The Naming of Cunard Ships

From the mid 19th century through the mid 20th century, most Cunard ships had a name which ended in the letters "-ia". The first of these ships was the Britannia (1840-1880) the first of of the Cunard passenger ships.

The Britannia carried 115 1st class passengers, 89 crew members, 600 tons of coal, the Atlantic mail, and livestock to provide food on the voyage. Note she was both a sailing ship and a steamer. And note that in this painting, her funnel is red and black, which became the traditional colors of the funnels of Cunard ships.

The Carpathia (1903-1918) was the Cunarder that rescued the surviving passengers and crew from the doomed White Star liner, RMS Titanic. In July, 1918 she was sunk by a German U-boat.

RMS Carpathia

The picture shown below is of the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania (1907-1915). Like the Carpathia, she was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, but early in the war. On May, 1, 1915 she sailed fron New York with over 1900 passengers and crew on board. Only days later, as she neared the UK she was sunk by the German U-20. She went under in less than 20 minutes taking with her 1200 souls.

RMS Lusitania

Notice that Lusitania has 4 stacks.. That was common in the early part of the 20th century. The ill-fated RMS Titanic was also a 4-stacker as were a number of other ships, including the following Cunard ships:

RMS Mauretania (1907-1935)

RMS Aquitania (1914-1949)

The Mauretania was the first of the 2 Cunard ships to bear that name.  A second Mauretania entered service in 1939 and served as a troopship in WWII. She was scrapped in 1965.

RMS Mauretania  (1939-1965)

The RMS Caronia entered service in 1947 with the merged Cunard-White Star line. She was known as the Green Goddess because of her paint scheme - 4 different shades of green. In 1968 she was sold by Cunard Line and saw very brief service with another lone as the "Columbia" and then the "Caribia." On her way the the ship breakers in  Taiwan, she was wrecked by a storm in Guam.

Not all of the Cunard ships had names ending with letters - ia. The 6 Queens are one example, but there were others that were acquired by Cunard in the latter part of the 20th century - most notably the Vistafjord and Sagafjord which were acquired from Norwegian Cruise Line. Those ships and others have since been sold or transferred to other lines within Carnival Corporation which has owned Cunard since 1998. 

There are now only 3 ships in the Cunard fleet - The Queen Mary 2, the Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth. And we embark on the Queen Elizabeth two weeks from today on October 16th.