Seminar examines impact of ‘Cunard controversy’ on maritime policy
Sarah Palmer, Emeritus Professor of Maritime History at Greenwich Maritime Institute, University of Greenwich, will give the main talk at a research seminar on Monday, 7 November.
Her presentation, The Power of Prestige; the Cunard Line and the British Government in the Postwar Era, starts at 5pm in Queen Mary 368, Greenwich Campus. The seminar is free to attend and all are welcome.
Professor Palmer will examine the British state’s relationship with the shipping industry. In particular, she will look at negotiations in the 1950s and 1960s between the Cunard Company and the government about the replacement of the two transatlantic liners, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.
Professor Palmer says: “Considerations of national prestige encouraged the Macmillan government, against the wishes of the Treasury, publicly to pledge financial support for the building of a new vessel. Political embarrassment followed, however, when Cunard unexpectedly announced that it was no longer prepared to build a Queen replacement.”
Though the company subsequently financed a new liner with a government-guaranteed loan, Professor Palmer will argue that this incident and its aftermath had long-term significance for British maritime policy. “It fostered government distrust of shipping interests and undermined shipping’s historic claim to special consideration as an industry of unique national importance. These repercussions persisted until the major reversal of policy in the later 20th century under Labour,” she adds.
Professor Palmer is the founding director of Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich and is an active researcher in maritime policy and governance, and urban history. She is currently undertaking research on an ESRC-funded project, Running the River Thames 1960-2000. Her articles have been widely published and she is also a member of the British Commission for Maritime History.
For more details of the event, please contact Dr Mary Clare Martin at m.c.h.martin@gre.ac.uk
To find out more about studying at Greenwich Maritime Institute, see www.gre.ac.uk/gmi
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