CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 TRANSATLANTIC QUEENS: INTRODUCTION

When the diminutive paddle steamer Britannia left Liverpool on 4 July 1840, bound for Halifax and Boston with a mail contract securing her employment on the route, the future for Cunard looked bright. Indeed, for many years Cunard thrived and dominated the transatlantic route basically unchallenged. However, challenges did evolve and several times the future of the enterprise looked far less than secure as the Line fell behind the competition. Nonetheless, Cunard strived to advance through investing in new tonnage, such as the famous Lusitania and Mauretania in 1907.

The Depression years of the 1930s brought further pressure and Cunard was once again vulnerable, with a massive ship half-built but the funds unavailable to complete her. The solution was to merge with its equally ailing onetime arch-rival White Star Line under a government-brokered deal that included substantive loans to complete the ship and secure funds for a second ship, along with some working capital.

The naming of these new ships was also problematic: should Cunard adopt its ‘-ia’ ending, or use White Star’s ‘ic’? The solution was neither, with a new naming nomenclature seeing the introduction of the now classic ‘Queen’ naming. This was originally confined to transatlantic liners, notably Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2, but following Carnival Corporation’s acquisition of Cunard in 1998, all Cunard newbuilds are designated Queens.

This volume covers the Transatlantic Queens, and describes Cunard Line’s transatlantic liners from Queen Mary (1936) to Queen Mary 2 (2004), and includes a brief look at two proposed newbuilds, designated Q3 and Q5, which did not progress past the drawing board.

ABOVE Brunel’s Great Western heralded the era of transatlantic steamship travel but as a lone ship she couldn’t compete with Cunard.