THREE QUEENS: A history of Cunard

Set up by Samuel Cunard as the British and North America Steam Packet Company, the line, right from the outset, was always known as Cunard.

These days it is difficult to appreciate just what a huge risk and enormous leap of faith was involved in doing this.

By 1840, at what was then the advanced age of 53, Cunard had established a scheduled weekly service across the Atlantic against formidable financial and technical difficulties, just two years after the initial successful crossing of the Atlantic.

Samuel Cunard was a Canadian, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on November 21, 1787, and together with his father and brothers he built up a thriving sailing ship company, and undertook many other commercial interests.

A prosperous, contented family man, happily settled in the town of his birth, a major figure in the local community and a prudent but conservative businessman, he suddenly risked everything he had, including moving his family to Great Britain, for a venture which, at the time, was so near to the cutting edge of technology that it was regarded by many as foolhardy.

What prompted the departure from his placid and prudent norm was an advertisement by the British Admiralty for bidders to operate a timetabled steamship service across the Atlantic to carry the Royal Mail.

The Admiralty, at that time responsible for carrying mail to the colonies, had seen how the introduction of railways on land had revolutionised the internal mail delivery. It wanted a maritime extension of the railways to do the same for the overseas mail.

At that time sailing ships undertook this task but delivery time to Canada was at least six weeks, with a fair risk it would not arrive at all, and certainly there was never a firm docking date.

Samuel Cunard, despite having no experience of steam and no suitable ship, tendered for the contract and secured it.

The financial risks, exacerbated by huge penalties for late or non-delivery of the mail, which were potentially ruinous, were reliant on new and untested technology and catastrophe always seemed to be present.

Cunard’s first steamship, Britannia, left Liverpool on July 4, 1840, arriving in Halifax 12 days later to an overwhelming welcome.

Britannia was rapidly joined by three sister ships that offered a weekly service, a genuine maritime extension of the railways.

Underwritten by the mail contract and bolstered by an unblemished safety record, Cunard’s line prospered despite an onslaught of heavily subsidised foreign competition.

Samuel was given a baronetcy by Queen Victoria in 1859 in recognition of his company’s service in the Crimean War, a role that the company has repeated in times of conflict many times since.

By now permanently resident in London, Sir Samuel died on April 28, 1865, and is buried in Brompton Road Cemetery in London, but his name lives on to this day as the company still operates the last scheduled passage between Southampton and New York.

Today’s fleet still reflects the best of British, with Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria maintaining the high standards so dear to the heart of Sir Samuel.