Where in the world ?

[exlondoner]

Somewhere else that has probably been obliterated is an office in Syria. Thousands emigrated from there pre-WW1, including a couple who died on the Titanic. You would have thought the shipping companies must have had some sort of presence there to shepherd them across Europe to the Atlantic ports. 

[sfred]

14 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Somewhere else that has probably been obliterated is an office in Syria. Thousands emigrated from there pre-WW1, including a couple who died on the Titanic. You would have thought the shipping companies must have had some sort of presence there to shepherd them across Europe to the Atlantic ports. 

 

Cunard apparently had a relationship with Thomas Cook.  The passenger program guides contained advertisements for the travel company, and some guidance to the effect of: if you can't get to a Cunard office, try going to a Thomas Cook office.  Perhaps that was how Cunard handled far away destinations, with agents like Thomas Cook or others handling bookings, tickets, payments, etc.

[sfred]

Ah ha!  Finally found something in Italy.  Two offices of International Mercantile Marine (IMM), the corporate parent of White Star.  A WSL brochure said that passengers should make any inquiries while in Italy to IMM.  They list offices in Naples and Genoa.

 

IMM, Via Alla Nunziatta 18, Genoa

IMM, Piazza della Borsa 21, Naples

 

The Genoa building looks like it still exists.  Currently named for Flotta Lauro, operator of the Achille Lauro ship which the PLO hijacked back in October 1985.

 

 

 

[sfred]

Here is today's Cunard Building challenge status.  I suspect we may be drawing near the end.  Additional contributions welcome, but meantime thanks everyone for indulging the intersections of my enthusiasm for both historical architecture and shipping.

 

Today's additions in italics...

 

• Cunard Building, Water Street Liverpool
• Albion House, White Star Line, 30 James Street Liverpool
• Cunard Building, 25 Broadway, New York
• White Star Line, 11 Broadway, New York
• International Mercantile Marine (IMM), 1 Broadway, New York
• Cunard office, 555 Fifth Avenue, New York
• Cunard Pier 90 / Pier 54, New York
• 126 State Street, Boston
• Cunard Centre, Halifax (an honourable mention, as it is not a real Cunard building, but it does have the Cunard name prominently featured)
• Cunard, 15 Regent Street, London
• Cunard, Leadenhall Street, London
• Oceanic House, 1 Cockspur Street, London
• Cunard, 30a Pall Mall, London
• Cunard 20 West Beach, Cobh
• White Star Line 21 Casement Square, Cobh
• 465 Rue Saint-Jean, Montreal Quebec
• Carnival (and Cunard) headquarters, 100 Harbour Parade, Southampton
• Cunard Maritime House, Canute Road, Southampton
• Canute Chambers, White Star Line, Canute Road, Southampton
• South Western House, Canute Road and Terminus Terrace, Southampton
• Anchor Line building, 12 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow
• White Star Line, Skeppsbreon 10, Stockholm
• White Star Line, 9 Rue Scribe, Paris
• Cunard, 2 Rue Scribe, Paris
• IMM, Via Alla Nunziatta 18, Genoa
• IMM, Piazza della Borsa 21, Naples

 

[exlondoner]

One thing that emerges from the greatly impressive list you have compiled is how attractive so many of the buildings were. I suspect in places with lots of emigrants, Cunard did have offices, distinct from Tommy Cook, but they were simply the size of ordinary shops, and no longer identifiable. 

[bluemarble]

Lets try another alphabetical order question. What port names appear first in alphabetical order in the lists of ports visited by each of the three current Cunard ships? Lets assume we are talking about conventional port name spellings as they appear on Cunard itineraries using the standard English alphabet so we don't have to deal with deciding where characters such as Å occur in alphabetical order.

 

I found it interesting that the itineraries I have show a different first port name for each of the three ships. If you can name those three ports that's good enough. Bonus points if you can also pair the ship name with each port name.

 

I'll let this percolate until tomorrow before commenting on any answers to let anyone who is interested contribute answers even if they repeat someone else's.

Edited December 18, 2020 by bluemarble

[sfred]

10 hours ago, exlondoner said:

One thing that emerges from the greatly impressive list you have compiled is how attractive so many of the buildings were. I suspect in places with lots of emigrants, Cunard did have offices, distinct from Tommy Cook, but they were simply the size of ordinary shops, and no longer identifiable. 

 

Thanks @exlondoner.  I love historical buildings and places that have stories to tell.

 

Another thought I had while reading everyone's contributions and doing research was how comparatively easy it is these days for an amateur like me on the opposite side of the planet to gather facts and photographs.  While there are some things to lament about today's connected world, there are many things to appreciate.

[exlondoner]

12 minutes ago, sfred said:

 

Thanks @exlondoner.  I love historical buildings and places that have stories to tell.

 

Another thought I had while reading everyone's contributions and doing research was how comparatively easy it is these days for an amateur like me on the opposite side of the planet to gather facts and photographs.  While there are some things to lament about today's connected world, there are many things to appreciate.

 

One last thought: as Cunard actually had a govt. contract for transporting immigrants from Austria - Hungary, isn't it likely that at one time they had an impresssive building in either Vienna or Budapest. I'm sure you can track something down.😀😀

[exlondoner]

28 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

Lets try another alphabetical order question. What port names appear first in alphabetical order in the lists of ports visited by each of the three current Cunard ships? Lets assume we are talking about conventional port name spellings as they appear on Cunard itineraries using the standard English alphabet so we don't have to deal with deciding where characters such as Å occur in alphabetical order.

 

I found it interesting that the itineraries I have show a different first port name for each of the three ships. If you can name those three ports that's good enough. Bonus points if you can also pair the ship name with each port name.

 

I'll let this percolate until tomorrow before commenting on any answers to let anyone who is interested contribute answers even if they repeat someone else's.

 

The earliest in the alphabet I have been to was Ajaccio on QE, but there is an Australian port I should have thought they had all been to.

[Yaldi]

I have seen Aarhus on Cunard itineraries. I’ll guess Queen Victoria as l don’t follow her itineraries closely, l am almost certain Queen Mary 2 hasn't been there. 

[sfred]

8 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

The earliest in the alphabet I have been to was Ajaccio on QE, but there is an Australian port I should have thought they had all been to.

 

Yes, QM2 QE and QV have all been to Adelaide.  I've been fortunate to be on all three ships there.  QM2 and QV were port calls.  QE was a mini break last year for a weekend just before Christmas, from Adelaide to Melbourne. 

[sfred]

8 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

One last thought: as Cunard actually had a govt. contract for transporting immigrants from Austria - Hungary, isn't it likely that at one time they had an impresssive building in either Vienna or Budapest. I'm sure you can track something down.😀😀

 

That's a good idea, @exlondoner.  I'll have a look.

[exlondoner]

6 hours ago, sfred said:

 

Yes, QM2 QE and QV have all been to Adelaide.  I've been fortunate to be on all three ships there.  QM2 and QV were port calls.  QE was a mini break last year for a weekend just before Christmas, from Adelaide to Melbourne. 

 

What about Abu Dhabi, though the actual port is probably called something else?

[bluemarble]

Here's my feedback about the answers so far to my question asking for the port names that appear first in alphabetical order for ports that have been visited by each of the three current Cunard ships.

 

Adelaide is a good guess. It appears near the top of each ship's list. But Adelaide doesn't happen to make it all the way to first place for any of the three ships. The closest it gets is second place for QV.

 

@Yaldi has correctly identified Aarhus which overall is the first Cunard port name alphabetically. QM2 is the ship I have listed as visiting that port. I show QM2 calling at Aarhus on August 12, 2011. QV was a good supposition since she is scheduled to be at Aarhus in July 2021 but she hasn't called there yet from what I am seeing. QE hasn't called at Aarhus either.

 

@exlondoner has correctly identified Abu Dhabi as another one of the answers. It's in second place overall and is the first port name alphabetically that has been visited by QE. QE has called at Abu Dhabi twice, once in April 2014 and once in April 2015. QM2 has also called at Abu Dhabi a few times but QV has not.

 

Now we know the first port name alphabetically for QM2 starts with 'Aa' (Aarhus) and the first port name alphabetically for QE starts with 'Ab' (Abu Dhabi). As it happens, the first port name alphabetically for QV, which we haven't identified yet, starts with 'Ac'.

[North West Newbie]

18 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

Here's my feedback about the answers so far to my question asking for the port names that appear first in alphabetical order for ports that have been visited by each of the three current Cunard ships.

 

Adelaide is a good guess. It appears near the top of each ship's list. But Adelaide doesn't happen to make it all the way to first place for any of the three ships. The closest it gets is second place for QV.

 

@Yaldi has correctly identified Aarhus which overall is the first Cunard port name alphabetically. QM2 is the ship I have listed as visiting that port. I show QM2 calling at Aarhus on August 12, 2011. QV was a good supposition since she is scheduled to be at Aarhus in July 2021 but she hasn't called there yet from what I am seeing. QE hasn't called at Aarhus either.

 

@exlondoner has correctly identified Abu Dhabi as another one of the answers. It's in second place overall and is the first port name alphabetically that has been visited by QE. QE has called at Abu Dhabi twice, once in April 2014 and once in April 2015. QM2 has also called at Abu Dhabi a few times but QV has not.

 

Now we know the first port name alphabetically for QM2 starts with 'Aa' (Aarhus) and the first port name alphabetically for QE starts with 'Ab' (Abu Dhabi). As it happens, the first port name alphabetically for QV, which we haven't identified yet, starts with 'Ac'.

 

Could that be Acapulco?

[bluemarble]

4 minutes ago, North West Newbie said:

Could that be Acapulco?

 

Yes, Acapulco completes the list as the first port alphabetically for QV. Here are my lists of the first five ports alphabetically for each ship.

 

QM2

1. Aarhus

2. Abu Dhabi

3. Acapulco

4. Adelaide

5. Airlie Beach

 

QE

1. Abu Dhabi

2. Acapulco

3. Adelaide

4. Ajaccio

5. Akaroa

 

QV

1. Acapulco

2. Adelaide

3. Agadir

4. Airlie Beach

5. Ajaccio

 

[exlondoner]

All very interesting. Thank you.

[sfred]

It looks like Acapulco is the top alphabet port where all three ships have been, followed by Adelaide.

[sfred]

23 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

One last thought: as Cunard actually had a govt. contract for transporting immigrants from Austria - Hungary, isn't it likely that at one time they had an impresssive building in either Vienna or Budapest. I'm sure you can track something down.😀😀

 

I found a photograph of a Cunard/WSL office that carries the caption of Vienna.  Unfortunately the article did not list the address, and I've been unable to locate the building in the photo.  The street number is #4, but I can't see any further clue.  The photo must date between 1934, when Cunard and WSL merged, and 1949 when the merged line became just Cunard again.

 

Does anyone know where this office might be (or have been) in Vienna?

 

[bluemarble]

Now that we're getting close to Christmas, how about a Cunard port name word game with a Christmas theme? What I've come up with will take a few days depending on how many participants we get.

 

I'll list some words either directly or marginally related to Christmas, the Christmas season and its celebrations. Pick one of those words and tell me all the ports visited by the current Cunard fleet which contain that word embedded somewhere within the complete port names.

 

The word must appear as consecutive characters in the port name in the same order as the word itself. Upper/lower case distinction does not matter.

 

You can use the complete port name, including the name of the port itself, the city/town/village at the port, the major city served by the port, the port's island/state/province/county and its country.

 

Let's not include any cruise-by calls, just actual port calls where passengers may disembark, either by tender or at the dock.

 

I will include a number in parentheses/brackets after each word indicating how many Cunard ports I've found that contain that word. I'll expect at least that many port names in your answer. Of course if you come up with more than the number of ports I'm expecting, that's all the better.

 

For example, thinking of decorations that are 'lit' up for Christmas, I might have offered this word:

Lit (2)

 

Your answer would be these two ports:

Split, Croatia

Klaipeda, Lithuania

 

I've added emphasis to the answer above to illustrate where the word occurs within the port names, but you don't have to do that in your answers.

 

OK after all that, here at last is my list of 20 Christmas-themed words to work with (and the number of ports I've found containing each word). Some are trivial, others may take a bit more work.

 

Elf (1)

Fun (1)

Pie (1)

Cook (1)

Dine (1)

Drum (1)

Sale (1)

Altar (1)

Angel (1)

Carol (1)

Green (1)

Christ (1)

Eve (2)
Tag (2)

Mass (2)

Sing (2)

Hen (3)

Aria (3)

Rang (3)

Santa (4)

 

Pick one of these words per day and tell me all the Cunard ports for the current fleet that contain that word somewhere within their complete port names.

[sfred]

This will be a good game, suited to the season.

 

Limassol, Cyprus

Boston, Massachusetts

[exlondoner]

Greenock for Glasgow.

[Host Hattie]

Singapore & Helsingor, Denmark

[Underwatr]

Funchal, Madiera.

[sfred]

Christchurch New Zealand