Cunard – A celebration.

Nothing suggests a luxury cruise experience, with a sense of occasion, heritage and relaxation like a Cunard cruise.

In 1840, Samuel Cunard founded the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, as the company was originally known. Cunard gambled everything he had to set up, a highly speculative and enormously risky venture. He even uprooted himself from his native Nova Scotia and took up residence in London.

Cunard’s first ship, the 1,156-ton Britannia left Liverpool on 4 July 1840 with Cunard himself on board, and arrived on schedule in Halifax just ten days later. Within a year Britannia and her three sister ships were providing a timetabled weekly steamship service across the Atlantic – the first ever.

Since that date, there have been hundreds of ships owned and operated by the Cunard Line. From the small paddle steamers to the magnificence of the Queens, Cunard Line has operated a vast array of ships over 177 years.

With the German shipping lines dominating transatlantic travel by the turn of the 20th Century, Cunard found itself in unfamiliar territory. With national pride on the line, the British Government agreed to assist Cunard in the construction of two giant liners. A £2,600,000 loan was provided and the two ships; Lusitania & Mauretania; were built.

In August 1914, World War I started and the Admiralty requisitioned Lusitania for war service. Having departed New York , Lusitania was approaching the coast of Ireland when she was hit by two torpedo fired from a German U-boat. She sank in 20 minutes taking 1,198 lives.

Britain’s answer to the German, Italian and French threat on the transatlantic run, construction of Cunard’s Queen Mary was interrupted by the Great Depression. However after the merger of Cunard with once rival, White Star Line, construction restarted of the most beloved liner of the 1930’s. A tribute to everything great about British style and design, Queen Mary went on to serve valiantly in World War 2.

She served Cunard until 1967, by which time the economies of passenger shipping was devastated by transatlantic Jet aircraft services. Retired to Long Beach in California, Queen Mary remains to this day the greatest example of transatlantic history as a hotel, museum and conference centre.

There is no ship in recent memory that symbolised the history and legacy of the Cunard more than QE2. The QE2 was and still is unquestionably the most famous ship in the world. For nearly 40 years, she was a global ambassador for both Cunard and Britain. She sailed nearly 6-million miles and carried 2.5 million passengers in style, comfort and luxury.

Although her sailing days have drawn to an end, QE2 lives on in our memories, as one of the most beloved ships of all time.

In my next blog, I will look at the modern era, and the “3 Queens”.

If you want to know more, call me on 0333 300 2801 or message me at [email protected]