WHITE STAR LINE

White Star Line logo and burgee.

The 'Oceanic Steam Navigation Company', more commonly known as the 'White Star Line', was a prominent British shipping company, most famous for its ill-fated luxury flagship, the RMS ''Titanic'', and the World War I loss of her sister ship, ''Britannic''.

History

Early history

The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company

Olympic class ships

Merger with Cunard

White Star Line today

Disasters

White Star Line ships with year of acquisition

Notable captains

References

External links

History

Early history

The original company bearing the name 'White Star Line' was founded in Liverpool, England by John Pilkington and Henry Threlfall Wilson, and focused on the Australian trade, which had increased following the discovery of gold there. The fleet initially consisted of chartered sailing ships, the ''Blue Jacket'' (later renamed ''White Star''), the ''Red Jacket'', the ''Ellen'' and the ''Iowa'' but it acquired its first steamship in 1863 with the ''Royal Standard''. One notable ship was ''Tayleur'', whose fate would haunt the company.
The company merged with other small lines, the Black Ball and Eagle Lines to form a conglomerate called the 'Liverpool, Melbourne and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Limited'. This did not prosper and White Star broke away and concentrated on the Liverpool to New York service. Heavy investment in new ships was financed by borrowing, but the company's bank, the Royal Bank of Liverpool, failed in October 1867 leaving the company with an outstanding debt of £527,000, and it entered bankruptcy.

The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company

Thomas Ismay, a director of the National Line, purchased the house flag, trade name and goodwill of the bankrupt company for 1,000 pounds sterling on 18 January, 1868, with the intention of operating large ships on the North Atlantic service. Ismay established the company's headquarters at the Albion House, Liverpool.
Over a game of billiards with Gustavus C. Schaube, a prominent Liverpool merchant, and his nephew, Gustav Wolff, Ismay was told that if he agreed to have his ships built by Wolff's company, Harland and Wolff, Schaube would agree to finance the new line. 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 in the process of construction.
Four ships were initially constructed for the ''Oceanic'' class; the ''Oceanic'' (I), ''Atlantic'', ''Baltic'', and ''Republic'' and the line began operating again in 1871 between New York and Liverpool (with a call at Queenstown (Cobh)).
It was (and still is) common for shipping lines to have a common theme for the names of its ships. In the case of the White Star Line, this was to use the suffix ''-ic'' (e.g. ''Titanic'', in contrast to Cunard's use of ''-ia'' (e.g. ''Carpathia''). The line also adopted a buff-coloured funnel with a black top as a distinguishing feature for its ships, as well as its distinctive house flag (or burgee), a red broad pennant with two tails with a white five-pointed star.
For the rest of the 19th century the White Star Line would own such famous ships as ''Britannic'' (I), ''Germanic'', ''Teutonic'' and ''Majestic'' (I). Several of these ships would eventually take 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 19th 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 the point where White Star departed from competition in speed with her rivals and concentrated solely on comfort and economy of operation.
Between 1901 and 1907, a quartet of ships known as The Big Four, all over 20,000 tons, were brought into service: ''Celtic'', ''Cedric'', ''Baltic'' and ''Adriatic''. In the 19th and early 20th century, the efficiency of coal engines only allowed a feasible speed of about 24 knots (44.4 km/h/27.6 mph). Going above this speed introduced a logarithmic proportion in direct relation to fuel consumption and speed, in that for every knot increased, the required fuel was the previous fuel required plus itself. For this reason, the White Star Line committed to comfort and reliability rather than to speed. As an example, the ''Titanic'' was designed for travel at 21 knots (39 km/h), while the Cunard Line's ''Mauretania'' held the speed record in 1926 for 27 knots (48 km/h).
In 1902, the White Star Line was absorbed into the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM), a large American shipping conglomerate. By 1903, IMM had managed to absorb the American Line, Dominion Line, Atlantic Transport Line, Leyland Line, and Red Star Line. They also came to trade agreements with the German lines Hamburg-Amerika and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Bruce Ismay ceded control to IMM in the face of intense pressure from shareholders and J.P. Morgan, who threatened a rate war.

Olympic class ships

The Cunard Line was the direct competition to White Star Line as their fame and success mounted. As a competition piece the White Star Line began construction on their new series, the ''Olympic'' class; the ''Olympic'' (II), ''Titanic'', and ''Britannic''. ''Britannic'' was originally to have been named ''Gigantic'', but her name was changed shortly after the sinking of ''Titanic''.
[1].

Merger with Cunard

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, particularly White Star's. Work had been halted on Cunards'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. The agreement was completed on December 30, 1933.
The merger took place on the May 10, 1934, creating Cunard-White Star Limited. White Star contributed 10 ships to the new company while Cunard contributed 15 ships. Because of this, and since Hull 534 was Cunard's ship, the company was owned by 62% of Cunard's shareholders and 38% of White Star's shareholders. A year after this merger, the last of the "Olympic Class" ships the ''Olympic'' was removed from active duty. Two years later, in 1937, she was scrapped. Panelling from her First Class lounge was salvaged and installed in the restaurant of the White Swan Hotel, Alnwick, Northumberland, England.
In 1947, Cunard acquired the 38% of Cunard White Star it didn't already own, and on December 31, 1949, it acquired Cunard White Star's assets and operations, and reverted to using the name "Cunard." From the time of the 1934 merger, the house flags of both lines had been flown on all its ships, with each ship flying the flag of its original owner above the other; after 1950, only ''Georgic'' and ''Britannic'', the last surviving White Star liners, continued to fly the White Star burgee on a regular basis, above the Cunard house flag. All other ships flew the Cunard flag over the White Star flag until 1968.

White Star Line today

The White Star Line's London office's, named Oceanic House, still exist today. Located just a block off of Trafalgar Square, here one can still see the name on the building over the entrances. The Texas Embassy Cantina is located on the main level of the building.^[1]
The French passenger tender ''Nomadic'', the last surviving vessel of the White Star Line, was purchased by the Northern Ireland Department of Social Development in January 2006. She has since been returned to Belfast, where she is to be restored under the auspices of the Nomadic Preservation Trust along with assistance by 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''.
Also, the Cunard Line has introduced the White Star Service as the name of its brand of services found on its ships, the ''Queen Mary 2'' and ''Queen Elizabeth 2''. The company has also created the White Star Academy, an in-house program with the purpose of preparing new crew members for Cunard ships. The White Star flag is raised on the ''Queens'' on every April 15th, in memory of the ''Titanic'' disaster.

Disasters

The history of the White Star Line was marked by some terrible disasters as well as a lot of bad luck.

★ On January 21, 1854, the ''Tayleur'' wrecked off of ''Lambay Island'', with the loss of 380 lives, out of 652 on board.

★ In 1873 the ''Atlantic'' was wrecked near Halifax, costing 585 lives.

★ In 1893, the ''Naronic'' vanished with 74 passengers and crew after departing Liverpool for New York.

★ In 1907, the ''Suevic'' ran agound off the coast of England, but in the largest rescue of its kind, all 456 passengers and 141 crewmembers were rescued. The ship was deliberately broken in two, with the stern half being rebuilt with a new bow.

★ In 1909 the ''Republic'' was lost after a collision with the liner SS ''Florida''.

★ In September 1911, the ''Olympic'' was involved in a collision with the warship ''Hawke'' in the Solent, badly damaging both ships.

★ In April 1912, the ''Titanic'' was lost after a historic iceberg collision.

★ The first White Star ship lost during World War I was ''Arabic'' (II), torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale Ireland on 19 August 1915 killing 44.

★ The following November, the third sister ship of ''Titanic'', HM Hospital Ship (HMHS) ''Britannic'', was lost after striking either a mine or being torpedoed (the cause is still disputed) in the Kea Channel off Greece. She sank in less than 50 minutes with the loss of 21 lives and was the largest vessel sunk in the war.
Of the three ''Olympic'' class ships, two never completed a commercial voyage. However, the ''Olympic'', the first of the three to be built, did have a long and successful career and was the only merchant ship in World War I known to have sunk a warship when, on May 12, 1918, she rammed and sank the U-boat U103 which had tried, and failed, to torpedo her. In 1934, while steaming in a fog, the ''Olympic'' accidentally rammed the Nantucket Lightship, sinking it and killing seven of the crew.

Notable captains

★ Sir Digby Murray

★ Captain J.B. Ranson OBE

★ Captain Edward J. Smith, RD, RNR of RMS Titanic fame.

References

★ The ship's list

★ History of the White Star Line

★ Red duster page on the White Star Line

★ Brief company overview

★ Info on the original financing deal

★ Gardiner, Robin, ''History of the White Star Line'', Ian Allan Publishing 2002. ISBN 0-7110-2809-5
1. http://www.texasembassy.com/texasmain.htm Texas Embassy History with reference to Titanic

External links

★ Titanic Archive

★ Maritimequest RMS Titanic Photo Gallery

★ Historic Ocean Liners

★ White Star Line on Titanic-Titanic.com

★ Maritimequest RMS Olympic Photo Gallery

★ Maritimequest HMHS Britannic Photo Gallery

★ Final Demise of White Star Line Vessels

★ Brief history of the White Star Line - from TDTSC MN

★ White Star Line discussion forum at TDTSC

★ Passenger Lists from the White Star Line

★ White Star Line History website.

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WHITE STAR LINE

History

Early history

The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company

Olympic class ships

Merger with Cunard

White Star Line today

Disasters

White Star Line ships with year of acquisition

Notable captains

References

External links

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