The Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Santa Clarita, California with offices at Carnival House in Southampton, England, and owned by the dual listed company Carnival Corporation, PLC, headquartered in Miami, Florida. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic, celebrating 175 years of operation in 2015.
In 1839, Nova Scotian 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 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. To meet this competition, in 1879 the firm was reorganised as Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd to raise capital.
In 1902, White Star joined the American owned International Mercantile Marine Co. and the British Government provided Cunard with substantial loans and a subsidy to build two superliners needed to retain its competitive position. Mauretaniaheld the Blue Riband from 1909 to 1929. The sinking of her running mate Lusitania in 1915 was one of the causes of the United States’ entering the First World War. In the late 1920s, Cunard faced new competition when the Germans, Italians and French built large prestige liners. Cunard was forced to suspend construction on its own new superliner because of the Great Depression. In 1934 the British Government offered Cunard loans to finish Queen Mary and to build a second ship, Queen Elizabeth, on the condition that Cunard merged with the then ailing White Star line to form Cunard White-Star Ltd. Cunard owned two-thirds of the new company. Cunard purchased White Star’s share in 1947; the name reverted to the Cunard Line in 1950.
Winston Churchill estimated that the two Queens helped to shorten the Second World War by at least a year; fundamentally due to the large troop-carrying capacities of the ships. Upon the end of the war, Cunard regained its position as the largest Atlantic passenger line. By the mid-1950s, it operated twelve ships to the United States and Canada. After 1958, transatlantic passenger ships became increasingly unprofitable because of the introduction of jet airliners. Cunard withdrew from its year round service in 1968 to concentrate on cruising and summer transatlantic voyages for vacationers. The Queens were replaced by Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), which was designed for the dual role.
In 1998 Cunard was acquired by the Carnival Corporation, and accounted for 8.7% of that company’s revenue in 2012. Five years later, QE2 was replaced on the Transatlantic runs by Queen Mary 2 (QM2). The line also operates Queen Victoria (QV) and Queen Elizabeth (QE). At the moment, Cunard is the only shipping company to operate a scheduled passenger service between Europe and North America.
The ship on the poster
RMS Lucania was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Company, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan, Scotland, and launched on Thursday, 2 February 1893.
Identical in dimensions and specifications to her running mate RMS Campania, RMS Lucania was the joint largest passenger liner afloat when she entered service in 1893. On her second voyage, she won the prestigious Blue Riband from the other Cunarder to become the fastest passenger liner afloat, a title she kept until 1898.
Passenger accommodation
In their day, both ships offered the most luxurious first-class passenger accommodations available. According to martime historian Basil Greenhill, in his book Merchant Steamships, the interiors of Campania and Lucania represented Victorian opulence at its peak — an expression of a highly confident and prosperous age that would never be quite repeated on any other ship. Greenhill remarked that later vessels’ interiors degenerated into "grandiose vulgarity, the classical syntax debased to mere jargon".
All the first-class public rooms, and the en-suite staterooms of the upper deck, were generally heavily panelled, in oak, satinwood or mahogany; and thickly carpeted. Velvet curtains hung aside the windows and portholes, while the furniture was richly upholstered in matching design. The predominant style was Art Nouveau, although other styles were also in use, such as "French Renaissance" which was applied to the forward first-class entrance hall, whilst the 1st class smoking room was in "Elizabethan style", comprising heavy oak panels surrounding the first open fireplace ever to be used aboard a passenger liner.
Perhaps the finest room in the vessels was the first class dining saloon, over 10′ (3.05 m) high and measuring 98′ (30 m) long by 63′ (19.2 m) wide. Over the central part of this room was a well that rose through three decks to a skylight. It was done in a style described as "modified Italian style", with the a coffered ceiling in white and gold, supported by ionic pillars. The panelled walls were done in Spanish mahogany, inlaid with ivory and richly carved with pilasters and decorations.
Wireless history
On June 15, 1901 Lucania became the first Cunard liner to be fitted with a Marconi wireless system. Cunard made a long trial of the installation, making their second installation to the RMS Campania on September 21. Shortly after these installations, the two ships made history by exchanging the first wireless transmitted ice bulletin.
In October 1903, Guglielmo Marconi chose Lucania to carry out further experiments in wireless telegraphy, and was able to stay in contact with radio stations in Nova Scotia and Poldhu. Thus it became possible to transmit news to Lucania for the whole duration of the Atlantic crossing. On October 10, Lucania made history again by publishing an on-board news-sheet based on information received by wireless telegraphy whilst at sea. The newspaper was called Cunard Daily Bulletin and quickly became regular and successful publication.
Final days
Lucania and Campania served as Cunard’s major passenger liners for 14 years, during which time both liners were superseded in speed and size by a succession of four-funnelled German liners, starting with the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse in 1897. The German competition necessitated the construction of replacements for the two Cunarders, which came to fruition in 1907 with the appearance of the RMS Lusitaniaand RMS Mauretania. It was soon decided that Lucania was no longer needed, and her last voyage was on July 7, 1909, after which she was laid up at the Huskisson Dock in Liverpool. Then, at around 7.00pm on August 14, 1909, she was badly damaged by a fire, and partially sank at her berth. Five days later she was sold for scrap, and the contents of her interior auctioned.
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