Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Cunard was born in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of a master carpenter and timber
merchant who had fled the American Revolution and settled in
Halifax. Samuel's business skills were evident at an early age
and by age 17 he was managing his own general store. He later
joined his father in the family timber business which he
expanded into coal, iron, shipping and whaling. A highly
successful entrepreneur in Halifax shipping, and one of a group
of twelve individuals who dominated the affairs of Nova Scotia,
Samuel Cunard went to the United Kingdom where he set up a joint
venture with several other businessmen to bid on the rights to
run a transatlantic shipping company between the UK and North
America. Successful in his bid, the company would eventually
bear his name, becoming Cunard Steamship Limited. In 1840 the
company's first steamship, the Britannia, sailed from Liverpool
to Boston, Massachusetts, with Cunard and 63 other passengers on
board, marking the beginning o