Cunard, SIR SAMUEL

Cunard, SIR SAMUEL, was born 21st November 1787 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his father, a Philadelphia merchant, had settled. Becoming early a successful merchant and shipowner, Cunard came to England in 1838, joined with George Burns, Glasgow, and David M'iver, Liverpool, in founding (1839) the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and obtained a contract from the British government for the mail service between Liverpool and Halifax, Boston, and Quebec. The first passage was that of the Britannia in 1840, the time occupied being fourteen days eight hours. Iron steamers were first used in 1855, and paddle-wheels gave way entirely to the screw after 1862. From its small but successful beginning, Cunard's undertaking soon developed into one of the vastest of private commercial concerns. In 1878 it was made into a joint-stock company. Created a baronet in 1859, Cunard died at London, 28th April 1865.