The White Star Line was one of the most famous British companies, which operated between 1870 and 1934. Though an early White Star Line had existed before, their most famous phase was after 1870, with Thomas Ismay. It first started with the Ocean Liner R.M.S. Oceanic, of which follow 5 more of the same class, which were innovated for their time. Though, in 1873, the company lost the R.M.S. Atlantic in Nova Scotia, Canada.

 

White Star built their liners in pairs, which after the Oceanic Class it was followed by the Britannic Class of 1874 and the Teutonic Class in 1889, of which they got the famous Blue Riband. But after the Mysterious Loss of the S.S. Naronic in 1893 and seeing that competing for the Blue Riband costs more than what is worth, they put forward their famous plan: Luxury over Speed. They started with this in the R.M.S. Cymric (1897), which was to be an enlarge of S.S. Georgic of 1895, but that plan flourish with the second of R.M.S. Oceanic of 1899, which was the last built by Thomas Ismay before his death that year.

 

J. Bruce Ismay took his father place and begun growing the company with the Big Four when it was included in the IMM. Of that, plus the launch of the R.M.S. Lusitania and R.M.S. Mauretania of Cunard, they started planning the Olympic Class. Before that, in 1909, one of their ships, the R.M.S. Republic, sunk after a collision with the Italian S.S. Florida. In 1911, the R.M.S. Olympic made her maiden voyage, but in her 6th voyage, she collided with H.M.S. Hawke, which delayed the maiden voyage of her sistership. R.M.S. Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage on April 10th, 1912, but 5 days later, on April 15th, she sunk and more than 1,500 people died. Ismay ordered that all IMM should carry more lifeboats (which all the business followed it), but after the Titanic Inquiry, Ismay resigned of chairman of the White Star Line, now a broken man.

 

R.M.S. Britannic, the final of the Olympic Class, was launch in 1914, but months later, the First Great War begun, of which White Star lost almost immediately the second Oceanic. Britannic was put into service but tragically, after 11 months in service, she sunk in November 1916 in Greece, after hitting a mine. Olympic survived the war and got the nickname “The Old Reliable”, after hitting and sinking a submarine.

 

After the war, White Star got the German vessels Bismark and Columbus as war reparations, of which they became the R.M.S. Majestic of 1922 and the R.M.S. Homeric of 1922 as well. Royal Mail Line bought the White Star in 1927, and his leader, Lord Kylsant, wanted to build a new liner, the R.M.M.V. Oceanic. But after his arrest in 1931, White Star only built the smaller M.V. Britannic of 1929 and the M.V. Georgic of 1930, the last ever built by White Star. In 1934, the government forced both White Star and Cunard to merge, of which resulted in Cunard-White Star. Olympic was sent for scrap in 1936 and in 1949, Cunard bought the rest of White Star and it became only Cunard Line in 1950. M.V. Britannic was the last White Star Liner to live, only being retired in 1960, of which was the last voyage of White Star Line.