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Oh hear! Oh hear!

Across the sullen tide,

Across the echoing dome horizon-wide,

What pulse of fear

Beats with tremendous boom?

What call of instant doom,

With thunder-stroke of terror and of pride,

With urgency that may not be denied,

Reverberates upon the heart’s own drum

Come! ... Come! ... for thou must come!

Henry Newbolt.

In order to obtain the truest conception of what the Cunard Company stood for in 1914, it will be well not only to consider very briefly its first origin and steady growth, but to refresh our memories by recalling one or two of the tidemarks of ocean-going navigation. Thus it was in 1802, in the year, that is to say, following Nelson’s great victory at Copenhagen, in the year of the Peace of Amiens, and three years before the Battle of Trafalgar, that the first successful, practical steamer was launched. This was the Charlotte Dundas, built by William Symington on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and fitted with an engine constructed by Watt, which drove a stern wheel. This vessel proved to be an inspiration to Robert Fulton, who in 1807 built the Clermont at New York, a wooden steamer 133 feet long, engined by Bolton and Watt. In the autumn of that year, this vessel made a trip from New York to Albany, a distance of 130 miles in 32 hours, returning in 30 hours, and thenceforward maintained the first continuous long distance service performed by any steam vessel. Five years later Bell’s famous steamer, the Comet, began the earliest, regular steamer passenger service in Europe.