Samuel Cunard

English: , Samuel Cunard was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 21, 1787. He was the eldest son of Abraham and Margaret Cunard, United Empire Loyalists who emigrated from Philadelphia (Germantown) to Nova Scotia in 1783. His marriage to Susan Duffus produced nine children, all born in Halifax. For more than half a century, the S. Cunard and Company wharves on the Halifax waterfront were the centre of a vast shipping empire engaged in the West Indies trade. Samuel Cunard became the foremost entrepreneur in Halifax and one of the largest owners of sailing vessels in the Maritime Provinces., Samuel Cunard was a visionary who foresaw steam power replacing sail on the North Atlantic. He became the pioneer of ocean steam navigation when the paddle steamer Britannia, first flagship of the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company later known as the Cunard Line, arrived in Halifax on its maiden voyage from Liverpool, England on July 17, 1840. The advent of steam on the North Atlantic forever altered commerce and communication between the Old and New Worlds., Samuel Cunard, the "Steam Lion”, Nova Scotian founder of the Cunard Line, was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1859. He died in London, England on April 28, 1865., RMS Britannia, first flagship of the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (Cunard Line) and her three sister ships; Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia commenced the first regularly scheduled transatlantic delivery of the mails by steam power in 1840. ,