The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as just White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company. Founded in 1845, the line operated a fleet of clipper ships that sailed between Britain and Australia. Today it is most famous for their innovative vessel Oceanic of 1870, and the Olympic class ocean liners, including the ill-fated RMS Titanic.

In 1934, White Star merged with its chief rival, Cunard Line, which operated as Cunard-White Star Line until 1950. Cunard Line then operated as a separate entity until 2005 and is now part of Carnival Corporation & plc. As a lasting reminder of the White Star Line, modern Cunard ships use the term White Star Service to describe the level of customer care expected of the company.

History

Early history

The first company bearing the name White Star Line was founded in Liverpool, England, by John Pilkington and Henry Wilson in 1845. It focused on the UK–Australia trade, which increased following the discovery of gold in Australia. The fleet initially consisted of the chartered sailing ships RMS Tayleur, Blue Jacket, White Star, Red Jacket, Ellen, Ben Nevis, Emma, Mermaid and Iowa. Tayleur, the largest ship of its day, wrecked on its maiden voyage to Australia at Lambay Island, near Ireland, a disaster that haunted the company for years.

White Star (and similar) may refer to:

White Star is a brand of white cider produced under contract for supermarkets and off licences in Somerset, England by the Gaymer Cider Company. It is a cider with an alcohol content of 7.5%.

Its main competition is from other low cost, white ciders such as Diamond White and Frosty Jacks.

It is available in 500 ml cans, as well as 1 and 2 litre bottles and is traditionally served over ice. In some off licenses it can be purchased for £0.69 per can (as of September 2010), a rate of only 18.4 pence per UK unit of alcohol.

It has also been made popular in various Misery Bear videos online.

No one seems to know when White Star cider was first sold to the UK public. Even the brewery who now own the brand name, are unsure of the date of origin of White Star.

See also

References

The White Star is a fictional starship in the science fiction television series Babylon 5.

First appearing in the season three episode, Matters of Honor, the computer generated 3D model was designed and built by the Emmy Award winning co-founder of Foundation Imaging, Ron Thornton. As with a number of other ships he designed for the television show, Thornton took inspiration from nature when creating the White Star, explaining that “The animal I based it on was the pelican. I am still amazed to this day as to what masters of the air these seemingly clumsy birds are. Beautiful fliers.”

Originally intended by Thornton to be a small and cramped vessel much like the Millennium Falcon, with the small bridge being the only habitable area, when he was asked to create “something that was a Minbari ship only more predatory and with Vorlon influences”. He quickly realised it would have to be a larger vessel after seeing the original sets that were designed for it.

The Science Fiction Poetry Association was established in 1978 by Suzette Haden Elgin to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. The organization publishes the journal Star*Line and the online magazine Eye To The Telescope, and provides market listings and industry news to members. Eye To The Telescope magazine, with its rotating editorship, broadens the scope of the organization's literary footprint.

The organization also administers the Rhysling Award and bestows the Dwarf Stars Award. The two awards involve the publication of annual anthologies of nominated works. The SFPA awards Grand Master status to poets who have been actively publishing genre poetry of high caliber for at least 20 years. In 2015 the president of the SFPA is Bryan D. Dietrich.

Publications

The Suburban Transit Access Route (or STAR Line) is a proposed railway project in northwest and outer suburban Chicago, Illinois, USA. On January 30, 2003, Metra announced plans to build a new service line that would introduce a new fleet of Diesel multiple unit trains (DMUs) to connect nearly 100 communities in the region and form Metra's only suburb-to-suburb service. Currently all of Metra's services are oriented on suburb-to-city travel.

The route of the STAR line is planned to travel along the EJ&E right of way and in the median of the Northwest Tollway (Interstate 90). The tollway median was a proposed extension of the CTA Blue Line westward to Schaumburg. But these plans cancelled it. Very high ridership is expected due to its unique travel theme: around 80000 passengers a day. The line will be 55 miles in length.

The preliminary cost estimate for the STAR Line was $1.1 billion. The project was authorized under the most recent federal transportation funding bill, SAFETEA-LU, in 2005. The project underwent Alternatives Analysis as the next step in the process to secure federal funding for the project.

The Star Line was a fleet of ships owned by timber merchants, Messrs. James P Corry and Co Ltd. of Belfast, Ireland. The shipping company was formed by Robert Corry in 1826 to import timber from Canada to Ireland. The company began to diversify in 1859 when trade with Calcutta began and the company relocated its offices from Belfast to London. This was followed by services to Australia and New Zealand in 1888, South America in 1903 and a joint emigrant service to Australia with Royden and Tyser Lines started in 1912. The company became a constituent part of the Commonwealth & Dominion Line in 1914, which was renamed Port Line in 1937.

In 1908, it had a fleet of seven modern cargo steamers engaged in trade with the East and Far East, with a gross tonnage of 34,900 tons. The "Star Fleet" then consisted of the ships Star of Australia, Star of Japan, Star of England, Star of New Zealand, Star of Ireland, Star of Scotland and Star of Victoria.

Some of its sailing ships were sold to the Alaska Packers' Association.