White Star Line

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 Jacket, 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 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 £45,677,044 in 2015), and was forced into bankruptcy.

The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company

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 £81,144 in 2015), 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.

White Star began with six ships of the Oceanic class: Oceanic (I), Atlantic, Baltic, and Republic, followed by the slightly larger Celtic and Adriatic. White Star began operating again in 1871 between New York and Liverpool (with a call at Queenstown).

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.

The first substantial loss for the company came only four years after its founding, occurring in 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.

During the late nineteenth century, White Star operated many famous ships, such as Britannic (I), Germanic, Teutonic, and Majestic (I). Several of these ships took the Blue Riband, awarded to the fastest ship to make the Atlantic crossing.

In 1899, Thomas Ismay commissioned one of the most beautiful steam ships constructed during the nineteenth century, the Oceanic (II). She was the first ship to exceed the Great Eastern in length (although not tonnage). The building of this ship marked White Star Line's departure from competition in speed with its rivals. Thereafter White Star concentrated on comfort and economy of operation instead.

In the late nineteenth century, shipbuilders had discovered that when speed through water increased above about 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h), the required additional engine power increased in exponential proportion; that is, each additional increment of speed required a progressively larger increase in engine power and fuel consumption. With the coal-fired reciprocating steam engines of the time, exceeding about 24 knots (28 mph; 44 km/h) required very high power and fuel consumption.

For this reason, the White Star Line committed to comfort and reliability rather than to speed. For example, White Star's Celtic cruised at 16 knots (18 mph; 30 km/h) with 14,000 horsepower, while Cunard's Mauretania made 24 knots (28 mph; 44 km/h) with 68,000 horsepower.

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 after 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 1949 marked the end of an era, so the retirement of the Britannic and therefore the last vestiges of the famous White Star Line was similarly noted world-wide. All other ships flew the Cunard flag over the White Star flag until 1968. This was most likely because Nomadic remained in service with Cunard until this year, and was sent to the breakers' yard, only to be bought for use as a floating restaurant. After this, all remnants of White Star Line were retired.

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

Notable captains