White Star History
Welcome aboard White Star History's, the White Star Line History Website. The White Star Line best known today as being the owner of the ill-fated RMS Titanic was once one of the most successful and powerful shipping lines in the world with a fascinating history dating from the 19th century to a legacy that continues to this day.
Explore our website to discover the triumph, heroism, tragedy and everything in between that makes up the history of the White Star Line and the White Star Line Fleet. The website includes biographies of many of the line's ships, detailing their careers, their successes and sometimes their misfortunes!
The Website is closely connected to our sister website, Titanic Pages Titanic History Website, allowing users to easily navigate between the two websites. Titanic Pages contains various facts and history about Titanic, White Star Line s most famous and tragic ship. For those interested in Titanic, the White Star Line History Website includes many facts about the Titanic in connection with White Star Line s other ships.
Launched in 2007, with roots going back over 20 years to 2003, White Star History is a growing resource dedicated to telling the story of the White Star Line.
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The origins of the White Star Line date back to 1845 to the city of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, where John Pilkington and Henry Threlfall Wilson established the original White Star Line as operating a fleet of sailing ships carrying cargo and passengers to, in its history, from the United Kingdom to Canada, the United States and most notably to Australia, which experienced a huge increase in immigration and population size in the 1850s due to the discovery of gold being there.
By 1867 White Star Line had borrowed a very considerable amount of money to invest in its ships; this went terribly wrong in October of that year when the Royal Bank of Liverpool suddenly failed, leaving the White Star Line owing £527,000 (approximately around £70 million worth today) which had to be paid back. The company was unable to do so, causing the original White Star Line to go bankrupt.
This was not to be the end of the White Star Line name as soon after Thomas Henry Ismay, the father of Joseph Bruce Ismay who would become one of Titanic's most remembered passengers, paid £1,000 to buy the name, flag and goodwill of the bankrupt White Star Line.
In 1869 the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Limited was formed, which traded using the name White Star Line, and soon orders were placed with Harland and Wolff shipbuilders, of Belfast to build six new steamships, known as the Oceanic Class of ships, intended to sail between Liverpool in the United Kingdom to New York City in the United States, calling along the way at Queenstown, Ireland. From Oceanic onwards, Harland and Wolff built every new ship White Star Line ordered to be constructed, almost all built on a cost-plus basis, meaning White Star paid the cost to build the ships and paid Harland and Wolff a further amount for its profit.
The first of the Oceanic class ships, SS Oceanic (1) entered service in 1871 and by the end of 1872 she had been joined by Atlantic, Baltic (1), Republic (1), Adriatic (1) and Celtic (1).
By the end of the 1870s, Belgic, Gaelic, Britannic, Germanic and the tender Traffic had joined the White Star fleet.
In the 1880s the following ships joined the fleet: Arabic, Coptic, Doric, Ionic, Belgic, Gaelic, Cufic, Runic, and most notably RMS Teutonic, completed in 1889, followed by her sister ship RMS Majestic (1), in 1890.
White Star Line was managed in and most of its ships homeport was in Liverpool. In 1896 construction begun on a new headquarters building for the White Star Line, near to the docks, where most of the line's ships called their home. Completed late in the following year, the building remained White Star's headquarters until the 1930s and, despite a major fire in the 1920s and being badly damaged during World War 2 bombing, the White Star headquarters building remains standing today as one of Liverpool's most notable buildings.
Beginning with RMS Majestic which began her White Star career in April 1890s, sailing from Liverpool to New York City, the White Star Line fleet expanded thought the 1890s to include: the cargo and livestock ships, Nomadic (1) in 1891, followed by Naronic and Bovic in 1892, Cevic in 1894 and Georgic in 1895. For passenger service Gothic was introduced on the United Kingdom to New Zealand route in 1893, followed by Delphic on the same route in 1897. Cymric entered service on the Liverpool to New York service in 1898.
White Star Line's largest and perhaps most notable passenger liner of the late 19th century was RMS Oceanic (2), launched and in service sailing between Liverpool and New York in 1899; alongside Oceanic, the last White Star ships ordered in the 19th century and then launched at Harland and Wolff within the reign of Queen Victoria were the five Jubilee Class ships, named in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen: Afric, Medic, Persic, which entered service in 1899, followed by Runic and Suevic in 1901.
At the turn of the century, White Star Line had a largely good safety record with the very notable exceptions of the sinking of the SS Atlantic in 1873 and the, to this day, unexplained disappearance of the cargo ship SS Naronic in 1893. This largely continued for a further decade, before of course, the sinking of Titanic.
Very early in the new century, an American financier named John Pierpont Morgan wished to create a shipping combine by joining together multiple shipping lines to be owned by one company, with the various lines working together rather than directly competing with each other. The White Star Line, which was by this time under the control of Joseph Bruce Ismay, was purchased in 1902 by the International Mercantile Marine Company, set up to control the combine, and Joseph Bruce Ismay was retained as the Chairman and Managing Director of the White Star Line and in 1904 was promoted to also be the International Mercantile Marine Company's President and Managing Director.
White Star Line began the 20th century with the introduction of the first of the large and comfortable passenger liners known as the Big Four: Celtic in 1901 followed by Cedric in 1903, Baltic in 1904 and Adriatic in 1907. Both Baltic and Adriatic were commanded on their maiden voyages and first few years by Edward John Smith who would go on to be Titanic's Captain. For the United Kingdom to New Zealand passenger and cargo service, the sister ships, Athentic and then Corinthic were introduced in 1902 followed by Ionic in 1903.
With White Star Line now being part of, and the most important company within, the International Mercantile Marine Company, some ships from the other lines in the combine were transferred to the White Star Line: Arabic, before completion at Harland and Wolff shipyard, transferred from the Atlantic Transport Line; Romanic, Cretic, Republic and Canopic transferred from the Dominion Line, also in 1903, and from the Leyland Line, Tropic was transferred in 1904. Laurentic and Megantic, which entered service on the United Kingdom to Canada route in 1909, were ordered for the Dominion Line but were transferred to White Star Line while being built.
Up until 1907 almost all of White Star Line's ships were based at the port of Liverpool, from then onwards, while White Star Line's headquarters remined in Liverpool, their ships remained officially registered in Liverpool and some remained based there, some of White Star's ships began sailing from Southampton instead, including their main service between the United Kingdom and the United States, taking advantage of Southampton's closer proximity to London and mainland Europe. The first ship to sail from Southampton was Adriatic on 5th June 1907, commanded by Edward John Smith.
In 1908, Harland and Wolff began the construction of RMS Olympic, a new ocean liner, which would be larger than any other yet in existence, soon to be followed by an even bigger sister ship named Titanic. It was planned that the ships would sail from Southampton to New York City, via Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland. Both ships were too big to dock at Cherbourg and Queenstown, and so, for Cherbourg, two passenger tenders had to be built to ferry the passengers out to the ships: Nomadic and Traffic. Passengers at Queenstown were served by the paddle steamers America and Ireland, which had been served as tenders for White Star Line at Queenstown since 1891. Today Nomadic survives as the last remaining former White Star ship on the surface and is now a museum ship located in Belfast.
On 15th April 1912, Titanic sank within 2 hours and 40 minutes after colliding with an iceberg while sailing across the Atlantic on her maiden voyage. This clearly was a terrible disaster for the company, but it was far from the end, and the White Star Line did continue. Lessons were quickly learnt about safety, and lifeboat space was provided for all aboard their ships.
Soon after the disaster, Olympic returned to Harland and Wolff to be modified to make her a safer ship. The third of the Olympic Class sister ships, Britannic, was still under construction when Titanic sank, and work was halted to allow the ship to be redesigned to try to prevent a similar fate.
Amongst Titanic's survivors was White Star Line's Managing Director, Joseph Bruce Ismay. As had already been planned before the sinking, he retired from the White Star Line and as the President of IMM on 30th June 1913, ending the management of the line by the Ismay family. He was succeeded as the head of White Star and IMM by a senior manager of the company, Harold Sanderson.
White Star's first new ship to enter service since the sinking of Titanic was SS Ceramic in 1913, which served the United Kingdon to Australia route.
On 4th August 1914, following on from Germany's invasion of Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany; the war, which would become known as the First World War caused major disruption to the normal maritime trade, and White Star Line's ships and their crew directly or indirectly served their country's war effort throughout. Some ships remained in service transporting passengers and cargo; others were used as troop transports, hospital ships and as armed merchant cruisers. Titanic's older sister ship Olympic had a successful war time career as troop transport, even sinking an enemy submarine; Titanic's younger sister Britannic was ultimately less successful, having been sunk after hitting a mine while serving as a hospital ship in November 1916, and sinking within just 55 minutes.
White Star's first war time casualty was the loss of the Oceanic on 8th September 1914 after she ran aground on rocks in Scotland in a navigational error while serving as an armed merchant cruiser. Arabic (2), in somewhat normal service between the United Kingdom and United States, was sruck and sunk by a torpedo fired by a German submarine in August 1915 and Cymric, carrying cargo from America to Britain was sunk by a torpedo fired by U-20, the same submarine which has sunk Cunard Lines's Lusitania in 1915, near Ireland. Georgic, also carrying cargo from America to Britain, was captured and then sunk in the North Atlantic by a German ship in December 1916. Again, by torpedoes, Afric was sunk in the English Channel in February 1917 and Delphic, transporting coal, was sunk in August 1917. Laurentic, in service as an armed merchant cruiser had sunk after hitting a mine near Ireland in January 1917, with millions of pounds worth of gold bars aboard, which were later mostly recovered from the wreck by the Royal Navy within a few years of the sinking.
In addition to Britannic which had entered service a hospital ship in 1915, other war time additions to the White Star fleet were: Belgic, originally intended as a passenger ship for the Red Star Line (owned by IMM), due to the war, completed as a cargo ship for the White Star Line and entered service in 1917, and was joined by Vedic in 1918, which entered service as a troopship.
After the war and its immediate aftermath, the White Star Line successfully settled into the new post-war era. As compensation for the loss of British ships during the war, Germany had to hand over some of its ships to the United Kingdom. Two of the German ships were acquired by White Star Line: Columbus, which became Homeric and entered White Star service in 1922 and Bismarck, which had been launched in 1914 then left uncompleted due to the war, was completed and entered service as Majestic also in 1922. Homeric and Majestic served alongside Olympic on the Southampton to New York service for many years, effectively replacing Titanic and Britannic. Majestic was the largest ocean liner afloat for many years and the largest ship White Star Line ever owned.
Initially on the United Kingdom to United States service, Arabic had entered service in 1921.
In late 1926 the International Mercantile Marine Company struck a deal with British businessman and politician Owen Cosby Philipps, Baron Kylsant to buy the White Star Line through the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, of which Lord Kylsant was the chairman.
Under the new ownership of the line, Albertic and Calgaric were transferred from Royal Mail Steam Packet Company to White Star Line in 1927 for use on the service to Canada. Laurentic, the last ship ordered for White Star as part of the IMM group, entered service late in 1927.By 1930 it was apparent that Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was in terrible financial trouble, and it became known that it had not made a profit since 1925 and ended up in liquidation. With the takeover by its new owner and also the effect of The Great Depression beginning in 1929, the White Star Line found itself in great difficulties, despite this it did continue trading, and even entered into service two new ships, although small by the standards of some of their other ships, they are notable for being the most modern like ships built for them: Britannic completed and in service in 1930 and Georgic completed and in service in 1932. Britannic and Georgic turned out to be the last ever ships built for the White Star Line.
In 1933 the British government agreed to step in and provide financial assistance to the White Star Line and its longtime rival the Cunard Line on the condition that the two merged together. On 10th May 1934, White Star Line officially merged with Cunard Line to form Cunard White Star Line. The White Star Line's services to Australia and New Zealand were not included and their ships and assets of that route were sold off. Cunard owned 62% of the new company, while White Star owned 38%.
The merger of Cunard and White Star allowed for the completion of Cunard's RMS Queen Mary, the largest ship then built and one of the most notable ships of the 20th century, which entered service for Cunard White Star in 1936.
After the merger, although White Star ships remained in White Star livery and flew the White Star flag above Cunard's, most of White Star Line's remaining ships started to disappear at an alarming rate: Olympic and Homeric left service in 1935 and Majestic in 1936. After 1936 only Britannic, Georgic and Laurentic remained, although Laurentic was mostly laid up from 1935 until the outbreak of war and was not actually in service.
During the Second World War Britannic and Georgic served as troopships, while Laurentic was used as an armed merchant cruiser. Britannic survived but Laurentic was sunk by a torpedo, and Georgic was extremely badly damaged after being bombed by enemy aircraft; though much changed, she was saved and eventually returned to service.
In 1947 Cunard purchased the White Star shares in Cunard White Star, and at the very end of 1949 the name White Star was removed from Cunard White Star. Britannic and Georgic remained in White Star livery throughout the reminder of their careers with Cunard, Georgic until late 1955 and Britannic until late 1960.
Cunard Line remains in business today and currently operates four cruise ships: Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Anne.
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White Star History was last updated on 14th January 2026; priority is currently being given to this website, many of the older pages are in the process of being updated or rewritten, while new pages are being researched and are on their way.
Latest pages added to White Star History: White Star Line's Headquarters, Liverpool, What happened to the White Star Line after the Titanic disaster?, Delphic (I), Travel diary written aboard Arabic (II) in 1907.
The story of Titanic can be found within our sister website, TitanicPages.com.