The 'Blue Riband' meant primacy among the 'greyhounds of the Atlantic'

The Orange County Register (MCT) - The ship trip across the Atlantic has become a cruise, though one with just two ports _ at the beginning and the end. The journey is intentionally slowed to stretch out the experience for passengers who are paying to be on the sea.

It's a different mind-set from the time when speed _ getting passengers swiftly across "the Pond," as the Atlantic was nicknamed _ was the goal of the creme of the ocean-liner trade.

The prize for the fastest of the fast was the "Blue Riband."

The first race came in 1838, when the Great Western surpassed the Sirius' record crossing time. The average speed: 8 knots _ just under 10 mph on land.

By the late 19th century, the record holder was said to have the Blue Riband, though no single such pennant actually existed. Ships that set records would sometimes fashion a blue ribbon to fly from their mast or stern.

The rules? They shifted with time. There was no official way to win the Blue Riband, but over the years many unofficial ones grew out of tradition, Arnold Kludas writes in his book "Record Breakers of the North Atlantic: Blue Riband Liners 1838-1952."

To prevent multiple Blue Riband winners, the designation was given only to the ship with the fastest time on the toughest direction: east to west.

Ships started out at different ports _ Southampton, U.K.; Cherbourg, France; Bremerhaven, Germany; or Genoa, Italy. Therefore, the measure was the average speed, found by dividing the distance by the time elapsed.

The time also took into account only the period in the open sea, when the ship could run at top speed.

For example, the record for Southampton to New York City was actually the time it took from Bishop Rock Lighthouse in the English Channel to the Ambrose Light-Ship, marking the beginning of the maneuvers to enter busy New York Harbor.

Though shipping companies would use the times in their advertisements, getting into and out of harbors added several hours to the journey.

Early Blue Riband holders were the Britannic, City of Paris, Majestic, Deutschland and Lusitania. The Mauretania held the distinction from 1909 to 1929, longer than any other ship that faced serious competition.

As the Blue Riband had no set rules and only a blue pennant for the winner, some thought a more tangible award was needed.

Harold K. Hales, a member of the British Parliament, decided to create what he called "The North Atlantic Blue Riband Challenger Trophy." The solid-silver trophy, topping 4 feet and weighing nearly 100 pounds, was decorated with a winged messenger carrying a ship astride a globe above Poseidon, the Greek god of the seas.

The award was first given to the Italian liner Rex in 1934, then almost immediately transferred to the Normandie, the art deco jewelbox from France. But the rules for the award, universally known as the Hales Trophy, kept changing. Sometimes the trophy holder wasn't the fastest ship on the seas. Cunard refused to have anything to do with the trophy when the original Queen Mary set the record in 1938. The trophy was lost sometime around World War II, only to be rediscovered in 1952 when it was awarded to the new record holder, the United States.

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With the advent of the competitive trans-Atlantic jet age in 1958, the competition waned.

When the United States retired in 1969, its owners donated the Hales Trophy to the American Merchant Marine Museum at Kings Point, N.Y.

The Queen Elizabeth 2, which entered service in 1969, never tried for or claimed the Blue Riband or the Hales Trophy, despite being the only regularly scheduled ocean liner on the Atlantic for long stretches in the 1980s and 1990s.

Neither the Queen Mary 2 (launched in 2004) or Queen Victoria (launched in 2008), Cunard's latest ships, has sought the designation as fastest ship on the Atlantic. Though the technology exists to make faster ships, the emphasis is now on luxury, not speed.

At 150,000 tons, Queen Mary 2 is pushed along by engines generating 120,000 horsepower. The United States, built in cooperation with the U.S. Navy for possible future use as a quick transport during wartime, was one-third that weight but had more than twice the horsepower.

In 1990, a high-speed ferry, the Hoverspeed Great Britain, set an eastbound record and claimed the trophy and the Blue Riband. After a court battle, the American Merchant Marine Museum reluctantly surrendered the cup. Two high-speed catamaran ferries have since claimed the title of fastest ship on the Atlantic.

Kludas, the "Blue Riband" author, dismisses any claims since the United States won _ noting that none of the "winners" carried passengers. All the claimants made the trip west to east _ not the east-to-west trip deemed necessary to win the Blue Riband.

Possessing the Hales Trophy doesn't mean a ship is the winner of the Blue Riband, Kludas writes.

"Common sense and fairness must surely prevent us from equating the winning of this trophy with the gaining of the Blue Riband, if for no other reason than out of respect for the wonderful achievements of the express liners and the unwritten rules of the Blue Riband competition."

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Gary A. Warner: gettingaway@ocregister.com

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© 2009, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).