Embarkation Arrangements

Paris: The Cunard Steam-Ship Company Limited, 1959. Unknown printing. Single sheet, printed on both sides. Good. Format is approximately 10.5 inches by 8.5 inches. The sheet is folded at the center, resulting in four panels or pages. Sheet has some wear and soiling. The text is in English. All passengers were specially requested to call with their sailing documents at the Cunard Line Office, 6, Rue Scribe, Paris, before departure. Seats in the special trains were reserved only by the Cunard Line and the sear reservation card were available at the Paris office where railway tickets Paris/Cherbourg-Maritime or Le Havre-Maritime could be purchased. There is general information regarding registering with the police, payment of passage money, passports and visas, French Exit Permits, Vaccination against smallpox, Currency Regulations, Baggage, French Railroads - Hand baggage, Heavy Baggage sent in advance, Definition of Baggage, Baggage Insurance, and Pet Animals, Birds, etc. Cunard Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, has a long and illustrious history and is arguably one of the most venerable cruise line brands in the world, with a lineage stretching back to 1840 -- making it the second oldest cruise line (after P&O Cruises) and operating some of the most famous ships ever to set sail, including the Lusitania, Queen Mary and QE2. The line was founded in 1840 by Samuel Cunard, a businessman from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He applied for and received a contract from the British government to carry the Royal Mail from Britain to North America on a fleet of steamships that would maintain a weekly service. The first route was from Liverpool to Boston via Halifax, and the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was born. Soon after, the company changed its name to Cunard Steamships Ltd. In 1879 the privately held British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was reorganized as a public stock corporation, the Cunard Steamship Company, Ltd., and immediately set about commissioning a fleet to take on its rivals. Among the ships added over the next few years were Servia, which launched in 1881 and was the first passenger liner with electric lighting; and Blue Riband winners, Campania and Luciana, (both launched in 1893), which sailed at 21.8 knots each. Throughout the 19th century, Cunard Line set the standard for larger, faster and more luxurious ships. Two new liners, Mauretania and Lusitania, were one-third larger than any existing ship and powered by turbine steam engines, a new technology. Mauretania was the slightly faster sister and quickly took the North Atlantic speed record (and held it for a record 22 years). It had a long, profitable career. Cunard's express liners carried three classes of passenger: first, second and steerage. First class was opulent, with public rooms imitative of the decor of country houses and hotels. Second class was comfortable and cheaper. Steerage was for immigrants. In the late 1920s Cunard lay down plans for a pair of liners that would be capable of maintaining the weekly service between Southampton and New York. Construction was delayed by the Great Depression, but the British government issued loan guarantees on the condition that Cunard merge with its rival, White Star Line, which took place in 1934. Cunard-White Star Line launched Queen Mary in 1935 and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. After the war, Cunard resumed transatlantic service with the Queens and a large fleet of smaller ships. In 1947, the line bought the rest of the remaining White Star stock and dropped the name, but retains to this day its "White Star Service" onboard. This was the Golden Age of transatlantic travel. Mauretania was retired in 1965, Queen Mary and Caronia in 1967, and Queen Elizabeth in 1968. Queen Mary was sold to the City of Long Beach, California, to become a hotel and conference center. It remains there to this day, allegedly haunted, having been a shoreside attraction longer than it sailed the seas.