White Star Line

The White Star Line

Company type	Partnership
Industry	Shipping, transport
Founded	1845 (1845) in Liverpool, England
Defunct	1934 (1934)
Fate	Merged with Cunard Line
Successor	Cunard White Star Line
Area served	Transatlantic, Australia and New Zealand
Parent	Ismay, Imrie and Co.
Footnotes / references House Flag

The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually grew to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between the British Empire and the United States. While many other shipping lines focused primarily on speed, White Star branded their services by focusing more on providing comfortable passages for both upper class travellers and immigrants.

Today, White Star is remembered for its innovative vessel Oceanic and for the losses of some of its best passenger liners, including the wrecking of Atlantic in 1873, the sinking of Republic in 1909, the loss of Titanic in 1912, and the wartime sinking of Britannic in 1916. Despite its casualties, the company retained a prominent hold on shipping markets around the globe before falling into decline during the Great Depression. White Star merged in 1934 with its chief rival, the Cunard Line, operating as Cunard-White Star Line until Cunard purchased White Star's share in the joint company in 1950. Cunard then operated as a single company until 2005 and is now part of Carnival Corporation & plc. As a lasting reminder of the White Star Line, modern Cunard ships use the term White Star Service to describe the level of customer service expected of the company.^[1]