White Star Line
White Star Line was the name of two British shipping companies based in Liverpool. Especially the second, founded in 1869, company was known which line services operating to New York City, Australia and New Zealand. Several of their ships were the largest of their time, such as the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic.
The first White Star Line
The first White Star Line was founded by John Pilkington and Henry Threlfall Wilson in Liverpool (England) and first chartered sailing ships ( Tayleur, Blue Jacket (later White Star ), Red Jacket, Ellen, and Iowa ) for trade between the UK and Australia. Outward symbol of the shipping company was a white star on a red background. The sinking of the Tayleur on her maiden voyage in 1854 in a storm on the Irish coast cost more than 300 lives and was a serious blow to the shipping company.
1863 bought the White Star Line with the Royal Standard their first steamship. After the failure of fusion attempts to open up new routes to the shipping company focused on the connection between Liverpool and New York. Massive investments in new ships led by the bankruptcy of the bank Royal Bank of Liverpool in October 1867 bankruptcy of the first White Star Line.
The second White Star Line: Oceanic Steam Navigation Company
1869, Thomas Ismay, former director of the National Line, which to entertain Oceanic Steam Navigation Company to a regular liner service from Liverpool to New York. Previously, he had bought the shipping company symbol and the trade names of the bankrupt White Star Line for 1000 pounds sterling. Other hallmarks of the new White Star Line were the suffix "ic" at the ship's name and an ocher chimney with black cap. Head office of the shipping company was initially Liverpool, later he was transferred to London. While the ships sailed under the name of White Star Line, was the real owner is always the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company.
The new shipping company ordered at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast ( Northern Ireland), a series of four similar ships, where later two more followed. According to the official name of the company the first ship Oceanic was named.
Although there was never a fixed written agreement, ordered the White Star all future ships with Harland & Wolff, which supplied no direct competitors in return. Both partners have never been disappointed in principle.
From the first ships then conquered the Baltic and the Adriatic the Blue Riband for the White Star Line. 1873 met the young shipping company a serious loss: The Atlantic was near Halifax ( Canada ) decreased with a high loss of life. To compensate for the damage to its image again, two new, larger, safer and faster ships were ordered at the shipyard of Harland & Wolff. 1874 was the first to Germanic, in service and captured the Blue Riband. A year later, she lost it to the City of Berlin, the Inman Line, but the sister ship of the Germanic, Britannic (I), the trophy could get back in the same year for the White Star.
1879 conquered the Arizona Guion Line of the Blue Riband. The White Star Line countered but not immediately, but focused from the year 1884 on the establishment of a regular service from Liverpool via Cape Town to Australia and New Zealand. During this time the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company was a partnership with the British shipping company Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Co.. This partnership should endure until 1933.
In 1887 he was ordered at Harland & Wolff Ltd.. two new liners that were explicitly designed as a record ships. 1889 was the first of these vessels, the Teutonic into service. As the first transatlantic liners they had no sails. Already on the maiden voyage she won the Blue Riband of the ship of the Inman Line City of Paris. Less than a year later, the Teutonic was surpassed by her sister ship the Majestic. You should use the last two ships in the White Star Line remain erected by a new record on the track. 1892, the award went lost to the Inman liner City of New York.
1896 ordered the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company set a new record breaker as the second Oceanic entered service in 1899. The Oceanic was with 17,272 GRT that time the largest ship in the world, but a new speed record she could not place, with 19.5 knots she was too slow. End of November 1899, the company founder Thomas Ismay died, and his son Bruce Ismay took over the fate of the White Star Line. Under Bruce Ismay, the company policy changed dramatically: from now on, size and comfort should be reinforced in the foreground and not more speed. The 1901 going into service "big four ", Celtic ( 20,904 GRT), Cedric ( 21,035 GRT), Baltic (II ) ( 23,884 GRT) and Adriatic (II ) ( 24 541 GRT) were the first visible sign of this policy.
1901, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company was bought by the American banker John Pierpont Morgan and the most important part in Morgan's IMMC Trust. Bruce Ismay not only retained the presidency of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, but also got the board position in the IMMC, according to Morgan, of course. After 1907, the Cunard Line with the two sister ships Lusitania and Mauretania dominated the North Atlantic, countered the White Star Line with even more size, more luxury and a desire to commercial operation as possible. In Harland and Wolff, the first 40,000 -ton truck in the world were commissioned. There were the ships of the Olympic - class, Olympic, Titanic and Britannic (II). None of these ships was designed to capture the Blue Riband. At 22 knots the vessels in this series were unable, with the former owner of the award, the Mauretania, keep up.
1912 collided the Titanic on its maiden voyage with an iceberg, and 1504 people died in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. It was under impression that disaster was determined that passenger ships for all passengers must have adequate life-saving equipment on board. The third ship of the Olympic class, the Britannic went in 1916 as a hospital ship in the Aegean Sea lost after mine hit. The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company never recovered from these losses.
In 1915, the IMMC -Trust bankrupt and was reorganized as United States Lines beginning of the 1920s. The foreign shipping companies, including the White Star were repelled. The new owner was the British Royal Mail Group, which included such prestigious shipping companies such as the Royal Mail Line and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
As a substitute for the lost Britannic took over the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company in 1922 the former Hapag liner Bismarck, which went into service as Majestic - with 56 551 BRT, the largest passenger ship in the world. 1928 was the shipping company at Harland & Wolff Ltd.. their most recently built in order, recorded the 1930 Britannic and Georgic 1931 as the operation. 1931 had the Royal Mail Group to file for bankruptcy under the impression the Great Depression and was as Royal Mail Lines Ltd.. reorganized. The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company must turn in 1933 also go bankrupt. The Australia service was sold to long-time partner Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Co..
1934 the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line to Cunard White Star Ltd.. The merging of the two fleets were most former White Star ships to the victim. The disused Oceanic Steam Navigation Company was liquidated in 1939. 1947 bought Cunard Cunard White Star on all shares and renamed the shipping company in 1950 in Cunard Steamship Co. Ltd.. order. The last former White Star ships Britannic (III) and Georgic (II ) retained even under Cunard Director as the last recognition to the decommissioning of the color dress the White Star Line.
Color dress of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company
In addition to the house red flag with the white star, the ships of the White Star Line were recognizable mainly by their color dress. The hull was painted black, while the superstructure were kept in white. Until the 1920s, was located between the black hull and white superstructure, a yellow stripe, the so-called " sheer stripe". This had a width of 10.25 inches ( about 26 cm). In later years of the strip on all ships was moved lower, so that it no longer was located between the hull and superstructure of the ship, but only on the black hull. Another important feature was the chimney color of White Star ships, which is now called the " White Star Buff ". The exact shade is not known, since no record of the colors used and the mixing process are known. But Using contemporary drawings, eyewitness accounts and analysis of the existing black and white photos you have an approximate idea.