By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

Title image: Painting of the Queen Elizabeth I. In late 1968, Queen Elizabeth was sold to the Elizabeth Corporation, with 15% of the company controlled by a group of Philadelphia businessmen and 85% retained by Cunard. She arrived in Port Everglades, FL on 8 December 1968 and opened to tourists in February 1969, well before Queen Mary, which opened two years later, in 1971. The climate of southern Florida was much harder on the ship, and Queen Elizabeth’s retirement in Florida was not to last. The ship was forced to close in August 1970, after losing money and being declared a fire hazard. — Painting of the *Queen Elizabeth I.* In late 1968, *Queen Elizabeth* was sold to the Elizabeth Corporation, with 15% of the company controlled by a group of Philadelphia businessmen and 85% retained by Cunard. She arrived in Port Everglades, FL on 8 December 1968 and opened to tourists in February 1969, well before *Queen Mary,* which opened two years later, in 1971. The climate of southern Florida was much harder on the ship, and *Queen Elizabeth’s* retirement in Florida was not to last. The ship was forced to close in August 1970, after losing money and being declared a fire hazard.

On July 4, 1840, the steamer Britannia departed Liverpool, England on her maiden transatlantic journey, bound for Boston, MA carrying mail, passengers, and freight. Fifteen days later, after a short stop in Halifax, NS, the Britannia and her owner Samuel Cunard sailed into Boston Harbor, where they were greeted by a massive fireworks display. As reported in the Courier, citizens were “aghast with impatience” for her arrival. What had started as the first regular Atlantic steamship mail service went on to become the Cunard Line, which is referred to as “the definition of sophisticated ocean travel” after setting the standard for luxury sea travel at the start of the 20th century.

Samuel Cunard, Founder

At left: Etching of Sir Samuel Cunard, Canadian Shipowner, ca. 1840.

The Cunards were a Quaker family who originally came from Worcestershire in Britain but were forced to flee to Germany in the 17th century due to religious persecution. There, they took the name Kunder. Samuel Cunard’s great-great-grandfather had been a dyer in Krefeld, but emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683. There, he adopted the family name Cunard.

Samuel’s father, Abraham Cunard, was a master carpenter who worked for the British garrison in Halifax, Nova Scotia and became a wealthy landowner and timber merchant. Samuel was born there in November, 1787.

Biographers say Samuel’s own business skills were evident early in his teens. At 17, he bought and managed his general store selling stock he obtained in broken lots at wharf auctions. He later joined his father in the family timber business, which expanded into making investments in shipping. By his early 40s, Cunard had amassed a sizeable fortune from banking, lumber, coal, and iron. He had also built a merchant fleet of about 40 vessels. Now, he needed a way to maximize his investment.

A Notable Rescue at Sea

Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the Carpathia receiving a silver cup award from Molly Brown for his role in the rescue of Titanic survivors. — Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the Carpathia receiving a silver cup award from Molly Brown for his role in the rescue of *Titanic* survivors.

Launched in 1902, the RMS Carpathia traveled the same transatlantic route from Liverpool to Boston as its older sister, Britannia, but is best remembered as the ship that came to the rescue of the RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Carpathia navigated the ice fields to arrive two hours after the Titanic had sunk, and the crew rescued 705 survivors from the sunken ship’s lifeboats.

The Carpathia was sunk during World War I on July 17, 1918, after being torpedoed three times by the German submarine U-55 off the southern Irish coast. There were 218 survivors of the 223 souls on board.

The Express Liners

In 1907, the Cunard Steamship Company launched the first of their Express Liners, the Lusitania and the Mauretania, ships that became the embodiment of speed, luxury, and elegance in transatlantic travel, and the first of the “Grand Hotels” at sea.

Mauretania and Lusitania were one-third larger than any existing ship and powered by turbine steam engines, then new technology. These new transatlantic luxury liners, advertised as “floating palaces,” featured palm courts, orchestras, a la carte restaurants, flushing toilets, electric lifts, telephones, and daily newspapers printed at sea.

Advertising by Cunard for both RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, as both for a time were the largest and fastest ocean liners in the world.

RMS Mauretania (the name originated from the Berber Kingdom on the coast of North Africa) was 790 feet long, had eight decks, and could average a speed of 24 knots, restoring Cunard’s coveted Blue Riband status as the fastest ocean liner on the seas. She could carry 2165 passengers; 563 First Class, 464 Second Class, 1138 Third Class, and 802 crew.

No expense was spared in outfitting her interiors, with 28 different types of wood, marble, tapestries, and other furnishings used in its Edwardian-styled First Class lounges, dining salons, cafes, and suites.

During its long career, Mauretania—called the “Grand Old Lady of the Atlantic”—made 269 double crossings of the Atlantic, exclusive of war work. When Cunard and the White Star Line merged in 1934, she was withdrawn from service and replaced by the RMS Queen Mary.

While Mauretania enjoyed a long and storied history in the annals of transatlantic luxury travel in the early 20th century, the fate of her sister ship, Lusitania, came to a more tragic and historic ending as a victim of war. On May 7, 1915, Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland while carrying passengers and cargo. Of the 1,959 men, women, and children on board, 1,195 perished, including 123 Americans.

The Queens

The RMS Queen Mary made her maiden voyage from Southampton in the United Kingdom to New York City via Cherbourg, France in May of 1936. A million and a half people turned out to see what Hector Bywater, reporting for The Daily Telegraph, called “this great ship, freighted with the hopes of a nation.” In August of that year, She would go on to win the Blue Riband – an accolade for transatlantic passenger liners with the highest average speeds.

Rendering of the interior of the First Class Lounge on the RMS Queen Mary. — Rendering of the interior of the First Class Lounge on the *RMS Queen Mary.*

Named for Mary of Teck—wife of King George V, Queen of England, and Empress of India from 1910-1936—the RMS Queen Mary featured a grand Art Deco design that swept throughout the ship, with décor fashioned from over 50 different types of wood from around the globe. Luxurious onboard amenities included two indoor swimming pools, a music studio, libraries, paddle tennis courts, and a telephone service that could connect callers to anywhere in the world.

The arrival of the Jet Age ultimately led to the retirement of the RMS Queen Mary in 1967 to Long Beach, California, where she remains permanently moored. During her years of service, the Queen Mary transported over 2 million passengers and approximately 810,000 members of the military during World War II.

In the years since, the nearly one-century-old ocean liner has been transformed into a historic hotel and one of Long Beach’s top attractions, welcoming visitors to explore its storied halls and learn of the ship’s history through tours and onboard exhibits.

With a design that improved upon that of Queen Mary, Cunard’s RMS Queen Elizabeth, christened by Queen Elizabeth herself in 1938, was 12 feet longer than her sister ship. In fact, she was the largest passenger liner ever built at that time and for 56 years thereafter, but did not see passenger service until after World War II.

Her size and speed quickly consigned Queen Elizabeth to the War effort, where she was outfitted with anti-aircraft guns and her hull painted grey. Queen Elizabeth is credited with transporting more than 750,000 troops between America and Europe and sailing some 500,000 miles while outrunning any other vessel at sea.

Passengers boarding the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage May 27, 1936 — Passengers boarding the *Queen Mary* on her maiden voyage May 27, 1936

Following the end of the Second World War, the RMS Queen Elizabeth was refitted and furnished as a luxury ocean liner, entering into regular transatlantic service for the Cunard Line in tandem with the Queen Mary, between Southampton, England, and New York City. For its maiden voyage on October 16, 1946, Queen Elizabeth was fully booked with 2,228 passengers. Among its famous passengers on this first run were Russia’s foreign ministers, Molotov and Vishinsky, traveling to the first session of the new United Nations.

The new Queen’s interior was a modest mix of English Country House and Art Deco, crammed with 4,500 settees, chairs, and tables; 4,000 mattresses; 50,000 items of bed and table linen; 31,000 pillowcases; 21,000 towels; 6,000 curtains which represented three miles of material, six miles or 2,000 carpets and rugs (six miles to be cleaned every day); and 1,500 wardrobes and dressing tables. She also carried over half a million pieces of china on which to serve over 10,000 meals a day.

Queen Elizabeth also boasted 35 public rooms, including a 13,133 square foot First Class Restaurant and a theater seating 338 people. The Smoking Room, with an electric fireplace, was described as … magnificent, with its atmosphere of quiet dignity. Turkish and curative baths offered ultra-ray, infrared ray and diathermy treatments, and a swimming pool was available for First and Second Class passengers. The ship also featured a fully equipped general hospital and operating theater.

The Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel Comes to an End

Until 1958, the majority of North Atlantic travelers went by sea. That was the busiest year ever for the ocean liners, carrying nearly 1.2 million passengers, but it was also the year of the first commercial transatlantic jet flight. By the next year, the airlines claimed almost two-thirds of the market with 1.5 million passengers, while the shipping companies’ share would decline to less than 5% within a decade.

Although operators such as Cunard invested in new cruise ships and introduced new amenities and experiences to bring back old and attract new travelers, by the 1970s, ocean liners were all but gone and the cruise line business, forever changed.

Cunard operated as a separate entity until 1999 when it was fully acquired by Carnival Corporation. It continues to offer cruises and unique on-board experiences to ports of call around the world on ships “inspired by its past but reimagined for its future.”