White Star Line

The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (in Spanish: Compañía de Navegación Oceánica a Vapor), better known as White Star Line, was a British shipping company dedicated to the transportation of passengers and cargo during the 19th and 20th centuries.

White Star is best known for the sinking of one of its flagships in 1912, the RMS Titanic, as well as its sister ship, the HMHS Britannic, during the First World War. In 1934, she merged with her main rival, the Cunard Line, forming the Cunard White Star Line. In December 1949, Cunard absorbed the shares belonging to White Star. It was a subsidiary of Cunard until 2005, when it was completely acquired by Carnival Corporation & plc. Today, modern Cunard ships use the term White Star Service to describe the impeccable level of customer service.

History

Beginnings

The company was founded in Liverpool (England) in 1845, with the name "White Star Line" by John Pilkington and Henry Threlfall Wilson, with the idea of dedicating itself to the flourishing gold trade between Great Britain and Australia. Initially the fleet was composed of the Blue Jacket (later, its name was changed to White Star), the Red Jacket, the Ellen and the Iowa. The sailing ship Iowa was the first ship that the company acquired, in 1849. In 1863, acquired his first steamship, the Royal Standard.

It soon merged with the Black Ball Line and the Eagle Line, and was renamed Liverpool, Melbourne and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Limited. This merger did not prosper, so the White Star Line abandoned it and focused its activity on the Liverpool-New York route, where it competed with other powerful rival shipping companies such as the Cunard Line and the Inman Line. To invest in new ships, the company obtained loans from the Royal Bank of Liverpool, but its bankruptcy in October 1867 left the company with a debt of £527,000, a debt that led to bankruptcy.

Oceanic Steam Navigation Company

On January 18, 1868, Thomas Ismay, the director of the National Line, purchased the White Star Line for 1,000 pounds (66,565 pounds in the present) with the intention of operating on the North Atlantic route. Ismay also changed the company's headquarters, which would henceforth be located at Albion House, Liverpool.

Ismay soon joined forces with other businessmen of the time. One of his agreements was that, if he granted Gustav Wolff's company, Harland and Wolff, the construction of his ships, Gustav Christian Schwabe would finance his newly acquired company. Ismay agreed, establishing an alliance between the White Star Line and the Belfast shipyards. The construction company received its first orders on July 30, 1869. The agreement was that Harland & Wolff would not build any ships for the White Star Line's competitors in exchange for a percentage of the total cost of the ships ordered. In 1870, William Imrie joined the management of the company and the TH Ismay & Co became the Ismay, Imrie & Co., parent company of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company. As soon as the first ship was built, Ismay formed the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, which would manage the ships under construction. Four ships were built initially, and all of them formed the Oceanic class: the Oceanic, the Atlantic, the Baltic and the Republic. The line began operating again in 1871 on the New York-Liverpool route.

It was common for shipping companies (and in fact it still is) to have a common theme for the names of their ships. In the case of the White Star Line, the central issue was using the "ic" suffix. The company also painted the top of the funnels black and the bottom in a characteristic ocher color, which helped distinguish its ships from those of the competition.

During the rest of the 19th century, the White Star Line owned such famous ships as the Britannic (I), the Germanic, the Teutonic and the Majestic (I). Some of these ships acquired the so-called "Blue Band", an award given to the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic.

In 1899, Thomas Ismay built one of the most beautiful steamships built during the 19th century, the Oceanic. She was the first ship to surpass the SS Great Eastern in length, although not in weight. The construction of the ship marked a point from which the White Star stopped competing in speed with its rivals and began to concentrate its efforts solely on the comfort and price of its operations.

Between 1901 and 1907, four more ships entered service: the Celtic, the Cedric, the Baltic and the Adriatic. Their size was such that they were known as the «Big Four» (in English: Big Four). In the 19th century and during the beginning of the XX, the effectiveness of the carbon engines allowed a speed of around 24 knots to be reached. Since the higher the speed, the greater the coal consumption, the White Star Line tried to define itself more by comfort and reliability than by speed. For example, the RMS Titanic was designed to travel at 21 knots, while the Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania reached a record speed in 1926: 27 knots.

In 1902, White Star entered the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM), a conglomerate of American shipping companies. In 1903, the IMM absorbed the American Line, the Dominion Line, the Atlantic Transport Line, the Leyland Line and the Red Star Line. The IMM also reached commercial agreements with the German companies Hamburg America Line and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Bruce Ismay ceded control to IMM under great pressure from shareholders and J.P. Morgan, which threatened a price war. The IMM was dissolved in 1932. In 1935, after experiencing serious problems during the Great Depression, the White Star was eventually absorbed by the Cunard Line shipping company.

Olympic Class

Cunard was always the main competitor of the White Star. In response to its competing ships, the Lusitania and the Mauretania, the White Star ordered the construction of the Olympic class, which would be made up of the Olympic, the Titanic and the Britannic. Its design and construction was commissioned by naval engineers Alexander Carlisle and Thomas Andrews.

While the Cunard Line ships were famous for their speed, the Olympic class ships were planned to be the largest and most luxurious in the world. The originally planned names for the ships were: Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic. However, the latter was renamed Britannic after the Titanic disaster. The new ships were going to be 30 meters longer than their Cunard rivals: the Lusitania and the Mauretania.

The ships were designed using some of the most advanced technologies available at the time, such as watertight bulkheads, which divided the hull into seventeen independent sections and were believed to keep them afloat in the event of a part of the hull breaking.; They would be equipped with a telegraphy system, a new three-bladed propeller design and first-class facilities that were unmatched by other ships in terms of luxury. They complied with all the safety standards required by British and North American legislation. They were equipped with an indoor swimming pool, a gym, a squash court, a library, and a reception room, among other amenities for exclusive first-class use. Standard first-class staterooms were adorned with white paneling, expensive furniture and other elegant decorations. They only had shared bathrooms that had hot and cold water. There were also electric stoves. As an innovation in travel at the time, they offered three elevators for first class and one for second class.

Post-war and 1920s

After the end of World War I, the Cunard Line, the White Star Line's main rival, quickly reestablished its supremacy in passenger transportation across the Atlantic Ocean in less than a year, with a three-week weekly service. ships to New York. The RMS Mauretania, the RMS Aquitania and the RMS Berengaria (former SS Imperator, transferred to Cunard by the Hamburg America Line as war reparations), once again crossed the Atlantic. In 1915, Cunard had lost one of its flagships, the Lusitania, torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast in the middle of the U-boat campaign. However, the White Star fleet had suffered greater losses: HMHS Britannic, the third and last ship of the Olympic class, had sunk in 1916 while on hospital ship duty in the Aegean Sea. and the Oceanic was also sunk in 1914, after running aground on the coast.

When the war ended, the Treaty of Versailles confiscated two large ships from Germany as compensation for the White Star fleet, the SS Bismarck, the third and largest ship of Albert Ballin's Imperator class—unfinished at the Blohm &; Voss of Hamburg—, and the SS Columbus, built at the Schichau-Werft shipyard in Gdansk for Norddeutscher Lloyd. Although both ships had been launched, they were far from completed and it would still be another two years until they were fully completed, which prevented the company's effective return to passenger transport until mid-1922. The Columbus was renamed Homeric, which proved to be very popular for the company until the outbreak of the Great Depression. In turn, the Bismarck was renamed Majestic and would become the company's flagship throughout the 1920s and early 1930s.

Economic crisis and merger with Cunard

Shipping companies depended heavily on the transport of immigrant passengers between Europe and America, which made crossing the Atlantic a lucrative business. When the United States limited the entry of foreigners in the mid-1920s, traffic suffered noticeably, and many ships suffered losses by the middle of the decade.

In 1927, the company was acquired by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC), becoming the largest transport group in the world.

In 1928 a new large liner was ordered: the RMMV Oceanic, which would be 1,000 feet (300 m) long. The White Star commissioned the Harland & Wolff was commissioned to build her keel. Construction was delayed by a dispute over her engine, and White Star decided that the new diesel-electric propulsion system would be used, instead of the traditional steam propulsion, initially planned for the 1913 Cedric, which was never built..

However, the company's financial situation worsened at the beginning of the 1930s, as a result of the damage caused by the Crash of '29. The future of the company was increasingly uncertain.

The construction of the Oceanic was postponed and then canceled due to the collapse of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC), as a result of the financial problems of its chairman, Sir Owen Philips. Loans backed by the governments of England and Northern Ireland intended for the construction of the Oceanic were diverted to the construction of the last two ships built for the White Star, the MV Britannic and the MV Georgic. The steel from the Oceanic's keel was used for the construction of the new ships.

Recent years

The RMSPC was liquidated in 1932, due to financial problems. A new company, Royal Mail Lines Limited, took over the RMSPC's ships, including those of White Star.

In 1933, White Star and Cunard Line were in serious financial difficulty due to the Great Depression, declining passenger numbers, and the advancing age of their fleets. Cunard's new project to build a large ocean liner, the RMS Queen Mary, had been halted to save money. In 1933 the British government agreed to provide assistance to complete the Queen Mary, on the condition that the two companies were merged. The agreement was completed on December 30, 1933, and the new Cunard White Star Limited was officially created on May 10, 1934.

White Star contributed ten ships to the new company's fleet, while Cunard contributed fifteen. A year after this merger, the RMS Olympic, the last ship of her class, was retired from service. Two years later, in 1937, its remains were completely dismantled.

In 1947, the Cunard Line acquired the 38% of Cunard White Star that it did not already own, and on December 31, 1949, it took over all assets< /span> and operations of the company, definitively absorbing the White Star Line and returning to using only the "Cunard" name.

Last ships

Of the ships that made up the White Star fleet, the largest—and which operated for the new Cunard White Star Line since 1934—was the RMS Majestic. She operated from 1922 until 1937, when Cunard White Star decided to sell her for scrapping as a result of several electrical and structural problems.

One of the company's most important ships was the RMS Olympic - which, before the merger of White Star with Cunard, was refitted in 1932 and reintroduced to the Atlantic crossing in March 1933. In 1934 it entered the fleet of the Cunard White Star Line along with the other nine ships belonging to the White Star. The following year, due to the economic difficulty of maintaining all its ships, the new company withdrew it from service along with the Mauretania and the Homeric. After 23 years of service, the "Magnificent Ship" —nickname by which she was then known—she left New York for the last time on March 5, 1935, before being withdrawn from service and subsequently scrapped.

Another notable ship was the SS Laurentic. Built in 1927, she served for the White Star until 1934 and, from that date, for the Cunard White Star until 1939, when she was requisitioned and converted into a troop transport during World War II. Later, she was sunk by a German submarine.

The last survivors of the White Star were the MV Britannic and the MV Georgic. The Georgic replaced the Olympic on the route between Great Britain and the United States due to her departure from service. She was requisitioned to be a troop transport during World War II; On July 7, 1941, it was docked at Port Tewfik when German planes appeared, detected it and proceeded to attack it. The bombs dropped by the planes caused a large fire that reached a chimney loaded with ammunition, which exploded and seriously damaged the stern area. She was taken to Harland & Wolff for repairs and she returned to the Cunard White Star fleet in 1948. By May 1950 she was ready to continue her service, now for the Cunard Line, operating for that company until her withdrawal from service., in 1954.

The Britannic was quite popular because it represented what was then the latest in interior decoration, as well as its furniture and also for the design of its fireplaces. She operated for the Cunard White Star on the route between London and New York until she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy as a troop transport at the start of World War II. In 1950, the Cunard Line dissolved the Cunard White Star Line, absorbing 38% of the shares belonging to White Star. After the dissolution, the Britannic and the Georgic were incorporated into the Cunard fleet, constituting the last operational ships of the White Star.

Although they belonged to Cunard, both the Georgic and the Britannic retained the colors of their original company, and they flew the flag of said company, along with that of Cunard.

The Britannic operated with Cunard until, on November 25, 1960, it made its final voyage from Liverpool to New York, being the last transoceanic voyage made by a White Star ship. This voyage was characterized by the fact that it was escorted by fire boats, the same ones that normally accompany ships during their maiden voyage. She arrived in Liverpool for the last time on December 2 of that same year, so that, fourteen days later, she left to be dismantled, thus putting a definitive end to the White Star Line.

Disasters

The history of the White Star was marked by great disasters and many doses of bad luck.

In 1873, the RMS Atlantic was wrecked near Halifax, losing 545 lives. In 1893, the SS Naronic disappeared with 74 people on board after leaving Liverpool for New York.

In 1909, the RMS Republic sank after a collision with the cruiser Florida.

In September 1911, the RMS Olympic had a collision with the battleship HMS Hawke.

In April 1912, the catastrophe of the RMS Titanic occurred, sinking after colliding with an iceberg while making its maiden voyage between Southampton and New York.

A similar fate befell the HMHS Britannic during the course of the First World War, when a mine near the Greek island of Ceos caused her to sink.

It should be noted that despite its numerous disasters, the level of accidents on the White Star Line could be considered above average but not scandalous, due to the high number of ships it operated and the few safety elements with which it operated. The ships of the time counted.

The White Star today

The White Star Line offices in London, called Oceanic House, still exist. They are very close to Trafalgar Square, and you can still see the name of the building at the entrance.

The ferry SS Nomadic, built in 1911, is the last surviving ship in the White Star fleet and was acquired by the Department of Social Development of Northern Ireland in January 2006. It has since been in Belfast, where it is being restored under the supervision of the Nomadic Preservation Trust and with the help of the ship's original builders, Harland & Wolff. Its buyers intend to make it the centerpiece of a museum dedicated to the history of Atlantic voyages, the White Star, and its most famous ship, the Titanic.

Similarly, the Cunard Line introduced the White Star Service as the brand name of its ships, the RMS Queen Mary 2, the MS Queen Victoria and the MS Queen Elizabeth. The White Star Academy is used to prepare Cunard crew members.

The White Star flag is raised on Cunard ships every April 15, in memory of the sinking of the Titanic.

Routes

Ships

See Annex: Ships of the White Star Line.

More readings

• The ship's list
• History of the White Star Line
• Red duster page on the White Star Line
• Brief company overview Archived on 8 January 2008 at Wayback Machine.
• Info on the original financing deal Filed May 25, 2013 in Wayback Machine.
• 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 LineIan 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]