The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company. Founded in 1845, the line operated a fleet of clipper ships that sailed between Britain, Australia and America. Today it is most famous for the innovative vessel Oceanic of 1870, the Olympic class ocean liners, including the ill-fated liners RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic, and the tender SS Nomadic.
In 1934, White Star merged with its chief rival, Cunard Line, which operated as Cunard-White Star Line until 1950. Cunard Line then operated as a separate entity until 2005 and is now part of Carnival Corporation & plc. As a lasting reminder of the White Star Line, modern Cunard ships use the term White Star Service to describe the level of customer care expected of the company.
Video White Star Line
History
Early history
The first company bearing the name White Star Line was founded in Liverpool, England, by John Pilkington and Henry Wilson in 1845. It focused on the UK-Australia trade, which increased following the discovery of gold in Australia. The fleet initially consisted of the chartered sailing ships RMS Tayleur, Blue Jacket, White Star, Red Jacketu, Ellen, Ben Nevis, Emma, Mermaid and Iowa. Tayleur, the largest ship of its day, wrecked on its maiden voyage to Australia at Lambay Island, near Ireland, a disaster that haunted the company for years.
In 1863, the company acquired its first steamship, Royal Standard.
The original White Star Line merged with two other small lines, The Black Ball Line and The Eagle Line, to form a conglomerate, the Liverpool, Melbourne and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Limited. This did not prosper and White Star broke away. White Star concentrated on Liverpool to New York City services. Heavy investment in new ships was financed by borrowing, but the company's bank, the Royal Bank of Liverpool, failed in October 1867. White Star was left with an incredible debt of £527,000 (equivalent to £46,480,925 in 2016), and was forced into bankruptcy.
On 18 January 1868, Thomas Ismay, a director of the National Line, purchased the house flag, trade name and goodwill of the bankrupt company for £1,000 (equivalent to £82,572 in 2016), with the intention of operating large ships on the North Atlantic service between Liverpool and New York. Ismay established the company's headquarters at Albion House, Liverpool.
Ismay was approached by Gustav Christian Schwabe, a prominent Liverpool merchant, and his nephew, the shipbuilder Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, during a game of billiards. Schwabe offered to finance the new line if Ismay had his ships built by Wolff's company, Harland and Wolff. Ismay agreed, and a partnership with Harland and Wolff was established. The shipbuilders received their first orders on 30 July 1869. The agreement was that Harland and Wolff would build the ships at cost plus a fixed percentage and would not build any vessels for the White Star's rivals. In 1870, William Imrie joined the managing company. As the first ship was being commissioned, Ismay formed the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company to operate the steamers under construction.
Maps White Star Line
The North Atlantic Run
The Oceanic Class
White Star began its monopoly on the North Atlantic run between Liverpool and New York with six identical ships, also known as the 'Oceanic' class: Oceanic (I), Atlantic, Baltic, and Republic, followed by the slightly larger Celtic and Adriatic. It has long been customary for many shipping lines to have a common theme for the names of their ships. White Star gave their ships names ending in -ic, such as Titanic. The line also adopted a buff-coloured funnel with a black top as a distinguishing feature for their ships, as well as a distinctive house flag, a red broad pennant with two tails, bearing a white five-pointed star. In the initial designs for this first fleet of liners, each ship was to measure 420 feet in length, 40 feet in width and approximately 3,707 in gross tonnage, equipped with compound expansion engines powering a single screw, and capable of speeds of up to 14 knots. They were also identical in passenger accommodations based on a two-class system, providing accommodations for 166 First Class passengers amidships, which in those days was commonly referred to as 'Saloon Class' and 1,000 Steerage passengers.
It was within the circles of the massive tides of immigrants flowing from Europe to North America that the White Star Line aimed to be revered by, as throughout the company's full history they regularly strived to provide passage for steerage passengers which greatly exceeded that seen with other shipping lines. With the 'Oceanic' class, one of the most notable developments in steerage accommodations was the division of steerage at opposite ends of the vessels, with single men being berthed forward, and single women and families berthed aft, with later developments allowing married couples berths aft as well.
White Star's entry into the Trans-Atlantic passenger market in the spring of 1871 got off to a rocky start. When Oceanic sailed on her maiden voyage on 2 March, she departed Liverpool with only 64 passengers aboard, from whence she was expected to make port at Queenstown the following day to pick up more passengers before proceeding to New York. However, before she'd cleared the Welsh coast her bearings overheated off Holyhead and she was forced to return for repairs. She resumed her crossing on 17 March and ended up not completing the crossing to New York until 28 March. However, upon her arrival in New York, she drew considerable attention, as by the time she departed on her return crossing to Liverpool on 15 April, some 50,000 spectators had looked her over. Fortunately, White Star's troubles with their first ship were short lived, as on Oceanic's second crossing to New York, on which she departed Liverpool on 11 May and arrived in New York on 23 May, she completed the crossing timely and with 407 passengers aboard.
In the eighteen months to follow, the five remaining ships were completed, and one by one, joined her on the North Atlantic run. Atlantic sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool on 8 June without incident. However, later that summer another problem surfaced which posed a threat to public opinion of the line. Of the six ships, the names originally selected for third and sixth ships of the fleet had initially been selected as Pacific and Arctic, which when mentioned in the press appeared alongside references two ships of the same names which had belonged to the since defunct Collins Line, both of which were lost at sea with large losses of life. In the cases of those ships, both of which had been wooden hulled paddle steamers, the Arctic had foundered of the coast of Newfoundland in September 1854 after colliding with another ship, resulting in the loss of over 300 lives, while the Pacific vanished with 186 onboard in January 1856. As a result, White Star made arrangements to change the names of these two ships. The third ship of the fleet, which had been launched as Pacific' on 8 March 1871 was renamed Baltic prior to its completion, a name which she sailed under on her maiden voyage on 14 September. At that same time, the keel of the last ship in the fleet, which had been named Arctic had just been laid at Harland & Wolff, and was thus renamed Celtic prior to her launch.
The fourth vessel of the Oceanic class, Republic sailed on her maiden voyage on 1 February 1872, around which time modifications were being made to the last two ships still under construction. Alterations in their designs called for their hulls to be extended in length by 17 feet, which for the Adriatic increased her gross tonnage to 3,888, and for Celtic her tonnage was increased to 3,867. Adriatic entered service on 11 April 1872, followed by Celtic six months later on 24 October. These ships began their careers with notable success, the most notable being Adriatic, which after barely a month in service became the first White Star ship to capture the Blue Riband, having completed a record westbound crossing in 7 days, 23 hours and 17 minutes at an average speed of 14.53 knots. In January 1873, Baltic became the first of the line to capture the Blue Riband for an eastbound crossing, having completed a return trip to Liverpool in 7 days, 20 hours and 9 minutes at an average speed of 15.09 knots.
The first substantial loss for the company came only four years after its founding, occurring 31 March 1873 with the sinking of the SS Atlantic and the loss of 535 lives near Halifax, Nova Scotia. While en route to New York from Liverpool amidst a vicious storm, the Atlantic attempted to make port at Halifax when a concern arose that the ship would run out of coal before reaching New York. However, when attempting to enter Halifax, she ran aground on the rocks and sank in shallow waters. Despite being so close to shore, a majority of the victims of the disaster drowned. The crew were blamed for serious navigational errors by the Canadian Inquiry, although a British Board of Trade investigation cleared the company of all extreme wrongdoing.
Britannic and Germanic
In the wake of the Atlantic disaster, White Star ordered two new steamers from Harland & Wolff, both of which were designed as considerably larger, two-funneled versions of the Oceanic class steamers. These two ships measured in design at 455 feet in length, 45 in width, each with a gross tonnage of roughly 5,000 tons and with engines of similar design as seen in the earlier ships, with the exception of greater horsepower, capable of driving their single screws at speeds of up to 15 knots. Also increased was passenger capacity, as designs for these ships provided for 200 Saloon passengers and 1,500 Steerage passengers. The first of the pair, which had initially been named Hellenic, was launched as Britannic on 3 February 1874 and commenced on her maiden voyage to New York on 25 June. Her sister, Germanic was launched on 15 July of that same year, but due to a rather unsightly complication in her construction involving an experimental 'adjustable' propeller shaft which had to be removed, Germanic did not enter service until 20 May 1875. One notable development with the addition of these two ships was that with this addition, Oceanic was declared surplus and in the spring of 1875 was chartered to one of White Star's subsidiaries, the Occidental & Oriental Shipping company, under which she operated on their Trans-Pacific route between San Francisco, Yokohama and Hong Kong until her retirement in 1895. The two new steamers proved immensely popular on the North Atlantic run, and both would end up capturing the Blue Riband on two eastbound and three westbound crossings within a two-year period. The Germanic captured the westbound record first in August 1875, then captured the eastbound record in February 1876, while Britannic captured both records within less than two months of each other, beating the westbound record in November and the eastbound record in December. Germanic captured the westbound record for the last time in April 1877.
Teutonic and Majestic
Over the next 12 years, White Star focused their attention on other matters of business, expanding their services with the introduction of several cargo and livestock carriers on the North Atlantic as well as establishing a small but lucrative passenger and cargo service to New Zealand. By 1887, however, the Britannic and Germanic and the four remaining Oceanic class liners had aged significantly and were now being outdone in speed and comfort by newer ships brought into service by White Star's competitors such as Cunard and Inman. In an effort to outdo their competitors, White Star began making plans to put two new liners into service which would prove to be exceptionally innovative in design for the time, Teutonic and Majestic. In order to build these new ships, Thomas Ismay made arrangements with the British Government under which in exchange for financial support from the British government, the two new ships would be designed as not only passenger liners, but also as armed merchant cruisers which could be acquisitioned by the British Navy in times of war. Measuring at 565 feet in length and 57 feet in width and with a gross tonnage of just under 10,000 tons, the new liners would be nearly twice the size of Britannic and Germanic. Additionally, owing to the arrangement with the British Government, the Teutonic and Majestic were the first White Star liners to be built with twin screws, powered by triple expansion engines capable of driving the ships at speeds of up to 19 knots.
In all, Teutonic and Majestic were designed to be built with accommodations for 1,490 passengers in three classes across four decks, titled 'Promenade', 'Upper', 'Saloon' and 'Main'; with 300 in First Class, 190 in Second Class and 1,000 in Third Class. Their First Class accommodations, were located amidships on all four decks, with Second Class located abaft of first on the three uppermost decks on Teutonic and all four decks on Majestic, and Third Class located at the far forward and aft ends of the vessel on the Saloon and Main decks.
One notable development associated with the introduction of these two new ships was that they were the first White Star liners to incorporate the three-class passenger system. Prior to this, White Star had made smaller attempts to enter the market for Second Class travelers on the North Atlantic by adding limited spaces for Second Class passengers on their older liners. According to De Kerbrech, spaces for Second Class were added to Adriatic in 1884, Celtic in 1887 and Republic in 1888, often occupying one or two compartments formerly occupied by Steerage berths.
In March 1887, the first keel plates of the Teutonic were laid at Harland & Wolff, while construction on Majestic commenced the following September. Construction on the two liners progressed in roughly six-month intervals, with the Teutonic being launched in January 1889 and sailing on her maiden voyage to New York the following August; while Majestic was launched in June 1889 and entered service in April 1890. Prior to her entry into service, Teutonic made a rather noteworthy appearance at the 1889 Naval Review at Spithead, which was also set to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Although due to scheduling commitments she could not take part in the actual review, she anchored briefly amidst a line of merchant ships awaiting review, complete with four guns mounted, during which time she was toured by the Prince of Wales and Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Kaiser, much impressed with what he saw in Teutonic, is rumored to have mentioned to others in his party "We must have one of these!". They would be White Star's last speed record breakers, as both ships would capture the Blue Riband in the summer of 1891 within two weeks of each other. Majestic beat the westbound record first on 5 August 1891, arriving in New York in 5 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes after keeping an average speed of 20.1 knots. This record was beat by Teutonic, which arrived in New York on 19 August and beat the previous record by 1 hour and 37 minutes, this time maintaining an average speed of 20.35 knots.
With the introduction of Teutonic and Majestic, White Star did away with some of their aging fleet to make room for the new ships. Prior to the completion of the two new ships, Baltic and Republic were both sold to the Holland America Line and respectively renamed Veendam and Maasdam, after which they were put into service on the company's main Trans-Atlantic route between Rotterdam and New York. Veendam was lost at sea without loss of life after striking a submerged object in 1898, while Maasdam was again sold in 1902 to La Veloce Navigazione Italiana and renamed Citta di Napoli, after which she was used as an emigrant ship for an additional eight years before being sold for scrap at Genoa in 1910. In 1893, by which time Teutonic and Majestic had established themselves on the North Atlantic run, White Star sold Celtic to the Danish Thingvilla Line, who renamed her Amerika and attempted to use her for their own emigrant service from Copenhagen to New York. This, however, failed to prove profitable for the line and she was sold for scrap at Brest in 1898.
Cymric and the departure from speed to comfort
Beginning in the late 1890's, White Star experienced an explosion of rapid growth and expansion of its services, highlighted by a dramatic shift in focus from building the fastest ships on the North Atlantic to building the most comfortable and luxurious. Their first step in this direction came in 1897 during the construction of a new ship, Cymric. Initially designed as an enlarged version of the livestock carrier Georgic, which had entered service in 1895, Cymric had been planned as a combination passenger and livestock carrier, and thus was not designed with engines necessary to qualify her for the express service maintained by Britannic, Germanic, Teutonic and Majestic. However, while she was under construction at Harland & Wolff, a decision was made to convert spaces aboard her designated for cattle into Third Class accommodations after it was deemed that carrying passengers and livestock aboard the same vessel would not likely prove a popular venture. Therefore, in addition to the accommodations planned for 258 First Class passengers, her designs were altered to include berthing for 1,160 Third Class passengers.
Overall, her modest layout and design placed her with a footing directly between that of the aged but well reputable Britannic and Germanic and that of the more modern Teutonic and Majestic. Measuring at just over 13,000 tons and with a length of 585 feet and a beam of 64 feet, she was to be the largest liner in the White Star fleet, for a time at least. Additionally, her more utility appearance with a single funnel and four masts contrasted her against her four running mates considerably. Because of this design, she was considered the first of White Star's 'intermediate' liners. However, as a result of this partial transition from livestock carrier to passenger liner, Cymric came to attain several noteworthy advantages which White Star would implore on several other liners. While her passenger accommodations had been modified, the specifications of her machinery and engines were left in place. Like Teutonic and Majestic, Cymric was fitted with twin screws, but was instead powered by quadruple expansion engines capable of achieving a modest speed of 15 knots commonly seen in cargo and livestock carriers of that time. The major difference was that because these engines were designed for more modest speeds, they were considerably smaller and required only seven boilers, leaving more space within the hull for passenger and crew accommodations. At the same time, this also meant she consumed much less coal than steamers designed with larger engines, making her more economical. Cymric was launched at Harland & Wolff in October 1897 and entered White Star's North Atlantic service in February 1898, and in time proved a popular and profitable addition to the fleet.
Oceanic and the death of Thomas Ismay
In the early months of 1897, while Cymric was still under construction at Harland & Wolff, it became clear to Thomas Ismay and other line officials that a new addition to the North Atlantic fleet was needed, as compared to the fleets of many of their competitors such as Cunard and North German Lloyd, White Star was lagging behind. By this point, the only remaining ship of the original 'Oceanic' class of liners, following the decommissioning of their first ship, Oceanic the year before, only Adriatic remained, and in her old age of a full quarter century, her days on the North Atlantic were limited. Britannic and Germanic were not too far behind after more than twenty years service, and with the advancements seen in shipbuilding during the 1890's Teutonic and Majestic had been eclipsed by several newer vessels, most recently North German Lloyd's Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. In response to this lagging, Ismay and his partners at Harland & Wolff set out to design two new liners for the North Atlantic run which would, in a fashion similar to how Teutonic and Majestic had done, go down in shipbuilding history.
The new steamers, which were to be named Oceanic and Olympic, were designed to be both the largest and most luxurious the world had ever seen. In March of that year, the first keel plates for Oceanic were laid at Harland & Wolff, but almost immediately problems arose. Because the shipbuilder had never constructed a vessel of this size, work on the ship was delayed until an overhead gantry crane could be built. Her launch on 14 January 1899 drew an immense crowd of spectators numbering more than 50,000, as the launch placed Oceanic in history as the last British Trans-Atlantic liner to be launched in the 19th century as well as the first to exceed the infamous Great Eastern in length. In all, she measured in at 704 feet in length with a beam of 68 feet, and had a gross tonnage of 17,254, making her a full 42% larger than Kaiser Wilhelm Der Grosse. She was also built with triple expansion engines geared to twin screws capable of achieving a 'modest' service speed of 19 knots. Additionally, she had a considerably larger passenger capacity of just over 1,700, providing for 410 First Class, 300 Second Class and 1,000 Third Class.
Between 1901 and 1907, White Star brought "The Big Four" (all around 24,000 tons) into service: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic, and Adriatic. These ships carried massive numbers of passengers: 400 passengers in First and Second Class, and over 2,000 in Third Class. In addition, they had extremely large cargo capacities, up to 17,000 tons of general cargo.
In 1902 White Star Line was absorbed into the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM), a large American shipping conglomerate. Bruce Ismay ceded control to IMM in the face of intense pressure from shareholders and J. P. Morgan, who threatened a rate war. IMM was dissolved in 1932.
The White Star Line and migration
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, millions of people emigrated from Europe to Canada and the United States. White Star was among the first shipping lines to have passenger ships with inexpensive accommodation for third-class passengers, in addition to places for higher paying first- and second-class. The Oceanic-class liners of 1870-1872 carried up to 1,000 third-class passengers, as did the vast majority of White Star's ships thereafter. The White Star Line's "Big Four", a quartet of revolutionary liners which had large passenger and freight capacities, had the largest carrying capacity for third-class passengers: Celtic of 1901, with capacity for 2,352 third-class passengers; Cedric of 1903 and Baltic of 1904 each had a third-class carrying capacity of 2,000; the fourth ship, Adriatic of 1907, had a third-class carrying capacity of 1,900.
White Star advertised extensively for emigrant passengers. When the Line began operations in 1870, the majority of their business in the emigration trade was centred on Great Britain, and Irish emigrants remained a chief source of income for much of the company's history. From the start, a great deal of their business also came from Scandinavia, with Norway and Sweden being the largest areas of success. As the years passed, the company expanded its services into continental Europe, eventually tapping into the massive streams of emigrants from Italy, from the Slavic regions of Central Europe under the control of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and nations such as Romania and Bulgaria in southeastern Europe struggling with slowed economic growth and overpopulation. Also included was Europe's massive population of Ashkenazi Jews from several areas of Eastern Europe generally known as the Pale of Settlement, a region within the Russian Empire designated under anti-Semitic governmental policies as the only area in which Jews were allowed to settle permanently. The Line eventually expanded their services of travel across all regions of Europe, spanning from the Iberian Peninsula to the Middle East. No exact figures are available, but White Star liners may have carried as many as two million emigrants to North America.
As a means of competing with Cunard (which had faster ships), White Star gave their third-class facilities modest luxuries. These included division of steerage passengers into two areas of each vessel. In those days, most shipping lines (Cunard, Hamburg-Amerika, and North German Lloyd among them) housed their third-class passengers in large open-berthed dormitories usually located at the forward end of the vessel; but the White Star Line strictly kept to the policy of dividing their third-class accommodations into two areas on each ship. Quarters for single men, usually found in old-fashioned open-berth dormitories, were located in the forward areas of the vessel; these quarters differed greatly from those found on ships of other lines as they were much less crowded. Single women, married couples and families were berthed in private two-, four-, and six-berth cabins in the aft areas of the vessel.
The reasons are best explained in a secret investigation conducted by the U.S. Immigration Bureau. During the years when immigration to the United States was at its peak, American agent Anna Herkner disguised herself as a Bohemian immigrant and made three trans-Atlantic crossings on ships of three different lines to carry out an investigation of the conditions of steerage in secret. Although the actual report omits the names of the vessels she travelled on, records at Ellis Island reveal which ships she had included in her study: in 1905, she made a westbound crossing in steerage aboard the North German Lloyd line's Friedrich Der Grosse, followed in 1907 by the Hamburg Amerika Line's Pennsylvania, and finally, in 1909, she sailed aboard the White Star Line's Cedric. Her report contrast "old-type" and "new-type steerage", recommending that the government should bring about transition to the latter. While aboard Friedrich Der Grosse and the Pennsylvania she witnessed stewards sexually assaulting female steerage passengers, a severe lack of medical care, and scarcely tolerable food provided to steerage passengers. Aboard Cedric, however, Herkner was surprised at how well she was treated and how well passengers were provided for. In her report, she described her cabin, which she shared with three other women, as private, comfortable, and clean. She noted that each cabin had a bell by which a steward could be summoned, features such as mirrors, hooks to hang clothing on, and private wash basins. The food was of better quality, and the open deck space allotted to steerage passengers was far greater than in the "old-type" steerage on the other two ships.
Third-class accommodations on the White Star Line included dining rooms with linens and silverware - and menu cards which had postcards on the back, so that emigrants could write to relatives back home and suggest that they, too, travel with White Star. Additionally, each ship also had a reading room and smoke room allotted to passengers in steerage.
Olympic class ships
The Cunard Line was the chief competitor to White Star. In response to Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania, White Star ordered the Olympic class liners: Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic. While Cunard was famed for the speed of their ships, the Olympic class were to be the biggest and most luxurious ships in the world. The Olympic was the only ship of this class that was profitable for White Star. Titanic sank on her maiden voyage, while Britannic was requisitioned by the British government before she was fully fitted, and used as a hospital ship during World War I. Britannic hit an underwater mine, in the Kea Channel off the Greek island of Kea, and sank on the morning of 21 November 1916.
Interwar years
In 1922 the White Star Line gained Majestic and Homeric; two former German liners which had been ceded to Britain as war reparations, ostensibly as a replacement for the war losses of Britannic and Oceanic. Majestic was then the world's largest liner and became the company's flagship. The two former German liners operated successfully alongside Olympic for an express service on the Southampton-New York route until the Great Depression reduced demand after 1930.
In 1927 the White Star Line was purchased by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC), making RMSPC the largest shipping group in the world.
In 1928 a new Oceanic (III) was proposed and her keel was laid down that year at Harland and Wolff. The thousand foot long liner was to have been a motor ship propelled by the new diesel-electric propulsion system, but the ship was never completed due to financial issues. Oceanic's keel was dismantled and the steel was used in two new smaller motor ships: Britannic (III) and Georgic. Both of these ships entered service by 1932; they were the last liners White Star had built.
RMSPC ran into financial trouble, and was liquidated in 1932. A new company, Royal Mail Lines Limited, took over the ships of RMSPC and their subordinate lines including White Star.
Cunard merger
In 1933 White Star and Cunard were both in serious financial difficulties because of the Great Depression, falling passenger numbers and the advanced age of their fleets. Work was halted on Cunard's new giant, Hull 534 (later the Queen Mary) in 1931 to save money. In 1933 the British government agreed to provide assistance to the two competitors on the condition that they merge their North Atlantic operations. The agreement was completed on 30 December 1933.
The merger took place on 10 May 1934, creating Cunard-White Star Limited. White Star contributed ten ships to the new company while Cunard contributed 15 ships. Because of this, and since Hull 534 was Cunard's ship, 62% of the company was owned by Cunard's shareholders and 38% of the company was owned for the benefit of White Star's creditors. White Star's Australia and New Zealand services were not involved in the merger, but were separately disposed of to Shaw, Savill & Albion later in 1934. A year after this merger, Olympic, the last of her class, was removed from service. She was scrapped in 1937.
In 1947 Cunard acquired the 38% of Cunard White Star they did not already own, and on 31 December 1949 they acquired Cunard-White Star's assets and operations, and reverted to using the name "Cunard" on January 1, 1950. From the time of the 1934 merger, the house flags of both lines had been flown on all their ships, with each ship flying the flag of its original owner above the other, but from 1950, even Georgic and Britannic, the last surviving White Star liners, flew the Cunard house flag above the White Star burgee until they were each withdrawn from service, in 1956 and 1961 respectively. Just as the retiring of Cunard Line's RMS Aquitania in 1950 marked the end of the era of the classic pre-World War I 'floating palaces', and also the end of Cunard-White Star, so the retirement of the Britannic a decade later had marked the end of an era for White Star as a visible brand. All other ships flew the Cunard flag over the White Star flag until late 1968. This was most likely because Nomadic remained in service with Cunard until November 4, 1968, and was sent to the breakers' yard, only to be bought for use as a floating restaurant.
White Star Line today
The White Star Line's Head Offices still exist in Liverpool, standing in James Street within sight of the more grandiose headquarters of their rivals, the Cunard Building. The building has a plaque commemorating the fact that the building was the head office of the White Star Line. J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the line who sailed on Titanic, had his office in the building. The White Star Line's London offices, named Oceanic House, still exist today. They are just a street off Trafalgar Square, and one can still see the name on the building over the entrances. The Southampton offices still exist, now known as Canute Chambers, they are situated in Canute Road.
The French passenger tender Nomadic, the last surviving vessel of the White Star Line, was purchased by the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development in January 2006. She has since been returned to Belfast, where she has been fully restored to her original and elegant 1912 appearance under the auspices of the Nomadic Preservation Society along with the assistance of her original builders, Harland and Wolff. She is intended to serve as the centerpiece of a museum dedicated to the history of Atlantic steam, the White Star Line, and its most famous ship, the Titanic. The historic Nomadic was opened ceremoniously to the public on 6 January 2013.
Cunard Line itself has, since 1995, introduced White Star Service as the brand of services on their ships RMS Queen Mary 2, MS Queen Victoria and the MS Queen Elizabeth. The company has also created the White Star Academy, an in-house programme for preparing new crew members for Cunard ships.
The White Star flag is raised on all Cunard ships and on the Nomadic in Belfast, Northern Ireland every 15 April in memory of the Titanic disaster.
Fleet events
- On 21 January 1854 Tayleur wrecked off Lambay Island, with the loss of 380 lives, out of 652 on board.
- In 1873 Atlantic was wrecked near Halifax, costing 535 lives.
- In 1893 Naronic vanished on the Atlantic Ocean with 74 crew after departing Liverpool for New York. Wreckage found included deck spars and at least two lifeboats, but no trace of her crew. Her wreck has never been found.
- In 1907 Suevic ran aground off the southwest coast of England, but in the largest rescue of its kind, all 597 persons (456 passengers + 141 crew) were rescued. The ship was later deliberately severed in two with explosives, with the stern half being rebuilt with a new bow.
- In 1909 the Republic foundered off the New England coast after a collision with the Italian liner Florida. Four lives were lost in the collision and the ship remained afloat for over 39 hours before foundering. The remaining passengers were rescued.
- In September 1911 Olympic was involved in a collision with the warship HMS Hawke in the Solent, badly damaging both ships.
- In February 1912, Olympic lost a propeller blade on an eastbound voyage from New York after apparently striking an unknown object floating just below the surface.
- On 14-15 April 1912 Titanic was lost after colliding with an iceberg, taking 1,502 passengers and crew with her.
- The first White Star ship lost during World War I was Arabic, torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale Ireland on 19 August 1915 killing 44.
- In 1915 the Ionic (1902) was narrowly missed by a German torpedo in the Mediterranean Sea. No lives were lost.
- On 28 June 1915 the Armenian, a vessel built for the Leyland Line but leased to the White Star Line, was sunk by a torpedo fired by SM U-24 20 miles off the coast of Cornwall, carrying a cargo of 1,400 mules. 29 crew and all the mules were lost.
- On 3 May 1915 the former Germanic (then in service as a Turkish troop transport) was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E14. The ship survived the attack with no fatalities.
- In May 1916 Ceramic was narrowly missed by two torpedoes from unidentified U-boat in Mediterranean Sea.
- In 1916 the Cymric was torpedoed three times and sunk off the southern coast of Ireland by U-20, noted as the same submarine responsible for the tragic sinking of the Lusitania the year before. Five lives were lost and the ship stayed afloat for almost three days before foundering.
- On 21 November 1916, the second sister ship of Titanic, HMHS Britannic, was lost after striking a mine laid by U-73 in the Kea Channel of the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece. It sank in 57 minutes with the loss of 30 lives and was the largest vessel sunk in the war.
- On 25 January 1917 Laurentic struck two mines laid by U-80 and sank with a loss of 354 lives.
- In May 1917 Afric was torpedoed and sunk by UC-66, in English Channel, killing 22 crew members.
- In June 1917 Ceramic was narrowly missed by one torpedo from unidentified U-boat in English Channel.
- In August 1917 Delphic was torpedoed 135 miles off Bishop Rock by German U-boat UC-72 and sank with the loss of five lives.
- On 12 May 1918, Olympic rammed and sank the U-boat U-103 which had tried, and failed, to torpedo it. The torpedo actually struck Olympic but failed to detonate. However, several bow plates on Olympic were dented from the collision with the U-boat. Later, while Olympic was in Dry Dock, a large circular-shaped dent was found in the side of her hull, appearing to be the same size as the head of the standard torpedoes used by the German U-Boats.
- On 19-20 July 1918 Justicia (owned by the British Government and managed by White Star) was torpedoed twice by U-46 but she remained afloat. Later in the same day, she was torpedoed two more times by U-46 and again managed to stay afloat. The next morning, as she was towed by HMS Sonia, she was torpedoed two more times by U-124 and finally sank, killing 16 crew members.
- In September 1918 Persic was torpedoed by U-87 off of the Isles of Scilly, but was able to limp off and outrun the sub. She was towed in and repaired, resuming service.
- In October 1917 RMS Celtic ran up on a mine laid by U-88 near Cobh, Ireland, killing 17. She was repaired and put back into military service. In June 1918, she was torpedoed by UB-77 in the Irish Sea, killing seven. Once again, she was able to escape the sub and limp into port with her own steam. She was repaired and once again put back into service, serving through the remainder of the war without incident.
- On 3 October 1932 Laurentic collided with Lurigethen of the HE Moss Line. Both vessels remained afloat following the collision.
- On 15 May 1934, while steaming in a fog, Olympic rammed the Lightship Nantucket, sinking it and killing seven of the crew.
- On 18 August 1935 Laurentic collided with Napier Star of the Blue Star Line, leaving six dead among the crew of Laurentic.
- In November 1940 Laurentic was torpedoed and sunk by U-99 off Northern Ireland with the loss of 49 lives.
Notable captains
- Commodore Sir Bertram Fox Hayes KCMG DSO RD RNR - Commodore, White Star Line
- Captain Digby Murray, Commodore, best known as captain of Republic and Atlantic.
- Captain J. B. Ranson OBE of Baltic.
- Captain Edward J. Smith RD RNR of Titanic.
- Captain Charles Bartlett CB CBE RD RNR of Britannic, one of the sister ships of Titanic.
- Captain Herbert J. Haddock CB RNR of the Oceanic, Olympic, and -- for a few days before her departure -- Titanic.
- Captain Eustace R. White has commanded Bovic, Baltic, Belgic, Nomadic, Homeric, Olympic, and Majestic. One of the first commanders to talk over ship to shore radio from mid-Atlantic.
- Captain Miles has commanded Arabic, Afric, Celtic.
Fleet
See also
References
Further reading
- The ship's list
- History of the White Star Line
- Red duster page on the White Star Line
- Brief company overview
- Info on the original financing deal
- Chirnside, Mark (2016). The 'Big Four' of the White Star Fleet: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 9780750965972.
- Gardiner, Robin, History of the White Star Line, Ian Allan Publishing 2002. ISBN 0-7110-2809-5
- Oldham, Wilton J., The Ismay Line: The White Star Line, and the Ismay family story, The Journal of Commerce, Liverpool, 1961
- "A Nice Quiet Life" by Alfred H Burlinson, an engineer who served on the Olympic, the Megantic, and Britanic [1]
External links
- White Star Line on Titanic-Titanic.com
- Final Demise of White Star Line Vessels
- Brief history of the White Star Line - from TDTSC MN
- White Star Line discussion forum at TDTSC
- White Star Line Historical Documents, Brochures, Menus, passenger lists etc.
- White Star Line History website
- Cunard-White Star Line on Chris' Cunard page
- Documents and clippings about White Star Line in the 20th Century Press Archives of the German National Library of Economics (ZBW).
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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