The White Star Line was a Liverpool based company founded in 1845 by John Pilkington and Henry Therefall Wilson. Many associate the White Star Line with producing some of the most luxurious ocean liners in the world. However, the company was originally focused on the exportation and importation of gold. The company mainly engaged in the Australian trade. Due to the growing popularity of the Australian goldfields, this provided a steady income for the company. But this was not to last long due to various economic problems the company faced such as a staggering debt of nearly £51,000,000. The company declared bankruptcy and eventually closed. In 1876 the company was handed down to fellow Liverpudlian Thomas Henry Ismay, not to be confused with his son Joseph Bruce Ismay. Ismay bought the house flag for approximately £1,000. Ismay merged the company with his business partner William Imrie under the Oceanic Navigation Steam Company.
The White Star Line under the Ismays:
Along with the new management came the establishment of the White Star headquarters located on James Street, Liverpool. Ismay was particularly concerned with the designs of the White Star vessels and made the bold switch from wood built ships to ships made out of iron, steel and metal. Alongside this Ismay had the intention to abandon the Australian gold trade and instead try their hand at the steamship crossings and Atlantic traffic. Ismay had been approached by the nephew of renowned ship builder Gustav Wolff. His nephew of the same name had approached Ismay over a game of billiards and proposed that all White Star vessels should be built at his uncle’s shipyard Harland and Wolff.
The Oceanic Class:
The construction of the Oceanic Class started in late 1870 with the launching of the first White Star Line vessel to complete the North Atlantic run, the SS Oceanic. The vessel acquired an impressive tonnage of 3,000 tons she held an equally impressive length of 420 ft, this would later be doubled by the later White Star vessel Titanic. The Oceanic was succeeded by the Atlantic, Baltic, Republic, Cederic and the Oceanic II. The SS Atlantic was the White Star Line’s first disaster, the vessel ran aground off the coast of Nova Scotia, this was to be the same location that Titanic would also sink. The ship rolled over and killed all 562 men, women and children died on board the Atlantic with the exception of one passenger , John Hindley. However, With each new liner built by the White Star Line came bigger, faster and more luxurious liners. This signaled the dawn of the age of luxury liners. But the White Star Line were not the only company in the business, rival company Cunard proved a hard match for Ismay and the White Star Line. The likes of their luxury liners such as the Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia proved tough competition. But the war of Atlantic liners would only continue for the next fifty years.
Slideshow: RMS Oceanic, RMS Oceanic, RMS Republic and RMS Cedric
Giants of the Sea:
In 1890 the White Star Line released two new vessels that would set the standard for Atlantic crossing the Teutonic and Majestic held the record for the fastest ships in world as both could climb to a steady 20 knots. The Majestic won the ‘Blue Riband Award’ in 1891 only to be followed a month later by her sister Teutonic. Both the Teutonic and Majestic had been employed on the Southampton to New York run via the Atlantic. This would be the same route that the soon to be Olympic and Titanic would be destined to take.
Above: Teutonic (left) and Majestic (right)
Class and accommodation:
A feature most cruise companies were known for during this period was the ever-improving standards of the accommodation that was provided for each class. Both Cunard and White Star Line had stood out from other competition due to their focus on the second class. Before the 1890s second class accommodation had been virtually non-existent with a main focus on first class and steerage. By the companies now including a comfortable middles ground for those who couldn’t afford first class rates, but refused to stay in the third class, this reflected the image of the arrogant society that many lives were branded and placed into a category by their wealth. For many people, largely third class Ocean liners had been a mean of immigration and opportunity to better themselves across the waters. The first star vessel Oceanic had steerage accommodation for up to 1,000 people and additional 166 first class.
Another feature of the ocean liners was the improved facility of the third class. Many White Star Line vessels included apparent luxuries for the lower in society such as their own wash basins in their communal cabins, communal shower blocks were also added (as seen in the Olympic Class facilities) with warm water this was a luxury that perhaps many steerage passengers may have only experienced on the sea.
Bruce Ismay: The Unsinkable businessman
During this period the company had been passed down to Henry Ismay’s successor, his son Bruce. Bruce very much so kept to his father’s ethic that the ships produced by the White Star Line should continue to be leviathans of the sea. Although, many historians and Titanic enthusiasts are quick to put a target on Bruce Ismay claiming that money and design were the aims of Mr Ismay. However, even the White Star Line were not exempt from Maritime Law. The book Titanic and her sisters Olympic and Britannic argued that “The British Government introduced a scheme to provide ship owners with a cost subsidy- maximum 50%... to qualify for this substantial subsidy, ship owners undertook to remain British owned and all new vessels built under this scheme were required to be constructed to admiralty standard.” Ships of this standard had to include more than normal thickness. The White Star line did fall into this bracket alongside Cunard, who seemingly made the most of this scheme, which produced ships such as the Mauritania and the ill-fated Lusitania. Both weighed 31,550 tons with a length of 787 ft in length But White Star Line did follow the scheme too. The construction of the three new titans: Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic (later renamed Britannic) also took advantage of this scheme, and in order for the grant by the Government all of their ships to be built and tested to military standards.
The Olympic Class:
In 1906 the commission of three new White Star vessels were registered, these would be appropriately named the Olympic Class. The aim was to create three ships that would double the length, size and speed of any other ocean liner in the world. Olympic and Titanic were built simultaneously next to each other between 1909-1911. Both weighed 45,000 tons with an additional 1,000 tons added on with cargo and fittings. The two giants had an impressive height of 195 ft from the top of the funnels to the keel, White Star also were one of the first companies to employ a double keel into their new ships. The double keel, otherwise referred to as a ‘double bottom’ was essentially, the spine of the ship and acted as double protection if the vessel was to come under any stress. Titanic and Olympic secured the record for the longest ships in the world as both had a length of 882 ft. The lengths of the two maritime giants in hindsight caused more problems than company perhaps thought as the two White Star terminals in Southampton joined into one berth to fit the titans of the Olympic class.
As always, I’ll leave a few external links about the creation of the White Star line and running of the company between 1850 and 1911. Do not fear part two will be on its way soon as always, feel free to ask any questions.
Have a titanic day, Millie.
A History of the White Star Line by Titanic: Honour and Glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSIaFy2L1Xk
The White Star Line by 30 James Street, Liverpool: https://rmstitanichotel.co.uk/history/white-star-line/#
The Maritime Executive on the sinking of the RMS Atlantic: https://www.maritime-executive.com/features/the-sinking-of-rms-atlantic
Designing a ship’s double bottom by the Marine Sight: https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/design-of-ships-bottom-structure/
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