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COVER STORY


constructing White Star’s final liners, Britannic and Georgic. The largest British ships at that time, they had fabulous interiors and were immensely popular. In 1930, the Kylsant empire collapsed and, as it controlled a sixth of British shipping interests, the government stepped in to rescue the company, with White Star coming under the Cunard umbrella as Cunard White Star Line.


until Britannic was withdrawn from service in 1960. Despite the demise of Cunard White Star in 1950, the Cunard and White Star flags were used until the 1960s on the large passenger liners.


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White Star Today This year is the 100th


anniversary of the


perished and the lessons from the catastrophe led to the founding of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention, which exist to this day. Bruce Ismay stepped aboard one of the last lifeboats just as it was about to be lowered and was subsequently vilified in many newspapers, especially those owned by American magnate William Randolph Hearst, who waged a bitter media campaign against him. In the end, Ismay was forced to resign and, the following year, the driving force behind the IMM group, JP Morgan, died.


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espite the magnitude of its loss, White Star continued as a major shipping force. Size of ships had


now became the new mantra, with Hamburg-Amerika, led by the dynamic Albert Ballin, building three massive ships, the 52,000-ton Imperator-class, from 1913-15. With these giants calling at Southampton en route to New York, White Star, which


28 WORLD OF CRUISING I Spring 2012


had moved its transatlantic mail service from Liverpool to Southampton in 1907, would be competing head-to-head with its German rival. However, this was not to be after Britain declared war on Germany in 1914. The last in the Olympic-trio, Britannic, was completed the following year but never carried commercial passengers. As a hospital ship she sank in 1916 after hitting a mine in the Aegean. After the defeat of Germany, Bismarck, one of the German giant ships, was allocated to White Star and renamed Majestic and, until the arrival of Normandie in 1935, was the world’s largest ship.


In the late 1920s, the company planned to build an even larger liner, a 60,000-ton diesel-electric ship called Oceanic that would have been the first to exceed 1,000ft in length. However, plans were scrapped because of financial problems within Lord Kylsant’s huge shipping empire, which now owned White Star. Meanwhile, Harland & Wolff were


sinking of Titanic and it is difficult to escape the plethora of commemorative events, from wreck site cruises to special exhibitions. Among the most interesting is the new Sea City Museum, situated in the former magistrates court in Southampton. James Cameron’s epic Titanic – one of the most expensive films ever made – is being rereleased in 3D while there are hundreds of books on the subject. Leading maritime bookseller Mainmast has 68 titles on its website www.nauticalbooks.co.uk. However, arguably the best read on the subject is still Walter Lord’s 1950s classic A Night to Remember, which has been republished recently.


As for the glory days of White Star Line, the magnificent headquarters in Liverpool and London still survive. The Liverpool building, now known as Albion House, was designed by the great arts and crafts architect Richard Norman Shaw. Completed in 1898, its banded red brick and white Portland stone exterior is a reminder of his most famous building, New Scotland Yard on London’s Victoria Embankment. The impressive London office, Oceanic House, situated behind Trafalgar Square at 1 Cockspur Street was opened in 1905. The ground floor is now a Tex-Mex restaurant and, ironically, the white star flag flying outside is that of Texas, the Lone Star State. In recent years, Cunard has revived the White Star name with its White Star Service and promotes it as being synonymous with quality and good service. This is as true today as it was more than 100 years ago. Now see our Aft View feature on Page 95 for an interview with a descendant of one of the Titanic victims. 


ust six years later, the fleet was reduced to three ships. The iconic livery continued to be used for the surviving liners, however,


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