Titanic Tidbits

News and info ..................

-1933

Cunard - White Star

In Britain, they are talking about a shipping merger.

Famous liners are involved in the battle for British

supremacy on the North Atlantic

Cunard and White Star, grand old names in British shipping history,

may soon be merged. At least, they may soon be brought into closer

operating agreement. It will the final major move in a big

reorganization of British shipping which has been underway for several

years and which the depression and the notorious "Klysant fraud" in

the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. (parent of White Star) have speeded

up.

Cunard, for years proud boaster that it maintained itself without

government subsidy, has asked the government for aid to complete its

new super-liner No. 534, mystery hulk which looms in the building

stocks along the Clyde. Funds are exhausted and only the hull is

completed. Cost of the ship when it was started was estimated at $30

millions. It would rival the great Normandie of the French Line, now

under construction, for the dubious honor of "world's biggest."

The Government Speaks

The British government, speaking through no less authority on shipping

than Sir Walter Runciman, now president of the Board of Trade, has

refused to grant the funds unless the Cunard and White Star come to

some agreement on a cooperative service. Both operate between channel

ports and New York. Together they have 5 of the largest and fastest of

the express liners on this ghly competitive route. Cunard also has a

fleet of the popular but slower 10-day boats. White Star has the 2 new

and swanky cabin liners - Britannic and Georgic. Cunard has reported a

deficit in 1931 and 1932, as have most of the transatlantic lines.

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White Star has been in financial difficulties for some time, was more

or less involved in the R.M.S.P. "washup" of a year or two ago.

More is involved than just a loan to complete the new super-liner. All

British lines are complaining over the increase in government

subsidies in competing services throughout the world. Italy, France,

and the United States have pursued a definite policy of building a

national merchant marine. The German government has recently come to

the aid of the 2 big representatives in the transatlantic service -

North German Lloyd and Hamburg American - and is dictating how the two

are to operate.

Cunard is not the largest shipping line in Britain, but it is one of

the best known to the American public. Among it's 80 ships are the

Mauretania, from 1907 (when it was built) to the arrival of the German

liners - Bremen and Europa - the speed queen of the North Atlantic.

Only a little less popular are the Aquitania and the Berengaria. More

of the "-ia" boats familiar to New York, Boston, or Montreal are the

Franconia, best known as a cruise boat, the Carinthia, and the

Ascania.

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Cunard boasted a few months ago, when traffic totals were announced

for 1932, that Cunarders had for the tenth successive year carried the

largest number of transatlantic passengers between the United States

and Europe. Cunard is also famous for shipping innovations. In the

spring of 1931, the Mauretania did a rush weekend cruise to Nassau

between the regular runs to Europe. It was an innovation announced by

the line as "a drive to sell the idea of Atlantic travel to a larger

American group by means of week-end cruises on transatlantic liners"

This year the short cruise service is doing almost as much to keep the

big liners busy as the regular services.

"Tourist third" was another Cunard innovation. So was travel on a

deferred payment basis, which allowed purse-pinched romantics to

"travel at their convenience, pay at their leisure." This year, Cunard

is reserving regular third class on 3 sailings for "white collar"

travelers with a special round trip offer of $135.50. And the

Mauretania has arrived in New York during the week painted entirely

white for a series of 6 summer cruises to the West Indies.

5I.M.M. Has a Claim

White Star isn't so British as Cunard. That is, Lord Kylsant bought

White Star in 1927 for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. He is reported

to have paid $35 millions for the line, but business turned bad,

payments were never completed, and International Mercantile Marine

(American) still has a partial claim on the vessels.

Royal Mail was for a time Britain's largest shipping service. There

were more than 532 vessels with a total tonnage exceeding 2 1/2

millions. Services spread to all parts of the world. Then, 2 years

ago, the 69 year old Lord Kylsant was accused and found guilty of

misrepresenting the position of R.M.S.P. to investors. He was sent to

prison and Sir Walter Runciman was given the responsibility of

reorganizing the finances of the company. Stockholders agreed to a

3-year moratorium. Adjustments are not yet completed but the company

has already been split up, and the honors being Britain's largest

shipping combine has been yielded to the growing Furness interests.

White Star, among the many British services operating in the North

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Atlantic, is Cunard's only real home competitor. The Majestic heads

the "-ic" fleet, still is the largest liner. Much older, but always

popular, is the Olympic, sister of the ill-fated Titanic. New comers

are the Britannic and Georgic, cabin liners in the new mode. The

Megantic and the Baltic, popular old-timers, were sold to the Japanese

during the winter for scrapping.

Subsidies to shipping are likely to be discussed - and with some heat

- at the World Economic Conference. And rationalization of

shipbuilding and shipping schedules will continue internally in every

country. But the Cunard-White Star project is Britain's answer to the

united national competition of other nations. It is a powerful

combine.