Guildhall Library Merchant Shipping Exhibition

The Union-Castle Line was formed from the Union Steam Ship Co. Ltd. and Castle Mail Packets Co. Ltd. Both firms had their beginnings in the mid nineteenth-century and together they became one of Britain’s largest passenger lines.

Passenger List Kinfauns Castle 5th Oct 1907

The Union Steam Ship Co. Ltd. was originally named the Southampton Steam Shipping Co. Formed in 1853 it was renamed during its first year to Union Steam Collier Company. The firm began with five ships built at Thames-side shipyards running between Cardiff and Southampton.

Britain’s industrial growth had led to a huge demand for coal, but the company’s success was interrupted by the Crimean War (1853-1856) when its vessels were used for transport and supply.

Post war, with a fleet of six vessels, the company decided to enter the passenger and general cargo trade. However, they were soon transformed into a steam packet company (mail) providing a monthly service between England and the Cape.

Clearly ‘Collier’ was no longer a fitting description of the firm’s trade so in December 1855 they were renamed Union Steam Ship Co. Ltd.

Union-Castle Map (1920s)

An intense rivalry with Donald Currie’s Colonial Mail Line (Castle Packets Company), fought against the backdrop of increased migration following the discovery of diamonds in South Africa, eventually led to the amalgamation of the two companies in 1900.

Track chart from Kinfauns Castle passenger list Llanstephen Castle

Passenger List Carnarvon Castle 2nd June 1939

Kinfauns Castle (2)

The Union-Castle Line

The company’s three largest liners, Capetown Castle, Athlone Castle and Stirling Castle were used as troopships throughout the Second World War. They survived the war having transported over 350,000 men – but Union-Castle lost thirteen ships during the war period.

Arundel Castle (2)

War loss cards from the Lloyd’s Marine Collection

Post war, the Kenilworth Castle was transformed into “Noah’s Ark” when she transported a cargo of animals to London Zoo in October 1947.

By the 1960s, the new Union-Castle flagship Windsor Castle (3), was bucking the Modernist trend for interiors with its traditional décor.

It was described by The Times as ‘yesterday’s elegance, today’s comfort.’

Reina del Mar (Queen of the Sea) was UnionCastle’s only cruise ship offering a successful service between South Africa and South America during the Winter months. She was withdrawn at the end of the 1974/75 season as the Oil Crisis of 1973 meant she was no longer financially viable.

Capetown Castle

By the mid-1930s Union-Castle were offering passengers larger, faster vessels and new standards of accommodation, including the abolition of the second and third classes which became the popular ‘cabin class.’

Stirling Castle

Windsor Castle (3)

Windsor Castle (2) as built

Windsor Castle (2) after 1937 Stirling Castle children’s menu

The Union-Castle Line

The Orient Line had roots going back to 1797 when Scottish shipbrokers James Thompson & Co. started a business with a small fleet of sailing ships. After several changes of name and partnerships, the influence of a family called Anderson rose to prominence.

Mediterranean Cruises, 1927

Norway and Northern Capitals Cruises, 1927

By 1866, the company now called Anderson, Thompson & Co. started a service to Australia trading under the name The Orient Line of Packets – Orient Line for short. In 1878 Anderson, Anderson & Co. and Frederick Green & Co. jointly formed the Orient Steam Navigation Company, which commissioned its first steamer, appropriately named Orient, in 1879.

Orsova at Tilbury Landing Stage

The Orient Line

Oroya

The company had strong links to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company (P.S.N.C.), offering services to Australia, chartering and eventually purchasing that company’s vessels. In 1886/7 vessels Ormuz, Oroya and Orizaba joined the service, starting a custom of ships beginning with ‘O’ for Orient’s Australia route.

The company had offices at 5 Fenchurch Avenue at the City end of the London, Tilbury, & Southend (L.T.S.) Railway and in 1887 they moved their London terminal to the new Tilbury Docks.

From 1888 onward, Orient Line began to work closely with P & O after they were given joint responsibility for mail contracts to Australia. This eventually led to a merger between the companies in 1960. The Orient name was finally discarded in 1966.

Orient Line cruise route map 1927

Otranto

The Orient Line and Modernism

Liner interiors had traditionally been supplied by a company employed by the shipbuilder, often in a generic ‘period’ style. There was sometimes little interest in reminding the passenger that he or she was at sea.

From the early years of the twentieth-century speed and luxury on Atlantic liners began to be associated with national pride and by the 1930s great care and expense were lavished upon them.

Interior designers and architects were increasingly employed to create the image a company wished to project as they sought to attract a wealthy clientele. These elegant and luxurious interiors were an eclectic fusion reflecting French classical historic and Moderne (Art Deco) styles.

Principle decorative features of Oronsay

Orient Line menu, 1937

Orion

It was Colin Anderson of the Orient Line who used Modernism to re-imagine the experience of travelling by sea. He created this vision with his interior architect Brian O’Rorke. In a 1967 article in Architectural Review Anderson wrote “We were fighting the baroque figuration of veneered panelling and insisting that straight and uneventful grain was what we must have.

We were rejecting all the damask patterns, all the floral patterns, the cut velvet, plush and chintz, the ‘galon’, the bobbles, and the vaguely Louis cutlery.”

At first, they struggled to find designers and producers of materials and O’Rorke designed much of the furniture himself. In time, Orient Line became innovators in commissioning modern designs and their new style was typified by the vessels Orion (1935-1963) and the Orcades (2) (1937-1942).

Orcades (3) Brochure

Orient Line passenger list, 1937

Orient Line to Australia Orcades (3)

T he Orient Line

Canadian born shipowner Samuel Cunard (1787-1865), founded the company which began in 1839 as the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.

Unicorn 1843

Their first steam service left the following year when the paddle steamer Unicorn became the first of the company’s ships to cross the Atlantic as part of the new mail contract between Liverpool and Boston, via Halifax.

“Royal Mail” remained part of the company’s name until July 1867 when they lost the Liverpool-Halifax mail contract to Inman Line.

Notable twentieth-century ships included Mauretania (1907-1935) and the Lusitania (1907-1915), the largest ships in the world when they were built. The latter was notoriously torpedoed and sunk on the 7th May 1915 with the loss of 1,198 lives.

After the death of Samuel Cunard, the company fell behind competitors like White Star in the design and speed of its ships and in the degree of comfort offered to the passenger.

Investment in the company and in new ships came when they became a limited liability company with shares being offered to the public in 1880. The new company was called “The Cunard Steamship Company Limited.”

Mauretania (1) c1933

Cunard

Lloyd’s Record of War Losses: Lloyd’s of London

Lusitania listed in Lloyd’s War Losses: Lloyd’s of London

Queen Elizabeth as a troopship

The Queens The 1930s saw a merger between Cunard and White Star. Building was started on hull 534 (the Queen Mary) at John Brown Clydebank yard in 1930, then suspended and resumed following a government subsidy, the terms of which took her straight into war service as a troopship. After a post war refit her service from Southampton to New York continued.

She was withdrawn from service in 1967 and in 1971 opened as a floating hotel and museum at Long Beach, California – where she remains.

The Queen Elizabeth was launched by John Brown in 1938 but by 1941 was serving as a troopship. Her maiden commercial voyage from Southampton to New York had to wait until October 1946. After a successful career she was leased as a visitor attraction in Florida (1968) but the venture failed. She was then sold to C.Y. Tung for his Hong Kong based Seawise University in 1970. She came to a sad end in January 1972 when she caught fire and capsized.

Queen Mary postcard

Queen Elizabeth on the Clyde

The QE2 (1969-2008) was built by to replace the Queen Mary but with a dual purpose as transatlantic liner and cruise ship. Built during the rising popularity of air travel and influenced by the impact of the space age, she was to embrace a completely modern style.

Her interiors featured new and fashionable materials such as Perspex, chrome and fibreglass. She was retired from service in 2008 and her future survival was in doubt, but in 2018 she opened as a visitor attraction and hotel in Dubai.

Queen Elizabeth

Queen Mary Cunard Menu July 25 1947

Cunard Programme May 27 1939

Cunard Menu Queen Elizabeth July 10 1947

Cunard Tourist Class Brochure 1939

Cunard