Prologue: White Star History
The White Star Line was first founded in Liverpool in 1850 by Messrs John Pilkington
and Henry Threlfall Wilson. The shipping company's focus was on the Australian gold mine
trade. It was a sound company but the original ships eventually became water soaked,
overstrained and slow.
These were clipper ships with composite hulls (iron and wood frames.) One of the very
first ships of the White Star Line, originally named Blue Jacket and later
renamed the White Star is seen below
The White Star. (lithograph image
credit: Peabody Essex Musuem, Salem, Massachusetts.)
In 1867, a marine engineer named Sir Edward Harland and a
businessman named Thomas Henry Ismay had become partners and purchased the White Star Line
from Pilkington and Wilson as an investment. The intent was to build faster, longer
lasting iron ships and continue in the shipping trade market. A good relationship was soon
formed between White Star and the reputable Belfast shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff.
Harland and Wolff would build the ships to their own specifications, sparing no expense,
they would then tack on a fixed percentage to the building cost to constitute their fee.
Further agreement stated that Harland and Wolff would never build a ship for any of White
Star's competitors, and at the same time White Star would never contract a rival
shipbuilder. The deal worked well for both parties.
Two years later Ismay created the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company that would open trade
to the Atlantic. Speed wasn't as much of a concern to Thomas Ismay as comfort was. A
transatlantic crossing was often a one way trip in these days, one that didn't always
reach it's destination. People were terrified of these ships. Safety wasn't a big concern
and many had horrendous passenger accommodations. Most of the ships that carried livestock
were simply hosed out for the return trip with immigrant traffic. This is where they
earned the nickname "cattle boats."
The creation of the Teutonic won the ship and White Star the Blue Ribband award for
setting a speed record, crossing the Atlantic. This was the incentive Ismay needed to
expand his company. All competitive eyes were beginning to take notice of White Star. What
many believe to be White Star's "Greatest Triumph" was the Oceanic put
into survive in 1871. The first class accommodations were placed amidships unlike other
ships that had them placed at the stern where engine noise and vibration were present. A
grand dining saloon was added, designated passenger walkways on deck called promenades
were featured. It featured running water and electricity in the passenger cabins. The Oceanic
was considered a pace setter for rival steamship companies.
Thirty-eight year old John Bruce Ismay, having always worked in the family business,
succeeded his father's position upon his death in 1899. Sir Edward Harland had died in
1895. A new partnership was to take place. That between Bruce Ismay and the new Harland
and Wolff chairman Lord W.J. Pirrie. By the early 1900's, the shipping companies were in a
state of a vicious rate war which was hurting all parties involved. American financier and
multi-millionaire John Pierpont Morgan, saw this as a tremendous opportunity to expand his
capital. Morgan was a railroad, coal and steel magnate and decided to turn his interest to
the Atlantic shipping trade. Morgan decided to buy up all these rival shipping companies
and place them under one controlling trust with fixed shipping prices. He called this
trust the International Mercantile Marine, or IMM.
The British shipping companies considered this a definite threat
to their business, and the formation of IMM inspired the Cunard line to make a move, and
fast. Hence the birth of Cunard's greatest achievements, the Lusitania and the Mauritania.
These two ships would be the largest and fastest ships the world had ever seen. The Lusitania
quickly grabbed the famed Blue Ribband award for setting a transatlantic crossing speed
record. These ships played a vital role in convincing Cunard's rival White Star Line to
accept Morgan's buyout proposal, especially when he offered them 10 times the shipping
line's earnings for the year 1900. An additional agreement by the Morgan trust said that
the White Star ships would remain reserves for the British Navy and could be requisitioned
by the Admiralty in case the need arose. A smart inclusion to the deal, with England but a
few years from entering the Great War.
By the end of 1902, the deal was final. Bruce Ismay would remain as White Star Line's
managing director and chairman, and Morgan later convinced him to assume the presidency of
IMM. Of course, Lord Pirrie was thrilled with this deal. This meant that his company would
build all of the ships for all of the individual lines that fell under the IMM trust, and,
under the same agreement that had existed before.
Ismay and Pirrie decided that something was going to have to be done about the competition
that was currently threatening White Star. Namely, the Cunard Line and the German lines
that were also beginning to produce monster ships.
After meeting one night for dinner in 1907, Ismay and Pirrie came up with an idea of
building two twin leviathans that would be even larger than the Cunard ships, enabling
them to carry more passengers and freight. As well, these ships that would feature the
last word in luxury rather than speed. A third ship was to later join this special group
called the "Olympic Class Liners." In fact the first ship would be named Olympic.
The second ship would be named Titanic and the third, Gigantic. (Later
renamed Britannic after the Titanic disaster. She was sunk during World War
Two, probably by a mine)
Copyright © 1996 Titanic and Other White Star Ships
