‘Diligent in business, serving the Lord’: John Burns, evangelicalism and Cunard's culture of speed, 1878–1901

Abstract

Between 1878 and 1901, the Cunard Steamship Company secured a reputation for running high-speed vessels across the Atlantic. This article shows how the evangelical beliefs of the company's chairman, John Burns (the first Lord Inverclyde), shaped this character. Through Burns's friendship with the evangelical Presbyterian minister Norman Macleod, the relationship between theological values and operational practice is explored. Burns and Macleod shared strong values of the sanctity of time. To avoid wasting time, Burns was drawn to run ships of increasing speeds. In this sense, making Cunard a company renowned for high speed became a religious duty. In particular, the quest for speed and the saving of time led Burns to the shipbuilder William Pearce, who specialised in constructing fast vessels. By adopting a prosopographical and cultural approach, the article emphasises the importance of human agents, networks and choice in history. In order to highlight how such agents shape the events and space around them, Burns's Cunard is contrasted with Thomas Ismay's White Star Line, whose principal characteristic of premium luxury and exceptional comfort offered, by the end of the century, a quite different transatlantic experience for first-class passengers.