Cunard Line

The Cunard Line had its origins in the efforts of Samuel Cunard, a merchant and shipowner of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to establish a regular steamship service across the North Atlantic. Cunard had been involved in shipping and the carriage of mail for many years and became convinced that steamships could provide a more regular and reliable transatlantic mail service than the sailing vessels then employed.

An opportunity arose in 1838, when the British government invited tenders for the regular conveyance of mail by steamship across the Atlantic. Cunard traveled to Britain, where he joined forces with George Burns of Glasgow and David MacIver of Liverpool. Their proposal for a regular mail service between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston was accepted by the British Admiralty.

The service began in 1840 under the name The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, although it soon became commonly known as the Cunard Line after its principal founder. Four paddle steamers, the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia, and Columbia, were placed on the new route, providing regular fortnightly sailings between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston.

During the following decades, the company steadily expanded its North Atlantic operations. New York became an increasingly important destination, while the fleet developed from the relatively small wooden paddle steamers of the 1840s to much larger iron steamships.

The Development of the Cunard Line

The rapid development of steam navigation brought increasing competition on the North Atlantic. One of Cunard's most important early competitors was the American Collins Line, which entered the trade in 1850 with large and fast steamships.

Cunard continued to expand and modernize its fleet. The Scotia, introduced in 1862, belonged to the last generation of large Cunard paddle steamers. She was followed by increasingly larger screw steamships such as the Bothnia, Scythia, and Gallia.

In 1878, the business was registered as a limited company, and in 1880 it entered a new period of expansion as the Cunard Steam Ship Company Limited.

During the 1880s and 1890s, ships such as the Servia, Aurania, Umbria, and Etruria were added to the fleet. They were followed by the Campania and Lucania and, in the early twentieth century, by ships such as the Ivernia, Saxonia, and Carpathia.

A further development came with the Lusitania and Mauretania, which entered service in 1907. Among the largest and fastest passenger ships in the world when introduced, they represented the enormous development that had taken place since the first Cunard steamships crossed the Atlantic in 1840. They were followed by the still larger Aquitania, which entered service in 1914.

The Cunard Line and Norwegian Emigration

The Cunard Line was one of the first British transatlantic steamship companies to establish an organized passenger agency in Norway for the growing emigrant trade.

By 1869, Norwegian agents were arranging emigrant journeys by steamship to Hull, across England to Liverpool, and from there aboard Cunard steamships to New York, with onward transportation to the passengers' final destinations in North America. By 1870, Cunard had an established agency in Christiania, and the company's representation was subsequently extended through agents and subagents in other parts of Norway.

The early agency organization was not necessarily as permanent or as clearly structured as it later became. Agents could change companies, represent more than one transportation interest, or have their authority transferred or withdrawn. The surviving Norwegian records show several changes in Cunard's representation during the early 1870s. By 1871, Cunard was also represented in Trondhjem.

As the emigrant trade developed, the company established a more extensive organization of agents and subagents. The general agency in Norway was located in Christiania, while agents in important emigrant centers such as Stavanger, Bergen, and Trondhjem served the surrounding districts.

Traveling with the Cunard Line from Norway

The Cunard Line did not operate its own regular feeder service between Norway and Britain. Norwegian emigrants traveling with Cunard therefore depended on other shipping companies for the first stage of their journey.

For many years, one of the principal routes was by steamship from Norway to Hull and then by railway across England to Liverpool. From Liverpool, the emigrants boarded a Cunard steamship for the Atlantic crossing. The Norwegian agent records show this route already in the late 1860s, with tickets covering not only the journey to New York but also onward transportation to the emigrant's destination in America.

For emigrants, the Cunard Line was therefore part of a much larger transportation system. A journey sold by a Cunard agent in Norway could involve a Scandinavian feeder steamer, a railway journey across Britain, a Cunard transatlantic steamship, and finally rail transportation in North America.

Connections did not always correspond perfectly, and emigrants could have to wait in Liverpool before the departure of their Atlantic steamer. Hotels and boarding houses associated with the emigrant traffic provided accommodation for passengers during their stay.

The local agents played an important role in coordinating these different stages. They sold tickets, provided information about departure dates and routes, arranged the necessary connections, and linked emigrants in towns and rural districts with the international transportation network that carried them to North America.

From Steam Packets to Ocean Liners

When the Britannia began the Cunard service in 1840, transatlantic steam navigation was still in its early stages. During the following seventy years, the company developed alongside the enormous growth of steamship travel and mass emigration across the North Atlantic.

For Norwegian emigrants, however, the Cunard Line was more than a fleet of famous ocean liners. Behind the transatlantic steamships stood a network of agents, feeder services, railways, hotels, and connecting transportation that made it possible to purchase and undertake a journey from Norway to a final destination in North America. 

A voyage from Norway to America in 1911 - An account of a voyage from Bergen to Newcastle on the S/S Hera, then from Liverpool to New York on the S/S Mauretania.
The Great Liners - How great were the liners really? - We are displaying some pictures from a Cunard Line "Comparisons" booklet issued by the company some time around 1925
THE TALE OF THE UMBRIA, shaft breaking in mid-Atlantic, 1892
The collision between the S/S Umbria and the S/S Iberia in 1888