In 1906, White Star’s rival, Cunard, launched the two fastest passenger ships in the world, the Lusitania and Mauretania. Consequently, White Star commissioned a new class of liners which would be bigger than anything that had gone before and would be the last word in comfort and opulence. All three ships were constructed in Belfast by Harland & Wolff who had been building ships for White Star since the 1860s. Consequently, as the US passed a series of laws limiting immigration, all the major passenger ship lines suffered financial losses. In order to survive the Great Depression, White Star merged with its rival Cunard in 1934.

Source: Forbes January 01, 2019 18:37 UTC