Cunard Line

From cruise.travel.com

Cunard Line and Princess Cruises headquarters in Santa Clarita, California

Cunard Line is a British shipping company with present-day headquarters located in London, UK and Santa Clarita, California, USA in the same building as Princess Cruises's head office.

History

Shipping magnate Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, along with several others formed the original company in 1838. For more than a century and a half, Cunard dominated the Atlantic passenger trade. In 1983 Cunard took over the luxury cruise line Norwegian America Line, and in 1994 another luxury cruise company, Royal Viking Line.

For much of the late 20th century and the first few years of the 21st the line's only vessel making transatlantic crossings was the Queen Elizabeth 2. From 2004 the "QE2's" service was limited to cruising mostly from the UK and the annual world cruise, while the transatlantic route was taken over by the new Queen Mary 2, the first ocean liner to be built in 30 years and the largest passenger ship of any type. In 2006 she lost the record of the largest passenger ship to the cruise ship Freedom of the Seas, but QM2 remains the largest ocean liner ever built.

In 1998, Cunard became one of a number of lines owned by Carnival Corporation. On January, 1, 2005 the business, assets and liabilities of Cunard Line Ltd were transferred to Carnival plc, ending the Cunard name as a business entity - the name still appears on the side of Queen Mary 2 and sails under the Cunard brand, but it is controlled by Princess Cruises in California.

Current Ships

Future Ships

• MS Queen Elizabeth - expected to enter service in 2010.

External links

• Cunard homepage