THE WHITE STAR LINE
The White Star Line was set up in 1850 in response to the great Australian gold rush. White Star initially ran ships to Australia before taking over many of the transatlantic routes too.
In 1867 Thomas Henry Ismay bought the company for £1,000. From this point onwards White Star commissioned ships from Harland & Wolff and kick-started one of the most powerful shipping partnerships in the world. The first ship to be built under this arrangement was the Oceanic in 1870. She set the standard for ‘super’ class ocean liners – she was bigger and had more features than any liner before her, including running water in every cabin. In the same year her sister ships Atlantic, Baltic and Republic were launched followed by the even bigger Adriatic and Celtic.
In 1891 Joseph Bruce Ismay, Thomas Ismay’s eldest son, was appointed to the board. He was responsible for deciding that the White Star policy should be that their ships would be bigger and more opulent than those of their rivals, in particular Cunard. Cunard had been putting their efforts into developing fast liners that could win the coveted Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing. White Star couldn’t compete with Cunard’s turbine engines so opted instead for large-scale opulence. In 1899 a second state-of-the-art Oceanic was the first ship to encapsulate this policy.
of tons to her weight.
Two years later White Star was taken over by an American company, the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM). Joseph Bruce Ismay was offered the Presidency of this huge shipping company in 1904 giving him the resources to put his plans for the biggest, best, most luxurious ocean liners in the world in place.
With one exception all White Star liners built before WWI were constructed by Harland & Wolff and the partnership continued over many years, during which time they built over 70 vessels for White Star.