Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Sir Samuel Cunard

Cunard, Sir Samuel, Bart. (17871865), shipowner, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on November 21, the son of Abraham Cunard. He became a successful merchant of Halifax, was one of the founders of the Halifax Banking Company in 1825, and in 1831 was appointed a member of the Council of Twelve in Nova Scotia. In 1838 he founded the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, from which originated the Cunard line of steamships; and he was thus the pioneer of regular trans-Atlantic steam navigation. During the latter part of his life he lived in England ; and there he died on April 28, 1865. In 1859 he was created a baronet of the United Kingdom for the services rendered by the Cunard line during the Crimean war. See A. M. Payne, Life of Sir Samuel Cunard (Nova Scotia Hist. Soc. Coll., 1918), A. MacMechan, Samuel Cunard (pamphlet, Toronto, 1929), and L. Cox, A pioneer of ocean navigation (Can. Geographical journal, 1935).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 157.