White Star Line
The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between the British Empire and the United States. While many other shipping lines focused primarily on speed, White Star branded their services by focusing more on providing comfortable passages for both upper class travellers and immigrants.
"Oceanic Steam Navigation Company" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ocean Steam Navigation Company.Company type
Partnership
Shipping, transport
1845 in Liverpool, England
1934
Merged with Cunard Line
Transatlantic
Ismay, Imrie and Co.
Today, White Star is remembered for its innovative vessel Oceanic and for the losses of some of its best passenger liners, including the wrecking of Atlantic in 1873, the sinking of Republic in 1909, the loss of Titanic in 1912, and the wartime sinking of Britannic in 1916. Despite its casualties, the company retained a prominent hold on shipping markets around the globe before falling into decline during the Great Depression. White Star merged in 1934 with its chief rival, the Cunard Line, operating as Cunard-White Star Line until Cunard purchased White Star's share in the joint company in 1950. Cunard then operated as a single company until 2005 and is now part of Carnival Corporation & plc. As a lasting reminder of the White Star Line, modern Cunard ships use the term White Star Service to describe the level of customer service expected of the company.[1]
War and reparations (1914–1926)[edit]
World War I[edit]
When World War I broke out, the White Star fleet became a major issue. At the time, it controlled 35 ships, and all served in the war effort, either by being directly commissioned by the Royal Navy, or within the framework of the Liner Requisition Act. In these conditions, the losses were numerous.[109] The route from Southampton was stopped in order to avoid losses, and only Baltic and Adriatic remained on the route from Liverpool to New York, quickly joined by ships loaned by the Red Star Line: Lapland, Zeeland, and Vaderland.[110]
Oceanic, Teutonic, Celtic and Cedric were quickly converted into auxiliary cruisers, and joined the 10th Squadron of the Royal Navy. Majestic escaped the fighting, its scrapping having begun a few weeks before the start of the conflict.[111] The company's first wartime loss was Oceanic, which ran aground and was lost on 8 September 1914.[112]
The first White Star ship lost to enemy action was Arabic, which was torpedoed off the Irish coast in August 1915 with the loss of 44 lives.[113] November 1916 would see the loss of Britannic, the third and final Olympic-class vessel, which sank near the Greek island of Kea after striking a naval mine while in service as a hospital ship. Britannic was the largest loss for the company, and also the largest ship sunk during the conflict. 1916 also saw the loss of Cymric, which was torpedoed off the Irish coast in May,[114] and also of the cargo ship Georgic, which was scuttled in December with its cargo of 1,200 horses still on board after being intercepted in the Atlantic by the German merchant raider SMS Möwe.[115]
1917 saw the loss of Laurentic in January, which struck a mine off the Irish coast and sank with the loss of 354 lives and 3,211 gold ingots.[116] The following month the liner Afric was sunk by a torpedo in the English Channel, as was Delphic in August.[117] Another large loss came in 1918, when Justicia, a liner requisitioned from Holland America Line and operated by White Star, was torpedoed and sunk.[118]
Many White Star vessels were requisitioned for various types of war service, most commonly for use as troop ships. The most notable of these was Olympic, which transported over 200,000 troops during the conflict.[76]: 142 [119] Some ships, still under construction when the war broke out, were sent into military service unfinished and were not completed until after the war. This was the case with Belgic and Vedic.[120] The company lost ten ships over the course of the conflict, but its fleet carried nearly 550,000 soldiers and four million tons of cargo, and nearly 325 officers, engineers, marshals and medics were decorated during the war. With the end of hostilities, their surviving ships were decommissioned to resume their commercial service.[121]
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