The Cunard Legacy

When Sir Samuel Cunard, along with George and James Burns, Charles and David McIver and Robert Napier, established the first regularly scheduled transatlantic mail and passenger service, they changed the world.

The maiden voyage of Britannia departed Liverpool on 4 July 1840. This early Cunard service linked Liverpool, United Kingdom, with Boston, USA and Halifax in Nova Scotia.

It triggered a revolution in transportation that led to the creation of the largest and fastest ocean liners the world has ever seen, and global connectivity of a scale never achieved over hundreds of years of sailing ship services.

World Changing

The line was founded in 1839 as the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. Winning a UK Government mail subsidy; the line was developed to offer a regularly scheduled steamship service across the North Atlantic Ocean.

Over 18 decades, there have been many times that Cunard’s ships changed the world.

Regular Scheduled Crossings: Britannia’s first voyage on 4 July 1840 represented a huge step forward in terms of connectivity across the Atlantic. When Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia joined the fleet, the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., (Cunard Line) established the first ever regularly scheduled Atlantic service. This allowed for travellers to plan their voyages with regularity, and reliability. As the first regularly-scheduled service, it fundamentally changed the way people were able to travel.

Safety of Life at Sea: In April 1912, Cunard’s Carpathia was the first ship on the scene and took aboard Titanic’s survivors. Carpathia’s actions were important. Having safely transported the survivors of the Titanic to New York, key witnesses from the Titanic disaster were called on to give evidence in the enquiries surrounding the disaster. This led to improvements in safety of life at sea including SOLAS and the establishment of the International Ice Patrol, as well as new laws requiring lifeboats for all passengers aboard. The evening of April 15, 1912, became a stormy night, and had Carpathia not successfully rescued the survivors, their story may have been lost, or delayed.

Making World Cruising Viable: Cunard claims that it completed the first continuous world cruise, based on the 1922/23 voyage of their vessel Laconia. Historically, there is some nuance to this claim. There had been attempts at continuous world cruising prior to Cunard’s voyage. However these had not been financially successful ventures. As for Laconia’s world cruise, it was actually, sold by American Express. But this circumnavigation aboard Cunard’s Laconia was was undertaken with just the one ship. This differentiated it from many earlier circumnavigation voyages, which required passengers to change vessels at various ports. Laconia completed a full circumnavigation of the world, and she called at 22 ports, which helped pioneer the viability of such voyages, paving the way for more world cruises in the years and decades since.

Cunard’s Queens Shortened World War II: Winston Churchill was the one to make this particular claim. Many of the ships of the Cunard White Star Line, as well as vessels from many other merchant shipping lines were requisitioned for use during World War II. Among those requisitioned were the giant RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth, the latter of which had not yet entered service or undergone her builders’ trials when the war broke out. The ships were converted to carry thousands of troops, with Queen Mary still holding the record for total people transported to this day: 16,683 in a single crossing. In fact, together, the two Queens transported 50% of the US/Canadian troops involved in the D-Day landings. The ability of the Cunard Queens to transport such large numbers of troops so quickly is what led Winston Churchill to say that without their aid, the day of victory would most certainly have been postponed.

The Last Ocean Liner: Cunard is remembered as being the first shipping line to offer regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings, but Cunard equally famous for being the last to offer this service. In 2004, QM2 was the first transatlantic ocean liner designed since the QE2 entered service in 1969, which makes her unique in the age of the modern-day cruise ships. QM2 has continued to offer regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings since her introduction into service, with only a pause during the 2020/2021 pandemic. QM2 remains the last liner in service, differentiating her from her cruise ship fleet mates QV, QE and QA.

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Image: Cunard House Flag CC.0 Wikimedia Commons