The following story may be slightly off-topic, but I think that it is
probably of interest to many readers of this digest whose ancestors
"crossed the Atlantic" on Cunard Liners on their way to the "Goldene
Medine". .


Those who frequently read this list may have noticed that many of the
Cunard Liners which were used by immigrants to travel to North America had
names ending with the letters "-ia". . This was, in fact a tradition of the
Cunard Lines in the naming of their ships, which was only broken when the
"Queen Mary" was commissioned. One may then ask, why was the "Queen Mary"
not called by another name ending in "-ia"?


The story goes that this was what was originally intended. The Cunard
Company intended to call their new ship "Victoria" in memory of the late
Queen of England of that name. The management decided that, as a matter of
courtesy, they should approach King George V (who was the late Queen
Victoria's grandson), and request his permission to use this illustrious
name for their new luxury liner.


At their meeting, the CEO of Cunard Lines said something like the following
to King George when introducing the subject:


"Your Majesty, we have decided to name our new luxury liner in memory of
the greatest Queen ever to have reigned in England. However, before doing
so, we have decided to request your permission to do so, as a matter of
common courtesy". .


King George replied: "I am sure that my wife [[her name was Mary]] will be
very happy about this honour, but I suggest that you request her permission
directly and personally, rather than coming indirectly through me."


By his time, the owners of Cunard could obviously not back down from this
misunderstanding on the part of the King, and were forced to name their new
liner "Queen Mary", instead of "Victoria". .


BTW, was the "Queen Mary" ever used by any of our ancestors when emigrating
to North America?