Olympics's design

[Brent Holt]

The CWS merger agreement was very complex, but CWS was a subsidiary of Cunard. They probably just added WS to the name since it seemed appropriate at the time and WS had 38% of the shares.
I still cannot see the reason for retiring 70% of the WS fleet after the takeover. The data I have seen shows that Olympic was probably the most efficient vessel of her class. And wouldn't it have made good business sense to keep one WS ship in the express service until the arrival of the QE? (WS was usually a strong second to Cunard.)
I seem to remember reading once that Cunard defended their WS retirements by saying they were old and in poor condition. Sounds defensive to me.
This debate could go on forever.....

 

[David G. Brown]

I would modify Brent's last statment to saying that the debate will go on forever.

However, the responses to my arguments still miss the point. A ship's performance is not the deciding factor in its ultimate fate. The problem revolves around the overall good of the company. If you do not start with your first priority as the economic health of the company, then you ultimately condemn the whole fleet to the breakers when the corporation founders in red ink. It's that simple. Olympic may have been the best ship ever built and better than any since...but if Cunard ws less able to survive economically by keeping it afloat, Olympic was done for.

As far as combining names when one company buys another, that's still common practice. For instance, the car company is "Daimler Chrysler," but does anyone really believe that keeping the Chrysler part in the name is anything by a public relations gesture to U.S. car buyers?

This debate must also face the economic realities of the time. The U.S. frontier had officially closed in 1919, ending the massive immigrant trade which had been a major source of passenger ship income for a century. On top of that was the world-wide Great Depression which reduced travel in general. Keep in mind that if there were enough ticket buyers to keep both WSL and Cunard busy, there would have been no "merger." The fact was there were too many berths on too many bottoms. Ships had to be scrapped and companies disbanded. Harsh realities, indeed, but realities. Olympic found itself in the same situation as the passenger behind the last passenger to get into one of Titanic's lifeboats. Life isn't fair, even to ships.

-- David G. Brown

 

[Brent Holt]

Interesting take on this.
So you are saying that Cunard retired Olympic, and most of the WS fleet, for tax and debt reasons?

Brent

 

[Mark Baber]

Was it not later that Cunard bought WSL shares in the company and became just Cunard again.

That was actually a two-step process. First, in July 1947, Cunard bought the 38% of CWS that belonged to White Star's creditors, principally IMM and the UK and Northern Ireland governments. They continued to use the name CWS, though, until 1 January 1950, when Cunard took over all of CWS's assets and operations, leaving Cunard White Star, Ltd., as a shell. Sources: The New York Times, 30 July 1947 and 26 January 1950; Anderson's White Star.

 

[Sean Hankins]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Cunard go back to "Cunard White Star" for a brief time after Cameron's movie hit big at the box office?

 

[Brent Holt]

Cunard still uses the White Star name at times. The 2005 brochure for QM2 and QE2 has an old CWS ad with the QM inside the front cover. It also mentions the "White Star Academy" for personnel training with the WSL flag and Cunard's "White Star" service.
It would be cool if they would start flying the WSL flag at times under the Cunard flag.
Brent

 

[Jeremy Lee]

They do don't they once a year? I can't remember for what unfortunately...

 

[PCash]

The present board running Cunard will no doubt regard any association / mention of the name 'White Star' with understandable hesitation. It is a double-edged sword.

Promoting the name 'White Star' could be a useful and advantageous marketing / PR gimmick. That said, no company wants to be too closely associated with the Titanic (her sinking & terrible loss of life).

 

[Mark Baber]

White Star/Cunard/Carnival

Hello! So I've actually been doing a lot of research and such on this infamous Shipping company for a while now - no particular reason, just curious! And after a quite a bit of digging I found that info having to do with them after they merged with Cunard has been a bit scarce. I've heard rumors...

www.encyclopedia-titanica.org