Today, our cruise on the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton to New York City, actually, Brooklyn.  A few things about Cunard. Has been sailing for 184 years.   Founded by Sir Samuel  Cunard  to provide transatlantic service in 1840 with the Britannia He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1787.  His father fled the American Revolution because he was a Loyalist to the British Crown. By 1900, Cunard advertised their ships as floating palaces, and shared design features similar to The Ritz. Lusitania and Mauretania had revolutionary steam engines, where the first ship to shore by Marconi wireless transmission was made on them. The Lusitania was sunk by a German-U-boat killing 1195 people in 1915, leading to the U.S. joining World War I. When the Titanic sank in 1912, Cunard's Carpathia arrived to rescue the survivors. In the late 20's/30's, Cunard got loan guarantees from the British government, merged with its rival White Star Line and launched the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.