52 Facts About Cunard

In 1839, Samuel Cunard was awarded the first British transatlantic steamship mail contract, and the next year formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company in Glasgow with shipowner Sir George Burns together with Robert Napier, the famous Scottish steamship engine designer and builder, to operate the line's four pioneer paddle steamers on the Liverpool–Halifax–Boston route.

For most of the next 30 years, Cunard held the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic voyage.

However, in the 1870s Cunard fell behind its rivals, the White Star Line and the Inman Line.

Cunard's running mate, Lusitania, was torpedoed in 1915 during the First World War.

In 1919, Cunard relocated its British homeport from Liverpool to Southampton, to better cater for travellers from London.

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Cunard was forced to suspend construction on its own new superliner because of the Great Depression.

Cunard purchased White Star's share in 1947; the name reverted to the Cunard Line in 1950.

Cunard withdrew from its year-round service in 1968 to concentrate on cruising and summer transatlantic voyages for holiday makers.

In 1998, Cunard was acquired by the Carnival Corporation, and accounted for 8.

Cunard returned to Halifax to raise capital, and Howe continued to lobby the British government.

Cunard, who was back in Halifax, unfortunately did not know of the tender until after the deadline.

Cunard returned to London and started negotiations with Admiral Parry, who was Cunard's good friend from when Parry was a young officer stationed in Halifax 20 years earlier.

Cunard offered Parry a fortnightly service beginning in May 1840.

Cunard had the strong backing of Nova Scotian political leaders at the time when London needed to rebuild support in British North America after the rebellion.

Napier and Cunard recruited other investors including businessmen James Donaldson, Sir George Burns, and David MacIver.

Burns supervised ship construction, MacIver was responsible for day-to-day operations, and Cunard was the "first among equals" in the management structure.

The next year, Cunard put pressure on Collins by commissioning its first iron-hulled paddler, Persia.

Cunard emerged as the leading carrier of saloon passengers and in 1862 commissioned Scotia, the last paddle steamer to win the Blue Riband.

When Cunard died in 1865, the equally conservative Charles MacIver assumed Cunard's role.

Cunard responded with its first high speed screw propellered steamer, Russia which was followed by two larger editions.

Cunard continued to receive a £80,000 subsidy, while NDL and Inman were paid sea postage.

Two years later the service was rebid and Cunard was awarded a seven-year contract for two weekly New York mail services at £70,000 per annum.

In 1884, Cunard purchased the almost new Blue Riband winner Oregon from the Guion Line when that firm defaulted on payments to the shipyard.

That year, Cunard commissioned the record-breakers Umbria and Etruria capable of 19.

In 1893 Cunard countered with two even faster Blue Riband winners, Campania and Lucania, capable of 21.

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The next year Cunard commissioned two ships to compete directly with the Celtic-class liners on the secondary Liverpool–New York route.

In 1911 Cunard entered the St Lawrence trade by purchasing the Thompson line, and absorbed the Royal line five years later.

White Star's Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, both White Star's Britannic and Cunard's Lusitania were war losses, and the three Hapag super-liners were handed over to the Allied powers as war reparations.

In 1916 Cunard Line completed its European headquarters in Liverpool, moving in on 12 June of that year.

In 1930 Cunard ordered an 80,000-ton liner that was to be the first of two record-breakers fast enough to fit into a two-ship weekly Southampton–New York service.

In 1947 Cunard purchased White Star's interest, and by 1949 the company had dropped the White Star name and was renamed "Cunard Line".

Cunard was in an especially good position to take advantage of the increase in North Atlantic travel during the 1950s and the Queens were a major generator of US currency for Great Britain.

Cunard's slogan, "Getting there is half the fun", was specifically aimed at the tourist trade.

However, some Cunard stockholders questioned the plan at the June 1961 board meeting because transatlantic flights were gaining in popularity.

Cunard attempted to address the challenge presented by jet airliners by diversifying its business into air travel.

Cunard hoped to capture a significant share of the 1 million people that crossed the Atlantic by air in 1960.

In June 1961, Cunard Eagle became the first independent airline in the UK to be awarded a licence by the newly constituted Air Transport Licensing Board to operate a scheduled service on the prime Heathrow – New York JFK route, but the licence was revoked in November 1961 after main competitor, state-owned BOAC, appealed to Aviation Minister Peter Thorneycroft.

Cunard Eagle succeeded in extending this service to Miami despite the loss of its original transatlantic scheduled licence and BOAC's claim that there was insufficient traffic to warrant a direct service from the UK.

BOAC-Cunard leased any spare aircraft capacity to BOAC to augment the BOAC mainline fleet at peak times.

However, the joint venture was not successful for Cunard and lasted only until 1966, when BOAC bought out Cunard's share.

Cunard sold a majority holding in the remainder of Cunard Eagle back to its founder in 1963.

All Cunard ships flew both the Cunard and White Star Line house flags until 4 November 1968, when the last White Star ship, Nomadic was withdrawn from service.

In 1971, when the line was purchased by the conglomerate Trafalgar House, Cunard operated cargo and passenger ships, hotels and resorts.

In 1994 Cunard purchased the rights to the name of the Royal Viking Line and its Royal Viking Sun.

Cunard was embarrassed in late 1994 when Queen Elizabeth 2 experienced numerous defects during the first voyage of the season because of unfinished renovation work.

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In 1995, Cunard Line introduced White Star Service to Queen Elizabeth 2 as a reference to the high standards of customer service expected of the company.

Cunard has created the White Star Academy, an in-house programme for preparing new crew members for the service standards expected on Cunard ships.

Carnival House opened in Southampton in 2009, and executive control of Cunard Line transferred from Carnival Corporation in the United States, to Carnival UK, the primary operating company of Carnival plc.

In 2007 Cunard added Queen Victoria, a cruise ship of the Vista class originally designed for Holland America Line.

Cunard commissioned a second Vista class cruise ship, Queen Elizabeth, in 2010.

In 2010, Cunard appointed its first female commander, Captain Inger Klein Olsen.

In 2011, Cunard changed the vessel registry of all three of its ships in service to Hamilton, Bermuda, the first time in the 171-year history of the company that it had no ships registered in the United Kingdom.