What was the name of the Cunard ocean liner which was launched on 20th September 1906?
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Cunard Line Ocean liner
Cunard Line is an Anglo-American cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc.   It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic, celebrating 175 years of operation in 2015.  

In 1839, Nova Scotian Samuel Cunard was awarded the first British trans-Atlantic steamship mail contract, and the next year formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company together with Robert Napier, the famous Scottish steamship engine designer and builder, to operate the line's four pioneer paddle steamers on the Liverpool–Halifax–Boston route. For most of the next 30 years, Cunard held the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic voyage. However, in the 1870s Cunard fell behind its rivals, the White Star Line and the Inman Line. To meet this competition, in 1879 the firm was reorganized as Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd to raise capital.

In 1902, White Star joined the American owned International Mercantile Marine Co. and the British Government provided Cunard with substantial loans and a subsidy to build two superliners needed to retain its competitive position. Mauretania held the Blue Riband from 1909 to 1929. The sinking of her running mate Lusitania in 1915 was one of the causes of the United States' entering the First World War. In the late 1920s, Cunard faced new competition when the Germans, Italians and French built large prestige liners. Cunard was forced to suspend construction on its own new superliner because of the Great Depression.  In 1934, the British Government offered Cunard loans to finish Queen Mary and to build a second ship, Queen Elizabeth, on the condition that Cunard merged with the then ailing White Star line to form Cunard-White Star Ltd. Cunard owned two-thirds of the new company.  Cunard purchased White Star's share in 1947; the name reverted to the Cunard Line in 1950.

Upon the end of World War II, Cunard regained its position as the largest Atlantic passenger line. By the mid-1950s, it operated 12 ships to the United States and Canada.  After 1958, trans-Atlantic passenger ships became increasingly unprofitable because of the introduction of jet airliners.  Cunard withdrew from its year round service in 1968 to concentrate on cruising and summer transatlantic voyages for vacationers. The Queens were replaced by Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), which was designed for the dual role.

In 1998, Cunard was acquired by the Carnival Corporation, and accounted for 8.7% of that company's revenue in 2012.  Five years later, QE2 was replaced on the transAtlantic runs by Queen Mary 2 (QM2). The line also operates Queen Victoria (QV) and Queen Elizabeth (QE). At the moment, Cunard is the only shipping company to operate a scheduled passenger service between Europe and North America.

History

Early years: 1840–1850

The British Government started operating monthly mail brigs from Falmouth, Cornwall, to New York in 1756. These ships carried few non-governmental passengers and no cargo. In 1818, the Black Ball Line opened a regularly scheduled New York–Liverpool service with clipper ships, beginning an era when American sailing packets dominated the North Atlantic saloon-passenger trade that lasted until the introduction of steamships. A Committee of Parliament decided in 1836 that to become more competitive, the mail packets operated by the Post Office should be replaced by private shipping companies. The Admiralty assumed responsibility for managing the contracts. Famed Arctic explorer, Admiral Sir William Edward Parry was appointed as Comptroller of Steam Machinery and Packet Service in April 1837. Nova Scotians led by their young Assembly Speaker, Joseph Howe lobbied for steam service to Halifax. On his arrival in London in May 1838, Howe discussed the enterprise with fellow Nova Scotian Samuel Cunard (1787–1865), a shipowner who was also visiting London on business. Cunard and Howe were associates and Howe also owed Cunard £300. (£ in ), Cunard returned to Halifax to raise capital, and Howe continued to lobby the British government. The Rebellions of 1837 were ongoing and London realized that the proposed Halifax service was also important for the military.

That November, Parry released a tender for North Atlantic monthly mail service to Halifax beginning in April 1839 using steamships with 300 horsepower. The Great Western Steamship Company, which had opened its pioneer Bristol–New York service earlier that year, bid £45,000 for a monthly Bristol–Halifax–New York service using three ships of 450 horsepower. While British American, the other pioneer transatlantic steamship company did not submit a tender, the St. George Steam Packet Company, owner of Sirius, bid £45,000 for a monthly Cork-Halifax service and £65,000 for a monthly Cork–Halifax–New York service. The Admiralty rejected both tenders because neither bid offered to begin services early enough.

Cunard, who was back in Halifax, unfortunately did not know of the tender until after the deadline. He returned to London and started negotiations with Admiral Parry, who was Cunard's good friend from when Parry was a young officer stationed in Halifax 20 years earlier. Cunard offered Parry a fortnightly service beginning in May 1840. While Cunard did not then own a steamship, he had been an investor in an earlier steamship venture, Royal William, and owned coal mines in Nova Scotia. Cunard's major backer was Robert Napier, who was the Royal Navy's supplier of steam engines. He also had the strong backing of Nova Scotian political leaders at the time when London needed to rebuild support in British North America after the rebellion.

Over Great Western's protests, in May 1839 Parry accepted Cunard's tender of £55,000 for a three-ship Liverpool–Halifax service with an extension to Boston and a supplementary service to Montreal. The annual subsidy was later raised £81,000 to add a fourth ship and departures from Liverpool were to be monthly during the winter and fortnightly for the rest of the year. Parliament investigated Great Western's complaints, and upheld the Admiralty's decision. Napier and Cunard recruited other investors including businessmen James Donaldson, Sir George Burns, and David MacIver. In May 1840, just before the first ship was ready, they formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company with initial capital of £270,000, later increased to £300,000.(£ in ),  Cunard supplied £55,000. Burns supervised ship construction, McIver was responsible for day-to-day operations, and Cunard was the "first among equals' in the management structure. When MacIver died in 1845, his younger brother Charles assumed his responsibilities for the next 35 years. (For more detail of the first investors in the Cunard Line and also the early life of Charles Maciver, see Liverpool Nautical Research Society's Second Merseyside Maritime History, pp. 33–37 1991.)

In May 1840 the coastal paddle steamer Unicorn made the company's first voyage to Halifax  to begin the supplementary service to Montreal. Two months later the first of the four ocean-going steamers of the Britannia Class, departed Liverpool. By coincidence, the steamer’s departure had patriotic significance on both sides of the Atlantic: she was named the Britannia, and sailed on July 4.  Even on her maiden voyage, however, her performance indicated that the new era she heralded would be much more beneficial for Britain than the US. At a time when the typical packet ship might take several weeks to cross the Atlantic, the Britannia reached Halifax in 12 days and 10 hours, averaging 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h), before proceeding to Boston. Such relatively brisk crossings quickly became the norm for the Cunard Line: during 1840–41, mean Liverpool–Halifax times for the quartet were 13 days 6 hours to Halifax and 11 days 4 hours homeward. Two larger ships were quickly ordered, one to replace the Columbia, which sank at Seal Island, Nova Scotia in 1843 without loss of life. By 1845, steamship lines led by Cunard carried more saloon passengers than the sailing packets. Three years later, the British Government increased the annual subsidy to £156,000 so that Cunard could double its frequency. Four additional wooden paddlers were ordered and alternate sailings were direct to New York instead of the Halifax-Boston route. The sailing packet lines were now reduced to the immigrant trade.

From the beginning Cunard's ships used the line's distinctive red funnel with two or three narrow black bands and black top. It appears that Robert Napier was responsible for this feature. His shipyard in Glasgow used this combination previously in 1830 on Thomas Assheton Smith's private steam yacht "Menai". The renovation of her model by Glasgow Museum of Transport revealed that she had vermilion funnels with black bands and black top. 

Cunard's reputation for safety was one of the significant factors in the firm's early success. Both the first two transatlantic lines failed after major accidents. British and American collapsed after the President foundered in a gale and Great Western after Great Britain stranded because of a navigation error. Cunard's orders to his masters were, "Your ship is loaded, take her; speed is nothing, follow your own road, deliver her safe, bring her back safe – safety is all that is required." In particular, Charles MacIver's constant inspections were responsible for the firm's safety discipline.

New Competition: 1850–1879

In 1850 the American Collins Line and the British Inman Line started new Atlantic steamship services. The American Government supplied Collins with a large annual subsidy to operate four wooden paddlers that were superior to Cunard's best, as they demonstrated with three Blue Riband-winning voyages between 1850 and 1854. Meanwhile, Inman showed that iron-hulled, screw propelled steamers of modest speed could be profitable without subsidy. Inman also became the first steamship line to carry steerage passengers. Both of the newcomers suffered major disasters in 1854. The next year, Cunard put pressure on Collins by commissioning its first iron-hulled paddler, Persia. That pressure may well have been a factor in a second major disaster suffered by the Collins Line, the loss of its steamer Pacific. The Pacific sailed out of Liverpool just a few days before the Persia was due to depart on her maiden voyage, and was never seen again; it was widely assumed at the time that the captain had pushed his ship to the limit in order to stay ahead of the new Cunarder, and had likely collided with an iceberg during what was a particularly severe winter in the North Atlantic. A few months later the Persia inflicted a further blow to the Collins Line, regaining the Blue Riband with a Liverpool–New York voyage of 9 days 16 hours, averaging .

During the Crimean War Cunard supplied 11 ships for war service. Every British North Atlantic route was suspended until 1856 except Cunard's Liverpool-Halifax-Boston service. While Collins' fortunes improved because of the lack of competition during the war, it collapsed in 1858 after its subsidy for carrying mail across the Atlantic was reduced by the US Congress. Cunard emerged as the leading carrier of saloon passengers and in 1862 commissioned Scotia, the last paddle steamer to win the Blue Riband. Inman carried more passengers because of its success in the immigrant trade. To compete, in May 1863 Cunard started a secondary Liverpool-New York service with iron-hulled screw steamers that catered for steerage passengers. Beginning with China, the line also replaced the last three wooden paddlers on the New York mail service with iron screw steamers that only carried saloon passengers.

When Cunard died in 1865, the equally conservative Charles MacIver assumed Cunard's role. The firm retained its reluctance about change and was overtaken by competitors that more quickly adopted new technology. In 1866 Inman started to build screw propelled express liners that matched Cunard's premier unit, the Scotia. Cunard responded with its first high speed screw propellered steamer, Russia which was followed by two larger editions. In 1871 both companies faced a new rival when the White Star Line commissioned the Oceanic and her five sisters. The new White Star record-breakers were especially economical because of their use of compound engines. White Star also set new standards for comfort by placing the dining saloon midships and doubling the size of cabins. Inman rebuilt its express fleet to the new standard, but Cunard lagged behind both of its rivals. Throughout the 1870s Cunard passage times were longer than either White Star or Inman.

In 1867 responsibility for mail contracts was transferred back to the Post Office and opened for bid. Cunard, Inman and the German Norddeutscher Lloyd were each awarded one of the three weekly New York mail services. The fortnightly route to Halifax formerly held by Cunard went to Inman. Cunard continued to receive a £80,000 subsidy (equivalent to £ in ), while NDL and Inman were paid sea postage. Two years later the service was rebid and Cunard was awarded a seven-year contract for two weekly New York mail services at £70,000 per annum. Inman was awarded a seven-year contract for the third weekly New York service at £35,000 per year.

The Panic of 1873 started a five-year shipping depression that strained the finances of all of the Atlantic competitors. In 1876 the mail contracts expired and the Post Office ended both Cunard's and Inman's subsidies. The new contracts were paid on the basis of weight, at a rate substantially higher than paid by the United States Post Office. Cunard's weekly New York mail sailings were reduced to one and White Star was awarded the third mail sailing. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday a liner from one of the three firms departed Liverpool with the mail for New York.

Cunard Steamship Company Ltd: 1879–1934

To raise additional capital, in 1879 the privately held British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was reorganised as a public stock corporation, the Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd. Under Cunard's new chairman, John Burns (1839–1900), son of one of the firm's original founders, Cunard commissioned four steel-hulled express liners beginning with Servia of 1881, the first passenger liner with electric lighting throughout. In 1884, Cunard purchased the almost new Blue Riband winner Oregon from the Guion Line when that firm defaulted on payments to the shipyard. That year, Cunard also commissioned the record-breakers Umbria and Etruria capable of . Starting in 1887, Cunard's newly won leadership on the North Atlantic was threatened when Inman and then White Star responded with twin screw record-breakers. In 1893 Cunard countered with two even faster Blue Riband winners, Campania and Lucania, capable of .

No sooner had Cunard re-established its supremacy than new rivals emerged. Beginning in the late 1860s several German firms commissioned liners that were almost as fast as the British mail steamers from Liverpool. In 1897  of Norddeutscher Lloyd raised the Blue Riband to , and was followed by a succession of German record-breakers. Rather than match the new German speedsters, White Star – a rival which Cunard line would merge with – commissioned four very profitable Celtic-class liners of more moderate speed for its secondary Liverpool-New York service. In 1902 White Star joined the well-capitalized American combine, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM), which owned the American Line, including the old Inman Line, and other lines. IMM also had trade agreements with Hamburg–America and Norddeutscher Lloyd.

This was the Dreadnought era and British prestige was at stake. The British Government provided Cunard with an annual subsidy of £150,000 plus a low interest loan of £2.5 million (equivalent to £ in ), to pay for the construction of the two superliners, the Blue Riband winners Lusitania and Mauretania, capable of . In 1903 the firm started a Fiume–New York service with calls at Italian ports and Gibraltar. The next year Cunard commissioned two ships to compete directly with the Celtic-class liners on the secondary Liverpool-New York route. In 1911 Cunard entered the St Lawrence trade by purchasing the Thompson line, and absorbed the Royal line five years later.

Not to be outdone, both White Star and Hamburg–America each ordered a trio of superliners. The White Star Olympic-class liners at  and the Hapag Imperator-class liners at  were larger and more luxurious than the Cunarders, but not as fast. Cunard also ordered a new ship, Aquitania, capable of , to complete the Liverpool mail fleet. Events prevented the expected competition between the three sets of superliners. White Star's Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, both White Star's Britannic and Cunard's Lusitania were war losses, and the three Hapag super-liners were handed over to the Allied powers as war reparations.

In 1916 Cunard Line completed its European headquarters in Liverpool, moving in on 12 June of that year.  The grand neo-Classical Cunard Building was the third of Liverpool's Three Graces. The headquarters were used by Cunard until the 1960s.

Due to First World War losses, Cunard began a post-war rebuilding programme including eleven intermediate liners. It acquired the former Hapag Imperator (renamed the Berengaria) to replace the lost Lusitania as the running mate for Mauretania and Aquitania, and Southampton replaced Liverpool as the British destination for the three-ship express service. By 1926 Cunard's fleet was larger than before the war, and White Star was in decline, having been sold by IMM.

Despite the dramatic reduction in North Atlantic passengers caused by the shipping depression beginning in 1929, the Germans, Italians and the French commissioned new "ships of state" prestige liners. The German Bremen took the Blue Riband at  in 1933, the Italian Rex recorded  on a westbound voyage the same year, and the French Normandie crossed the Atlantic in just under four days at  in 1937. In 1930 Cunard ordered an 80,000 ton liner that was to be the first of two record-breakers fast enough to fit into a two-ship weekly Southampton-New York service. Work on hull 534 was halted in 1931 because of the economic conditions.

Cunard-White Star Ltd: 1934–1949

In 1934, both the Cunard Line and the White Star Line were experiencing financial difficulties. David Kirkwood, MP for Clydebank where the unfinished hull 534 had been sitting idle for two and a half years, made a passionate plea in the House of Commons for funding to finish the ship and restart the dormant British economy. The government offered Cunard a loan of £3 million to complete hull 534 and an additional £5 million to build a second ship, if Cunard merged with White Star. The merger was accomplished by forming a new company, Cunard White Star, Ltd with Cunard owning about two-thirds of the capital.  Due to the surplus tonnage of the new combined Cunard White Star fleet many of the older liners were sent to the scrapyard; these included the ex-Cunard liner Mauretania and the ex-White Star liners Olympic and Homeric. In 1936 the ex-White Star Majestic was sold when hull 534, now named Queen Mary, replaced her in the express mail service. Queen Mary reached  on her 1938 Blue Riband voyage. Cunard-White Star started construction on Queen Elizabeth, and a smaller ship, the second Mauretania, joined the fleet and could also be used on the Atlantic run when one of the Queens was in drydock. The ex-Cunard liner Berengaria was sold for scrap in 1938 after a series of fires.

During the 1939–45 Second World War the Queens carried over two million servicemen and were credited by Churchill as helping to shorten the war by a year. All four of the large Cunard-White Star express liners, the two Queens, Aquitania and Mauretania survived, but many of the secondary ships were lost. Both  and  were sunk with heavy loss of life.

In 1947 Cunard purchased White Star's interest, and by 1949 the company had dropped the White Star name and was renamed Cunard Line.  Also in 1947 the company commissioned five freighters and two cargo liners. Caronia, was completed in 1949 as a permanent cruise liner and Aquitania was retired the next year. Cunard was in an especially good position to take advantage of the increase in North Atlantic travel during the 1950s and the Queens were a major generator of US currency for Great Britain. Cunard's slogan, "Getting there is half the fun", was specifically aimed at the tourist trade. Beginning in 1954, Cunard took delivery of four new 22,000-GRT intermediate liners for the Canadian route and the Liverpool-New York route. The last White Star motor ship, Britannic of 1930, remained in service until 1960.

In 1960 a government-appointed committee recommended the construction of project Q3, a conventional 75,000 GRT liner to replace Queen Mary. Under the plan, the government would lend Cunard the majority of the liner's cost.  However, some Cunard stockholders questioned the plan at the June 1961 board meeting because trans-Atlantic flights were gaining in popularity.  By 1963 the plan had been changed to a dual-purpose 55,000 GRT ship designed to cruise in the off-season.  Ultimately, this ship came into service in 1969 as the 70,300 GRT Queen Elizabeth 2.

Within ten years of the introduction of jet airliners in 1958, most of the conventional Atlantic liners were gone.  Mauretania was retired in 1965, the Queen Mary and Caronia in 1967, and the Queen Elizabeth in 1968. Two of the new intermediate liners were sold by 1970 and the other two were converted to cruise ships. Cunard tried operating scheduled air services to North America, the Caribbean and South America by forming BOAC-Cunard Ltd in 1962 with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), but this venture lasted only until 1966.

Trafalgar House years: 1971–1998

In 1971, when the line was purchased by the conglomerate Trafalgar House, Cunard operated cargo and passenger ships, hotels and resorts. Its cargo fleet consisted of 42 ships in service, with 20 on order. The flagship of the passenger fleet was the two-year-old Queen Elizabeth 2. The fleet also included the remaining two intermediate liners from the 1950s, plus two purpose-built cruise ships on order. Trafalgar acquired two additional cruise ships and disposed of the intermediate liners and most of the cargo fleet.   During the Falklands War, QE2 and Cunard Countess were chartered as troopships while Cunard's container ship Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by an Exocet missile.

Cunard acquired the Norwegian America Line in 1983, with two classic ocean liner/cruise ships.  Also in 1983, the Trafalgar attempted a hostile takeover of P&O, another large passenger and cargo shipping line, which was formed the same year as Cunard. P&O objected and forced the issue to the British Monopolies and Mergers Commission. In their filing, P&O was critical of Trafalgar's management of Cunard and their failure to correct QE2's mechanical problems.   In 1984, the Commission ruled in favour of the merger, but Trafalgar decided against proceeding. In 1988, Cunard acquired Ellerman Lines and its small fleet of cargo vessels, organising the business as Cunard-Ellerman, however, only a few years later, Cunard decided to abandon the cargo business and focus solely on cruise ships. Cunard's cargo fleet was sold off between 1989 and 1991, with a single container ship, the second Atlantic Conveyor, remaining under Cunard ownership until 1996. In 1993, Cunard entered into a 10-year agreement to handle marketing, sales and reservations for the Crown Cruise Line, and its three vessels joined the Cunard fleet under the Cunard Crown banner.  In 1994 Cunard purchased the rights to the name of the Royal Viking Line and its Royal Viking Sun. The rest of Royal Viking Line's fleet stayed with the line's owner, Norwegian Cruise Line.

By the mid-1990s Cunard was ailing.  The company was embarrassed in late 1994 when the QE2 experienced numerous defects during the first voyage of the season because of unfinished renovation work.  Claims from passengers cost the company US$13 million.  After Cunard reported a US$25 million loss in 1995, Trafalgar assigned a new CEO to the line, who concluded that the company had management issues.  In 1996 the Norwegian conglomerate Kværner acquired Trafalgar House, and attempted to sell Cunard. When there were no takers, Kværner made substantial investments to turn around the company's tarnished reputation.

Carnival: from 1998

In 1998, the cruise line conglomerate Carnival Corporation acquired 68% of Cunard for US$425 million.  The next year Carnival acquired the remaining stock for US$205 million.  Ultimately, Carnival sued Kværner claiming that the ships were in worse condition than represented and Kværner agreed to refund USD$50 million to Carnival.  Each of Carnival's cruise lines is designed to appeal to a different market, and Carnival was interested in rebuilding Cunard as a luxury brand trading on its British traditions.  Under the slogan "Advancing Civilization Since 1840," Cunard's advertising campaign sought to emphasise the elegance and mystique of ocean travel.  Only the  QE2 and Caronia continued under the Cunard brand and the company started Project Queen Mary to build a new ocean liner/cruise ship for the transatlantic route.

By 2001 Carnival was the largest cruise company, followed by Royal Caribbean and P&O Princess Cruises, which had recently separated from its parent P&O. When Royal Caribbean and P&O Princess agreed to merge, Carnival countered with a hostile takeover bid for P&O Princess. Carnival rejected the idea of selling Cunard to resolve antitrust issues with the acquisition.  European and US regulators approved the merger without requiring Cunard's sale.  After the merger was completed, Carnival moved Cunard's headquarters to the offices of Princess Cruises in Santa Clarita, California so that administrative, financial and technology services could be combined.

With the opening of Carnival House in Southampton in 2009,  executive control of Cunard Line was subsequently transferred from Carnival Corporation in the United States, to Carnival UK, the primary operating company of Carnival plc. As the UK-listed holding company of the group, Carnival plc had executive control of all Carnival Group activities in the UK, with the headquarters of all UK-based brands, including Cunard, in offices at Carnival House.

In 2004 the 36-year-old QE2 was replaced on the North Atlantic by Queen Mary 2.  Caronia was sold and QE2 continued to cruise until she was retired in 2008. In 2007 Cunard added a large cruise ship, Queen Victoria. She is not a sister for the QM2, being ordered by Carnival as a Vista class cruise ship for the Holland America Line. To reinforce Cunard traditions, the QV has a small museum on board. Cunard commissioned a second Vista class cruise ship, Queen Elizabeth in 2010.

In 2010 Cunard appointed its first female commander, Captain Inger Klein Olsen. 

In 2011 all three Cunard ships in service changed vessel registry to Hamilton, Bermuda, the first time in the 171-year history of the company that it had no ships registered in the United Kingdom.  The captains of ships registered in Bermuda, but not in the UK, can marry couples at sea; weddings at sea are a lucrative market.

On 25 May 2015, the  three Cunard ocean liners - Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria - sailed up the Mersey into Liverpool to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Cunard. The ships performed manoeuvres, including 180-degree turns, as the Red Arrows performed a flypast.   Just over a year later Queen Elizabeth returned to Liverpool under Captain Olsen to take part in the celebrations of the centenary of the Cunard Building on 2 June 2016.

Fleet

The Cunard fleet, all built for Cunard unless otherwise indicated, consisted of the following ships in order of acquisition:

1840–1850

All ships of this period had wooden hulls and paddle wheels

1850–1879

Only Arabia had a wooden hull and only Arabia, Persia and Scotia had paddle wheels

1879–1934

1934–1971

See also: White Star Line's Olympic, Homeric, Majestic, Doric, Laurentic, Britannic and Georgic

1971–1998

1998-current An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (e.g., for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). 

Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes called liners.  The category does not include ferries or other vessels engaged in short-sea trading, nor dedicated cruise ships where the voyage itself, and not transportation, is the prime purpose of the trip. Nor does it include tramp steamers, even those equipped to handle limited numbers of passengers. Some shipping companies refer to themselves as "lines" and their container ships, which often operate over set routes according to established schedules, as "liners".

Ocean liners are usually strongly built with a high freeboard to withstand rough seas and adverse conditions encountered in the open ocean. Additionally, they are often designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships, and have large capacities for fuel, food and other consumables on long voyages. 

Once the dominant form of travel between continents, ocean liners were rendered largely obsolete by the emergence of long-distance aircraft after World War II.  As of 2015,  was the only ship still in service as an ocean liner.

Overview

Ocean liners were the primary mode of intercontinental travel for over a century, from the mid-19th century until they began to be supplanted by airliners in the 1950s. In addition to passengers, liners carried mail and cargo. Ships contracted to carry British Royal Mail used the designation RMS. Liners were also the preferred way to move gold and other high-value cargoes. 

The busiest route for liners was on the North Atlantic with ships travelling between Europe and North America. It was on this route that the fastest, largest and most advanced liners travelled. But while in contemporary popular imagination the term "ocean liners" evokes these transatlantic superliners, most ocean liners historically were mid-sized vessels which served as the common carriers of passengers and freight between nations and among mother countries and their colonies and dependencies in the pre-jet age. Such routes included Europe to African and Asian colonies, Europe to South America, and migrant traffic from Europe to North America in the 19th and first two decades of the 20th centuries, and to Canada and Australia after the Second World War.

Shipping lines are companies engaged in shipping passengers and cargo, often on established routes and schedules. Regular scheduled voyages on a set route are called "line voyages" and vessels (passenger or cargo) trading on these routes to a timetable are called liners. The alternative to liner trade is "tramping" whereby vessels are notified on an ad-hoc basis as to the availability of a cargo to be transported. (In older usage, "liner" also referred to ships of the line, that is, line-of-battle ships, but that usage is now rare.) The term "ocean liner" has come to be used interchangeably with "passenger liner", although it can refer to a cargo liner or cargo-passenger liner.

Beginning at the advent of the Jet Age, where transoceanic ship service declined, a gradual transition from passenger ships as mean of transportation to nowadays cruise ships started.  In order for ocean liners to remain profitable, cruise lines have modified some of them to operate on cruise routes, such as the Queen Elizabeth 2 and . Certain characteristics of older ocean liners made them unsuitable for cruising, such as high fuel consumption, deep draught preventing them from entering shallow ports, and cabins (often windowless) designed to maximize passenger numbers rather than comfort. The Italian Line's  and , the last ocean liners to be built primarily for crossing the North Atlantic, could not be converted economically and had short careers. 

History

The 19th century

In 1818, the Black Ball Line, with a fleet of sailing ships, offered the first regular passenger service with emphasis on passenger comfort, from England to the United States. From the early 19th century, steam engines began to appear in ships, but initially they were inefficient and offered little advantage over sailing ships.

The clipper domination was challenged when , designed by railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel,  began its first Atlantic service in 1837. She took 15 days to cross the Atlantic,  as compared with two months by sail-powered ships. Unlike the clippers, steamers offered a consistent speed and the ability to keep to a schedule. The early steamships still had sails as well, though, as engines at this time had very inefficient consumption of fuel. Having sails enabled vessels like the Great Western to take advantage of favourable weather conditions and minimise fuel consumption.

In 1840, Cunard Line’s  began its first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship, sailing from Liverpool to Boston.  Despite some advantages offered by the steamships, clippers remained dominant. In 1847, the  became the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship to cross the Atlantic.  More efficient propellers began to replace the paddle wheels used by earlier ocean liners.
In 1870, the White Star Line’s  set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water.  The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of immigration to the United States and Australia.

  and her sister ship  were the last two Cunard liners of the period to be fitted with auxiliary sails. Both ships were built by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1884. They were record breakers by the standards of the time, and were the largest liners then in service, plying the Liverpool to New York route.

 was a 6814-ton  steamship owned by the Orient Steamship Co., and was fitted with refrigeration equipment. She plied the Suez Canal route from England to Australia during the 1890s, up until the years leading to World War I, when she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser.

The 20th century

The period between the end of the 19th century and World War II is considered the "golden age" of ocean liners. Driven by strong needs created by European emigration to the Americas, international competition between passenger lines and a new emphasis on comfort, shipping companies built increasingly larger and faster ships. 

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) became one of the largest transportation systems in the world, combining ships and railways operating from Canada. In 1891, the CPR shipping division began its first Pacific operation. In 1903, CPR began its first Atlantic service because of the rising migration of Europeans to western Canada, as the result of free land offered by the Canadian government.

Since the 1830s, passenger liners had unofficially been competing for the honour of making the fastest North Atlantic crossing. This honour came to be known as the Blue Riband; in 1897, Germany took the award with a series of new ocean liners, starting with . In 1905, the British Cunard Line fitted , with steam turbines, which then outperformed her nearly-identical sister, , which was powered by quadruple-expansion steam engines. At the time, these were the largest ships in the Cunard fleet, and the use of the different propulsion methods in otherwise similar ships allowed the company to evaluate the merits of both.  The engines in Carmania were successful and, consequently, in 1907, Cunard introduced the much larger  and , both powered by steam turbines. Mauretania won the Blue Riband and held it for an astonishing 20 years. 

Cunard's dominance of the Blue Riband did not keep other lines from competing in terms of size and luxury. In 1910, White Star Line launched ,  the first of a trio of 45,000 plus gross ton liners, along with  and . These ships were almost 15,000 tonnes larger and 100 ft longer than Lusitania and Mauretania. Like most other White Star Liners, these three ships were born of a special effort by the line to attract more immigrants by treating them with respect and making their crossings pleasurable.

Hamburg-America Line also ordered three giant ships, ,  and , all over 51,500 gross tons. Imperator was launched in 1912, and Bismarck would be the largest ship in the world until 1935. These ships did little or no service with Hamburg-America before World War I. After the war, they were awarded as war reparations and given to British and American lines.  Vaterland became the SS Leviathan of United States Lines; Imperator became RMS Berengaria and Bismarck (completed only five weeks before the beginning of World War I) became RMS Majestic, both of Cunard/White Star.

The surge in ocean liner size outpaced the shipping regulations. In 1912, the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, with more than 1,500 fatalities. A factor contributing to the high loss of life was that there were not enough lifeboats for everyone. After the Titanic disaster, regulations were revised to require all ocean liners to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew. In addition, the International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the busy North Atlantic shipping lanes for icebergs, and the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, first signed in January 1914, required continuous radio watches. 

The outbreak of World War I greatly disrupted commercial trans-Atlantic travel. While some companies continued to maintain a regular schedule of voyages, the sinking of the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat in May 1915 with the loss of nearly 1,200 passengers and crew highlighted the dangers involved. Britain requisitioned a number of large liners for use in the war effort; Olympic and Mauretania were pressed into service as troopships, while Britannic became a hospital ship, only to be sunk by a mine in the Aegean Sea in November 1916.

Until the 1920s, most shipping lines relied heavily on emigration for passengers; thus, they were hard hit when the United States Congress introduced a bill to limit immigration into the United States. As a result, many ships took on cruising,  and the least expensive cabins were reconfigured from third-class to tourist-class. To make matters worse, the Great Depression put many shipping lines into bankruptcy.

Despite the harsh economic conditions, a number of companies continued to build larger and faster ships. In 1929, the German ships  and  bested the speed record set by Mauretania 20 years earlier with an average speed of almost 28 kn. The ships used bulbous bows and steam turbines to reach these high speeds while maintaining economical operating costs. In 1933, the Italian Line's 51,100-ton ocean liner , with a time of four days and thirteen hours,  captured the westbound Blue Riband, which she held for two years. In 1935, French liner  used a revolutionary new hull design and powerful turbo-electric transmission to take the Blue Riband from Rex. Due to poor economic conditions, the British government amalgamated the Cunard Line and White Star Lines. The newly merged company countered with liners  and . Queen Mary held the Blue Riband in 1936-37 and from 1938-52. 

In World War II many liners were used as troop ships. Notable ocean liners, such as , , , , , and  all helped transport troops. While some ocean liners survived the war, many others were lost.

The post-WWII era was a brief but busy period. Notable ships included the fastest transatlantic liner ever built, , which, in 1952, bested the records set by Queen Mary to become the holder of the Blue Riband, a designation she retains to this day.  However, the industry was shaken by the highly publicized sinking of the Italian liner Andrea Doria in July 1956 after a collision with the Swedish liner Stockholm off Nantucket, Massachusetts, with 46 people aboard both ships killed.

Also significant was the 1961-built  (later renamed Norway) which held the record for the longest passenger ship from when she entered service in 1961, until the launch of  in 2003. Australian government-sponsored immigration resulted in a busy trade between Europe and Australia, producing such notable ships as   and .  These two ships, operating on the P&O-Orient Lines service, were the largest, fastest and last liners built for the Australian route.

Decline of long-distance line voyages

Before World War II, aircraft had not been a significant threat to ocean liners. Most pre-war aircraft were noisy, vulnerable to bad weather, few had the range needed for transoceanic flights, and all were expensive and had a small passenger capacity. However, World War II necessitated the accelerated development of large, long-ranged aircraft. Four-engined bombers, such as the Avro Lancaster and Boeing B-29 Superfortress, with their range and massive carrying capacity, were natural prototypes for post-war next-generation airliners. Jet engine technology also accelerated after the development of jet aircraft in World War II. In 1953, the De Havilland Comet became the first commercial jet airliner; the Sud Aviation Caravelle, Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 followed, and much long-distance travel was done by air. The Italian Line's  and , launched in 1962 and 1963, were two of the last ocean liners to be built primarily for liner service across the North Atlantic. Cunard's transatlantic liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, was also used as a cruise ship. By the early 1970s, many passenger ships continued their service in cruising.

The 21st century

By the first decade of the 21st century, only a few former ocean liners were still sailing, while others, like , were preserved as museums or floating hotels. After the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008, the only ocean liner in service was , built in 2003-04, used for both point-to-point line voyages and for cruises.

In 2012, Australian businessman, Clive Palmer, announced plans to construct a modern-day replica of the , to be named Titanic II.  However, the project was halted in 2014 and abandoned in 2015.   The idea of a Titanic II was not new, with various proposals being made since at least 1989.

At war

Ocean liners were often used in wartime as troopships; indeed, it was sometimes national policy to encourage the construction of liners in peacetime so that they could be used in the event of war to transport large numbers of troops at speeds outpacing warships and submarines. 

In World War I ocean liners played a major role. Large ocean liners, such as  and , were used as troopships and hospital ships, while smaller ocean liners were converted to armed merchant cruisers. , sister ship to  and , never served on the liner trade for which she was built. Instead, she entered war service as a hospital ship as soon as she was completed, and lasted a year before being sunk by a mine.  Other liners were converted to innocent-looking armed Q-ships to entrap submarines. In 1915 , still in service as a civilian passenger vessel, was torpedoed with many casualties by a German U-boat.

Ocean liners were also used as troopships in World War II. Many were sunk with huge loss of life; in World War II the three worst disasters were the loss of the Cunarder  in 1940 off Saint-Nazaire to German bombing while attempting to evacuate troops of the British Expeditionary Force from France, with the loss of more than 3,000 lives; the sinking of  with more than 9,000 lives lost; and the sinking of  with more than 7,000 lives lost, both in the Baltic Sea, in 1945.

 caught fire, capsized and sank in New York in 1942 while being converted for troop duty. Many of the superliners of the 'twenties and 'thirties were victims of U-boats, mines or enemy aircraft.  was attacked by German planes, then torpedoed by a U-boat when tugs tried to tow her to safety.  She was the largest British ocean liner sunk during World War II. In 1941 Germany's speed queen, , fell victim to an arsonist, believed to be a disgruntled crew member, and became a total loss. SS Europa was confiscated by the U.S. in 1945 and later became the French Line's SS Liberté. Italy's giant  was destroyed by the Royal Air Force, and  by retreating German forces. The United States lost the American President Lines vessel  when she steamed into an Allied mine in the South Pacific. No shipping line was left untouched by World War II.

In 1982, during the Falklands War, three active or former liners were requisitioned for war service by the British Government. The liners Queen Elizabeth 2  and , were requisitioned from Cunard and P&O to serve as troopships, carrying British Army personnel to Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands to recover the Falklands from the invading Argentine forces. The P&O educational cruise ship and former British India Steam Navigation Company liner  was requisitioned as a hospital ship, and served after the war as a troopship until the RAF Mount Pleasant station was built at Stanley, which could handle trooping flights. 

Survivors

Of the pre-World War II ocean liners, four survive today.  was preserved after her retirement in 1967 as a hotel and museum in Long Beach, California. The Japanese ocean liner Hikawa Maru (1929), has been preserved in Naka-ku, Yokohama, Japan, as a museum ship, since 1961.  is preserved in Bristol, England,  and  is awaiting preservation in Bintan Island, Indonesia as a dry berthed hotel.

Post-war ocean liners that are preserved are  (1952), docked in Philadelphia since 1996;  (1958), moored in Rotterdam as a museum and hotel since 2008;  and Queen Elizabeth 2 (1967), laid up in Port Rashid, since 2009; her owners stated that they would not scrap her.  MS Veronica (1966) (former  ), was converted into a floating hotel in Duqm, Oman in 2012 but the hotel closed operations a year later. In October 2015 the ship was sold for scrap; she was towed to Alang, India where as of December 2015 she remained beached.   It is not known if she has been scrapped or if talks to save her are underway.

Two former ocean liners remain in service as cruise ships operating under Cruise & Maritime Voyages:  (1965) (former MS Alexandr Pushkin),  and MV Astoria (1948), originally  which is famous for colliding with Andrea Doria in 1956.
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