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THE WHITE STAR LINE

Shortly after the accident to the Royal Standard, The White Star Line began to have financial difficulties. Eventually it went bankrupt and a man called Thomas Henry Ismay bought its name and emblem for £1,000. Later the name Ismay was to become forever linked with that of Titanic.

Ismay was from Liverpool and was involved in the shipping industry. In order to raise the £1,000 to buy the name and emblem of The White Star Line, he turned to a man called Gustav Schwabe. He was a Liverpool banker and agreed to lend Ismay the money on one condition. From then on The White Star Line must have all its ships built in Belfast by the shipbuilders, Harland & Wolff.

Schwabe had a personal reason for making this request. His nephew was Gustav Wolff, the partner in the Harland & Wolff shipyard. Wolff was an engineer and had joined the firm of William Harland in 1857 when Schwabe had loaned money to Harland in order to buy out a rival.

This coming together of Ismay, Schwabe and Harland & Wolff around 1860 was to ultimately lead to the building of the Titanic 50 years later.

At first The White Star Line concentrated on the Australian routes. But by 1870, the routes from Europe to America were becoming busier. More and more ships were crossing the Atlantic, bringing people from Europe, anxious to find new prospects in this exciting country.

By now too wealthy people from Europe also wanted to visit America. They were also interested in whatever opportunities might be available to increase their wealth.

Those who had by now prospered in America wished to visit Europe. Many of their ancestors had come from that continent and no doubt they wished to see their homelands. They were also anxious to visit famous cities like London, Paris and Rome and to see the great works of art housed in their art galleries.

They also wanted to visit famous holiday destinations like the Cote D'Azur in the south of France. The pyramids of Egypt, the only wonders of the ancient world still in existence, were also a top attraction.

Those who travelled, both from Europe and America, were fabulously wealthy. The only means of travelling across the Atlantic was by ship. Air travel was still a long way off. Being wealthy, they did not wish to travel in the conditions experienced by the earlier pioneers of the Atlantic crossings. They wanted comfort and luxury, and were willing and able to pay for it.

Shipping companies were quick to see these new opportunities. One of those was The White Star Line. They had two ships built at Harland & Wolff in 1871, Oceanic and Atlantic. Thus The White Star Line's tradition of building ships whose names ended in ‘ic’ was born.

These ships provided great luxury for wealthy passengers who would travel First Class in cabins on the upper decks. Less luxurious accommodation was also provided below the First Class cabins for those who were less wealthy. This was the Second Class.

However, the vast majority of passengers, like those from Ireland who were going to America seeking work and a new life, would still travel in steerage, that is on the lower decks. This would become known as Third Class.

Nevertheless, these Third Class passengers would still travel in luxury when compared to the conditions endured by those who had fled the famine. They were provided with bunks in cabins they shared with other passengers. No longer did they have to provide or cook their own food. They could now eat in their own dining room and were served by stewards. For many, who had previously not known where their next meal was coming from, this was luxury and privilege indeed.

Under the expertise of Thomas Ismay and a new partner, William Imrie, The White Star Line was soon the undoubted leader in Atlantic travel. But the line also seemed destined to disaster. Atlantic was lost when it struck rocks near Nova Scotia in 1873, with the loss of around 550 people. In the following years other ships of The White Star Line were also lost. These disasters were to eventually culminate in the loss of the Titanic 39 years after the Atlantic disaster.

By the end of the nineteenth century there was great rivalry among shipping companies on the transatlantic route. They vied with each other in terms of the luxury of their ships and speed of crossing. The ship achieving the fastest crossing was awarded the Blue Riband, a highly coveted prize.

Ships of The White Star Line like Majestic and Teutonic held the Blue Riband in the 1890’s. The Cunard Line, founded in Britain in 1839, also held the Blue Riband on a number of occasions. But by the beginning of the twentieth century, German built ships, notably the Deutschland, made the Blue Riband their own.

This was a blow to British pride and Cunard decided to build two liners that not only would be the most luxurious on the Atlantic route but also the fastest. These ships were the Lusitania and her sister ship, Mauretania.

In 1907 Lusitania captured the Blue Riband and held it until 1909. Then the Mauretania took the record for the fastest crossing, a record it would hold for twenty years. While these achievements restored British pride and gained much publicity for Cunard, they dealt a severe blow to the prestige of The White Star Line and its new President, Joseph Bruce Ismay.

J.B. Ismay was the son of Thomas Ismay, who had bought The White Star Line in the 1860’s. The latter had died in 1899 and his son had taken over the running of the shipping line. Three years later, in 1902, the International Mercantile Marine Company, known as IMM, bought The White Star Line for £10,000,000.

IMM was one of the largest shipping companies in America. It was owned by J. Pierpont Morgan, one of America's richest men. He had interests in banking, steel and railroads, as well as shipping.

Ismay had at first resisted the attempt by IMM to take over his company. But in the end he had to bow to the inevitable. He was a far-seeing man and now he saw a way to restore the prestige of The White Star Line. With the financial backing of J. Pierpont Morgan, he would build the finest ships ever seen. He would leave vulgar matters like speed to others. Instead, his ships would be the largest and most luxurious to ever sail the Atlantic Ocean.

By a strange coincidence, another contemporary also had such a dream. He was Viscount William Pirrie, Chairman of Harland & Wolff. He summoned Ismay to a meeting at his home in London, 1907 and there the two men decided to embark on their dream.

Little did either man know that one of those ships they now proposed to build would become, for reasons neither could ever have foreseen, the most famous ocean liner of all time, the ill-fated Titanic.