Sir Samuel Cunard (1787-1865)

• merchant and fleet owner
• born in Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Cunard sailed from Canada to England in 1838 where he formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, later known as the Cunard Line, Ltd.
• in 1840 the company dispatched its first steamship, the Britannia, with Cunard himself at the helm, from Liverpool to Boston. Its 14-day, 8-hr voyage marked the beginning of regular transatlantic service by steamship.
• the Britannia was followed Cunard's first iron ship, the Persia, in 1855, and by his first screw-propelled ship, the China, in 1862
• in recognition of his contributions to British shipping and hence to British prestige in the world Cunard was made a baronet by Queen Victoria in 1859
• books:
  • A merchant fleet at war (1920) by Archibald Hurd
  • Samuel Cunard, pioneer of the Atlantic steamship (1967) by Kay Grant.
  • Cunard and the North Atlantic, 1840-1973: a history of shipping and financial management (1975) by Francis E. Hyde
  • The Cunard story (1987) by Howard Johnson.
  • Cunard: 150 glorious years (1989) by John Maxtone-Graham.
  • The Cunard Line: a pictorial history 1840-1990 (1990) by Peter W. Woolley and Terry Moore

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