SAMUEL CUNARD

Evening Star, Issue 23065, 17 September 1938, Page 1

SAMUEL CUNARD

FOUNDER OF A GREAT LINE ” NOTHING BUT THE BEST '! Beside the great hull of the- Mauretania, just launched,. one seems to visualise the shadowy figure of that great little man who founded the company known as the Cunard White Star Line (writes “.Taffrgil,” in the ‘ Observer’). P A hundred years ago Samuel Cunardy the son of a working carpenter, but by that time a successful man of business in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was described, as a small, grey-haired man of quiet? manners and not overflowing speechBrisk, brimful of energy, and always on tlie alert to seize an opportunity, he possessed immense determination and powers of endurance. His business qualifications were remarkable. He had a flair for impressing people with his ideas; and hia promptitude in grasping opportunity and transforming it into action waa tempered with unfailing sagacity and foresight. HIS FIRST CHANCE, . It was in 1838 that the Admiralty invited tenders for a mail contract by, steam across the Atlantic—early m 1839, at the age of 52, that Cunard determined to. secure that contract* came hot-foot to England from Halifax without sufficient capital to purchase the ships he needed. In London he got into touch -with hia friend James Melvill, the secretary of the East India Company, and, through, him, secured an introduction to that? well-known marine engine builder, Robert Napier. Meeting Napier,, Cunard ordered hia ships in “a frank, offhand manner, and, on the strength of those ships, persuaded the Government and the Admiralty that his scheme for a transatlantic mail service was the best. There were influential competitors. Cunard’s task in breaking down prejudice and opposition cannot have been easy. , He secured his mail contract; Bui? wanted more capital properly to fulfil his obligations. People in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow were not enthusiastic. Through Melvill,. once more, he went to Napier, explained his difficulty, and was put in touch with George Burns and David Maclver. Hard-headed men of business, they also had to be persuaded that his scheme was sound. The capital was eventually forthcoming, Cunard himself being the largest shareholder.'

From the very establishment of the Cunard Line in 1840 its founder guaranteed a regular . all-the-year-round transatlantic services; he himself, once observed; |»e insisted iiiiva “ nothing but the best ships, the best officers, and the best men.” Thoroughness was one of his. watchwords. Moreover, it was who first realised: that three or‘fou/lhips were necessary to run a regular steam service across the stormy Atlantic. Regularity v?aa everything. WOODEN PADDLE' STEAMERS. The first Cunarders, the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia, and Columbia of 1840, were wooden paddle steamers of 1,154 tons, 207 feet long on the keel. They steamed eight: and a-half knots* With a little alteration one of them! could be accommodated on, each side of the Queen Mary’s boat deck. Shorn of her bowsprit, masts, funnel, apd paddle-boxes the Britannia, up-ended, could almost be inserted into one of the funnels of the new_ Queen Elizabeth, to be launched in September* The development in shipbuilding during the last century has been almost terrifying. Canard’s monument .is the fleet of fine ships which now fly the well-known house flags of the Cunard, White Star Line. Their familiar red, black-topped funnels serve to remind us that the first Cunarders were engined by Robert Napier. Since ordinary oil paint would have blistered with the heat his previous coastal steamers had had their smoke stacks painted with a mixture of red ochre and buttermilk. The same mixture was adopted for the Britannia and her three sisters, and the same colouring holds good to-day.