Escape on the High Seas |
| Print | |
| Written by Bonita Slunder |
| Wednesday, 26 August 2009 00:00 |
|
Escape is one of those funny little words that occupies a grammatical place reserved for things that are both nouns and verbs. Escape can refer to a good situation -- "when February rears its nasty head, many of us escape to sunnier skies" -- or bad -- "He could not escape the stifling oppression of the concentration camp." Either way, escape reflects how the human animal has learned to get free or to remain untouched or unaffected by something unwanted[1]. Escape has many faces -- it can offer hope or horror, happiness or hell, it is not gender or culturally biased, and it is often used to describe how one eludes the memory (or pain) from the past. It is, I think, a word worthy of reflection. Look to the ocean (or should I say on the ocean) where we find Sir Samuel Cunard for a quirky example of the duplicity of escape. Cunard was the Luxury Ocean Liner baron known for many things, including an impeccable safety record and a long history of transatlantic escapes, especially for the rich and famous, but also for the once-in-a-lifetime traveller looking for adventure and luxury like no other.
Samuel's mother, Margaret, found her own way to escape during this time and it wasn't on a ship -- it was in a bottle of booze. She was said to be an insatiable alcoholic and this had a profound affect on her eldest son. Boileau writes, "Samuel's rigid self-discipline over his emotions, his reliance on family for mutual support, can all be traced back to his childhood experience of growing up with an alcoholic parent." He was said to be "a quiet, inward-looking adult," a man who escaped the dysfunction of his mother by turning his attentions elsewhere -- to the sea, and the many ships that found their way into Halifax Harbour during that era of oceanic travel and trade. In 1839, Samuel Cunard became the first steamship operator to have a transatlantic mail contract for the Royal Mail Service (RMS), which back in that era would have been like having an exclusive ISP contract in cottage country today. Providing news from home and having reliable mail service (electronic or otherwise) is a cornerstone of trade and development and it helps create permanence. By the time Samuel died in 1865, he had witnessed the emergence of steamships, developed trade links with China, and helped establish the Quebec and Halifax Steam Navigation Company. The Cunard Line became a famous and much envied enterprise, and by the late 1870s competitors were ruthlessly bearing down on the transatlantic monopoly.
By the time the Second World War broke out, three of the largest ocean liners in the world, the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mary -- both Cunard ships, and the Normandie, a French vessel, were commandeered by the military and used as troopships (sadly, the Normandie was destroyed by fire during the refit). The "Queens," as they were called, became the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war, often carrying as many as 15,000 men in a single voyage, and often travelling out of convoy and without escort. They earned the nickname "The Grey Ghosts" because the wartime grey camouflage and their high speed meant that it was virtually impossible for U-Boats to catch them. Hence, they successfully escaped detection and destruction. Apparently, during the war, the Queen Mary also carried British Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for meetings with fellow Allied force officials. Travelling under the pseudonym "Colonel Warden," Churchill insisted that the lifeboat assigned to him was fitted with a .303 machine gun so that he could "escape capture at all costs." After the war, many famous faces found the Queen Mary to be a haven of uncompromising luxury and among the singers and actors to travel on her, Bing Crosby was a regular. He even made friends with the Ocean Pictures' photographers, often escaping to their darkroom for a chat. Marlene Dietrich also found ways to escape on the Queen Mary. She was a regular Cunard passenger, famous for never being seen at breakfast and rarely for lunch, but always noticed for her dramatic entrances at dinner. Apparently she followed the advice of her friend, playwright Sir Noël Coward, who said, 'Always be seen, darling, always be seen.' Today some lament the fate that was bestowed upon the Queen Mary as she ended up docked permanently in Long Beach, California, in 1967, as a theme hotel/museum that never seemed to catch on. Although the Cunard line still ferries people transatlantic, the company that Sir Samuel so proudly created now belongs to Carnival Corporation & PLC. Headquartered in Miami, Florida and London, England, Carnival operates a fleet of 90 ships, with another 15 ships scheduled for delivery between now and 2012. With approximately 173,200 guests and 65,000 shipboard employees, there are more than 225,000 people sailing aboard the Carnival fleet at any given time.
Go figure. Some things, like coincidence, you just can't escape. [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/escape
Bookmark
Email this
Comments (1)
Seeing through connection ...
I stumbled across this article this afternoon and I'm glad I did. It was a lovely reverie on ships and how they have created 'escapes' for people. The beauty of the article is that I felt I was 'there,' making those voyages; the pictures were very helpful as well. |
In John Boileau's illustrated biography Samuel Cunard: Nova Scotia's Master of the North Atlantic, we learn how the Cunard family escaped not only religious persecution in Europe during the 1600s but also, centuries later, the political upheaval of the American Revolution. During the last half of the 18th century, Abraham Cunard, a timber merchant and master craftsman, retreated to the Maritimes and built a new life for himself -- coincidentally in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he started a family. In November 1787, Abraham became the father of Samuel and Samuel went on to build The Cunard Line -- an enterprise that is credited for having the most famous luxury ocean liners in the world.¨TM
The Cunard line was long a major force in the development of international travel, and during the Crimean War, Cunard vessels were used in support of Britain -- a deed that earned Samuel a knighthood. By 1934, Cunard was still afloat (no pun intended), but only barely. The British government offered Cunard a loan of £3 million pounds to complete one ship and an additional £5 million pounds to build a second if Cunard merged with White Star, of Titanic fame, to avoid further economic crisis. You could say it's similar to the auto companies today and their government bail-out under the Stimulus Package. Like the 'Big 3' American automakers, the shipbuilders were considered too big to fail and the government paid to make them one single entity. Although the two companies were fierce competitors, the merger was accomplished by forming a new company, Cunard White Star, Limited.
I was one of those escapees in April of this year as I boarded the Queen Mary II in New York City for a 6-day transatlantic crossing. Although I will freely admit that I am not really the cruising type, this trip was an escape for myself and my husband that not only had nostalgic significance but was syncopated by a number of quirky coincidences. For example, my birthday and the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (97 years ago) is on the same day and at the same time: 2:02 a.m. April 15th -- though the events were 48 years apart. On April 15th of this year, we were in the same area of the ocean where the Titanic sank, and, on that night, at the most chic Formal Captain's Ball, I wore a vintage dress that was originally bought in 1960 and worn on the original Queen Mary for a transatlantic cruise from New York to Southampton on, you guessed it, April 15.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
