Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Over eighty years of trans-Atlantic travel: a pictorial history showing the progress of Cunard, 1922

Over eighty years of trans-Atlantic travel: a pictorial history showing the progress of Cunard, 1922

Cunard Steamship Co.

Printed booklet

Bayldon/0202 


The Cunard Line, one of the world’s greatest fleets of ocean going vessels, commemorates the 175th anniversary of its first trans-Atlantic crossing in July 2015.

The history of the Cunard fleet is the story of crossing the North Atlantic by sail, steam and diesel, in vessels made from wood, to iron and steel.

Nova Scotian Samuel Cunard was awarded the first British trans-Atlantic steamship mail contract in 1839. With famous Scottish steamship designer and builder, Robert Napier, the men launched four paddle steamers on the Liverpool-Halifax-Boston route. These first mail steamers evolved into the massive luxury liners, floating palaces and ocean-going holiday resorts of the modern tourist’s world.  Cunard’s Laconia began its first around-the world cruise in January 1923, lasting 130 days and visiting 22 ports. 


In 1934, seeking to complete its superliner the Queen Mary and suffering the effects of the Great Depression, Cunard merged with the White Star Line, its major competitor, in exchange for a British Government loan. The Cunard-White Star Line operated until 1950. As a lasting reminder of the White Star Line, modern Cunard ships use of the term White Star Service to denote the level of service by which all cruise ships are judged.