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Samuel Cunard, a Halifax ship owner with coal, whaling and timber interests, won a British Admiralty contract for transatlantic steam mail even though he missed the bid deadline and owned no steamships. His old acquaintance Admiral William Edward Parry, controller of steam machinery, brought him to the table, and with engine designer Robert Napier, George Burns and David MacIver he secured £55,000 a year. On July 4, 1840, the Britannia left Liverpool and reached Halifax in 12 days and 10 hours. Cunard told his captains that speed was nothing and safety was everything, a record that held while the American Collins Line lost the Pacific in 1856.

When J.P. Morgan’s International Mercantile Marine bought White Star in 1902, Britain lent Cunard £2.5 million to build the Lusitania and Mauretania; the Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915 with over a thousand dead. During the Depression the unfinished Hull 534 sat idle for two and a half years until a government bailout required a 1934 merger with White Star, and the ship became the Queen Mary. Jets overtook ships by 1960, Cunard’s airline ventures failed by 1966, and Carnival bought control in 1998 after the film Titanic revived interest in classic liners. In 2011 Cunard moved its registry to Bermuda so captains could marry couples at sea.

• In 1917 Cunard’s facilities built aircraft for the Royal Flying Corps.
• The Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth carried over two million servicemen in World War II, and Churchill credited them with shortening the war by a year.
• The cargo ship Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by an Exocet missile in the 1982 Falklands War.
• A 1994 QE2 voyage with unfinished renovations led to $13 million in passenger compensation claims.
• In October 2026 Cunard announced the Queen Anne will move to P&O Cruises in 2029, and its ships still fly the White Star flag every April 15.