame worked with Sea City curator Maria Newbery in creating this exhibition which covered Cunard’s long history with Southampton through items and memorabilia from the 100-year-old archive.

Chris Frame also sailed aboard as a guest speaker and shared knowledge on the importance of this last century for Cunard. Other guest speakers included Southampton Historian Penny Legg, author of several books on the history of Southampton as well as Michael Kushner, WWII Signals Intelligence expert.

To commemorate the Southampton connection a special commemorative menu was provided to guests during the gala night, while Chris Frame hosted a special Q&A session where passengers could share their Cunard and Southampton memories.

Image: Cunarders in Southampton CC.0 Wikimedia Commons.