COVER STORY
CUNARD AND THE WHITE STAR LINE The WHITE STAR LINE dates from 1868, when Thomas Ismay entered into a deal with Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff to construct six ships, which began plying the Liverpool to New York route in 1871. By 1902, White Star ceased to be a British company when it was taken over by the
International Mercantile Marine Co, a large American shipping company headed by JP Morgan. It was under this new stewardship that White Star Line’s major expansion began, with plans to construct three leviathans: Titanic, Olympic and Britannic. Around the same time, Cunard’s diminutive Carpathia was launched at
the Swan and Hunter shipyard at Wallsend with little fuss on August 6, 1902. Capable of just 14 knots, she was deployed to carry Hungarian emigrants to New York. On Thursday April 11, 1912, almost unnoticed, Carpathia left New York bound for Trieste. At about the same time on the other side of the Atlantic, White Star’s brand-new Titanic set sail from Queenstown heading west on her maiden voyage to New York. In command of the modest Carpathia was 42-year-old Arthur Rostron; on board
were 700 passengers, 150 elderly American tourists, the rest former emigrants making a visit home. At 12.15am on the morning of April 15, Carpathia’s wireless operator Harold
Cottam received the first SOS from Titanic and raised Captain Rostron, who immediately ordered a change of course. Carpathia was 58 miles from Titanic; it would take her more than four hours to get there. The ship strained and shuddered as she surged up to 17 knots through the dark, past glistening icebergs visible to the lookouts only by the
Above: RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.
Cunard’s Carpathia docked at Pier 54 in New York following the rescue of survivors of the Titanic.
Below: Mrs JJ “Molly” Brown presenting the Trophy Cup honour to Captain Arthur Rostron, for his services in saving Titanic passengers.
Opposite page: On 4 July, 1840, Sir Samuel Cunard’s
flagship Britannia embarked on her maiden crossing.
reflection of the stars. At 4am, Carpathia reached Titanic’s position. The first survivors came aboard at 4.10am and, by 8.30am, Charles Lightoller, the final person to be rescued, clambered aboard. Now carrying twice her original complement of passengers, Carpathia steamed slowly amongst wreckage and icebergs seeking more survivors – but none were found. Rostron set a course for New York and, on the morning of April 18, she was greeted
by reporters in hired tugboats shouting questions through megaphones; never had this Cunarder been the centre of so much attention. White Star never recovered commercially from the loss of Titanic, and, in 1927, was
purchased by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. This company soon ran into financial difficulty and the British Government raised concern its fleet might fall into German hands.
Simultaneously, Cunard had been
forced to halt construction of Queen Mary, which it was building out of its own revenues and without subsidy. However, those revenues declined substantially in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash. The Government then offered to loan
Cunard finance to complete Queen Mary as well as constructing a sister ship. However, there was a proviso: Cunard had to take over and run the White Star transatlantic fleet, thus ensuring it would remain British. Contrary to myth, Cunard Line and
White Star Line did not merge. Instead, Cunard established a totally new company, Cunard White Star, in which it was the majority shareholder, with White Star Line creditors and shareholders owning the rest. Cunard’s fleet sailed on, but the effete White Star Line went into receivership. In
1947, Cunard bought out the minority shareholders of Cunard White Star and, by 1951, the name reverted purely to the Cunard Line. Spring 2012 I WORLD OF CRUISING 21
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