Did you know that the venerable Cunard Line once started out as a mail carriage ship? The history of Cunard starts with its founding in 1840 as The Cunard Shipping Line under the name of The British and North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company. Samuel Cunard inaugurated the line to provide mail carriage from Britain to North America via steamships.
While most historians and cruise line aficionados list the Britannia as the first Cunard vessel to set sail, the Unicorn was actually the first. The Unicorn was destined to the feeder service between Quebec, Boston, and Halifax, and set sail on May 15th 1840. The Britannia, which was the first of the line to follow regularly scheduled Transatlantic voyages set sail on July 4, 1980. It would not be until 1878 that the company was renamed the Cunard Steamship Company, which was then shortened to the much more recognizable Cunard Line.
The 20th century saw the Cunard line transformed into merchant ships during the war. Once the deal was struck with the British government, the two most well-known ships in the Cunard line, the Lusitania and Mauritania, were built. These ships attained legendary status for their efforts in the war, and for their speed and new technology. Additionally, the Lusitania was also the ship that was sunk by the Germans in WW1, resulting in the loss of 413 crew members and 785 passengers.
The 1920's saw more ships enter the Cunard line, which would grow even more with the Queen Mary being launched in 1935, followed by the Queen Elizabeth in 1939. These ships acted as troop carriers during WW2, before resuming their Transatlantic voyages after the war ended.
As air transportation was introduced after the war, the cruise ship voyages became less popular, leading to the Queen Mary being sold to Long Beach, California in 1967, and the Queen Elizabeth making her final voyage in 1968. Today, the Queen Mary is a popular hotel in California.
Today, the Cunard Line consists of three luxury cruise liners,the Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2, and Queen Victoria. All three ships provide their passengers with lavish cruise holidays with unparalleled service.
