THE FIRST CUNARDER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FIRST CUNARDER

IT was, to modern eyes at least, a queer-looking ship that steamed slowly down the Mersey just one hundred years ago on Thursday last to head out across the broad and stormy Atlantic. The fhip was the Britannia-—first of the Cunarders and first steam ship to carry mails between England and America. Slow and clumsy as the vessel appeared, she held the Atlantic record for fifteen years. Yet one of the big coal-burning liners of twenty years ago carried as many stokers as the Britannia did passengers. Actually, the Britannia was not the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, but she was the first to begin a regular transatlantic service. To go back to the beginning of steamship history in the Atlan- i tic, it is necessary to go back to 1787, when Samuel Cunard was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Cunard became a wealthy shipowner and merchant. He was one of the first to see the future of steam on the sea. Undaunted, h«» replied to the outbursts of all sorts of famous people who said that the idea of crossing the Atlantic by steam was as fanciful as to think of going to the moon in a balloon. "Why,"' said all these experts, "no ship could carry enough coal for the crossing. It might be managed by calling at the Azores and at Newfoundland for more fuel; but that would mean a trip as long as those made by sailing ships." Samuel Cunard bided his time, never forgetting his ambition of starting an Atlantic steam service. Meanwhile, on both sides of the ocean, experiments were being carried out. Ships were being fitted with engines of various types and tried out. Some of them, like the Savannah and the Enterprise, made quite long vovages, but they were essentially sailing ships, using their engines .only as auxiliary power and depending chiefly on the wind. Although a wealthy man. Cunard did not have enough money to build a steamship himself, so he had to sit back and Watch the activities of a company which raised £1,000.000 to build a ship called the British Queen. This company had bad luck,-as th« builders went out of business before the ship was finished. Another company at Bristol seized the opportunity of this delay to build the Great Western, with the idea of winning the honour of making, the first crossing. This did not suit the British Queen company, which hired a vessel called the Sirius from another firm. The Sirius was a tiny vessel, only 178 feet long and of 703 tons. A naval officer was placed in command, and the ship sailed from London in 1838. On her way down the Thames she passed the Great Western, which was making a speed trial. The Sirius arrived at New York after a voyage of sixteen days and a half —the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. The excitement in New York was intense, but it was nothing to the frensy when it was announced later in the day that yet another steamship—the biggest ever seen in American waters—was entering the harbour. This was, of course, the Great Western. She had left England three days later than her rival, and the delay cost her the coveted record.

The magnificent Canadian Pacific Liner Empress of Australia . . . A far crs frctn the Britannia of a century ago..

Cunard now had his chance. He was able to prove to doubters that a steam service between the Old World and the New was possible,: so he left immediately for England to organise a company which should establish this service. In Liverpool, Cunard met two men who were to assist him greatly in his enterprise. They were George Burns and David Mclver, both wealthy merchants and men of vision. Their standing was so high in English financial circles that, within a few days of their first meeting with Cunard, they were able to inform their Canadian friend that they had raised the £270,000 necessary to begin their operations. The company formed, Cunard was in a position to approach the British Government with an offer to take a contract carrying mails between the British Isles and America. The Government showed a lively interest in the plan and accepted the tender. The conditions were that the company should build four ships and maintain a regular service, adhering strictly to set times of arrival and departure at ports. In return the Government would pay a subsidy of £81.000 a year. Cunard was satisfied. He placed an order for the construction of four ships. All were built on the Clyde, home of shipbuilding, but each was built by a different firm, as the company wanted the four ships finished at the same time. The Britannia, to whose maiden voyage reference has already been made, was the first finished and was also to become the most famous. The ship was 207 feet long and no wider, than the length of a New Zealand drawing room. She was of 1154 tons, and her paddle wheels carried her along at a top speed of about ten miles an hour. She could carry about 225 tons of cargo and had accommodation for 115 passengers. This was the first transatlantic liner, forerunner of the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and the Normandie. Built on clipper lines, she carried the painted gun porta that were still a feature of all ocean-going vessels. She had three masts, a long bowsprit, and one tall and perfectly perpendicular funnel nearly as high as the lofty mainmast. A striking feature was the/big paddle-wheel boxes amidships. The date chosen for the Britannia's departure from Liverpool caused quite a lot of misgiving.- It was in the first place a Friday, and also July 4, American Independence Dav. regarded as an unlucky date for the British Empire. Cunard cared nothing for the superstitions of old women, and the Britannia left as planned. All the fears for her safety were unnecessary. The voyage te Boston was completed in fourteen days and eight hours, the passengers being loud in their praises of the fine vessel.

The Britannia continued to be the pride of Cunar4*s fleet for many yeaFS. Her steaming performances were always better than those of her three sister ships, and the people of Bostop used to claim that they coujt} set their Watches by her time of arrival. Many famous people travelled on the Britannia, one of them beinjj Charles Dickers, the gfest novelist, who crossed the Atlantic in January, 1842. Dickens greatly impressed by the comfort and speed of Britannia, apd included a fins description of the stauiteh little ship in his "Americas Sfotes."

Aijieriean shipbuilders were ve ry jealous of the Britannia's position as the fastest ship on thg Atlantic. They niade several attempts to break her record,"'"the mpst important bejng ipftcje by the \\ psjiingtoji. This ship was neprjv twice the size of t Jifi Britannia. and her engines were twice as strong. Yet the Cunarder, then more than seven years old, beat her American rival by ucarly two days. Since those early days the Atlantic liners have grow}} bigger and bigger and more aijd more powerful. The result of this competition are the giai& ships of the day, all of which have sprung from the Britannia, queen of the geas one hundred years ago.