Beginning of Atlantic Ferry 57 



fashion: " How did these big steamship 

 companies get going? Who was the first 

 man who thought about these big fleets ? ' 

 That is a question I shall try to answer as 

 we come to the origin of our most famous 

 lines of steamships. In most cases we 

 shall find quite a wonderful romance 

 surrounding the beginnings of fleets whose 

 names are now world- wide, and if we are 

 able to gather a lesson from these begin- 

 nings, it is certainly one of true British 

 pluck, for set-backs were numerous. 



As far back as 1830 Samuel Cunard 

 planned a steamship line between England 

 and America. Cunard was the agent of 

 the Honourable East India Company at 

 Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had followed 

 closely the experiments which had been 

 made in steamers, and he was fully con- 

 vinced that the regular crossing of the 

 Atlantic by a fleet of steamers was bound 

 to come. He thought and believed in 

 such a thing when nine men out of ten 

 were frankly incredulous. 



