Thread: Cunard flag change?

Dear All,

As the CruiseLineFans Navigator / Guide for Cunard Line I want to take this opportunity to hear your thoughts on what has been a very hot topic today!

With the news that Cunard Line are to no longer be resitered in Southampton and will now have their ships registed under the Bermuda flag...

I want you know your thoughts!

So many fellow Cunarders have swamped Cunard's Facebook page today, with comments such as...


"Sir Samuel Cunard will be turning in his grave - you're a disgrace to Cunard's history and tradition."

"Shame on you, Cunard"

"‎19/10/11 THE DAY YOU DIED CUNARD!!"

Earlier tonight Cunard commented on their Facebook page...

Dear Cunarders – We hear you. We appreciate everyone’s passion on this subject because we too are very passionate about Cunard. We value tradition and history and take our responsibility as stewards of our 171 year old brand seriously.

We remain quintessentially British in all that we do. Our Head Office remains in Southampton, England. We will continue to fly the Red Ensign with pride and we will continue to serve our very diverse mix of international guests with the British signatures you all rightly expect.

In our history we have flown many flags - of the 250 ships in our fleet only eight have carried the name Southampton on the stern. The name on the stern will not change the experience we deliver.

We firmly believe offering weddings at sea will be very popular and support our continued success.

We understand people's concern but we remain the Cunard that so many of you, as valued guests, have enjoyed over many years. We will never forget our proud British Heritage and we will continue to deliver our British signatures to our guests each and every day.

We Are Cunard!

I think this would bound to happen, P&O did it a few years ago and got away with it, so I can't blame Cunard for doing the same thing. It's still very sad though.

Sad indeed.

On my last cruise which was with Cunard the Chairman was on the ship TV telling us how Cunard was committed to helping the youth of UK through a charity run by Prince Charles called the Prince’s Trust.

They were going to have an auction for the plotted chart of the voyage for that charity. I thought it was complete hypocritical statement, as the UK has a high unemployment rate in youth employment. Apart from the salaried staff not one crew member came from the UK.

By changing the registration of the ship, they can join all other cruise line by employing cheap labour from poorer countries without interference from the country of registry..

For the uninitiated, there are a couple of things at play here.

1. The new Equality Act of 2010 in Britain forces companies to pay all workers from EU countries (and on British-registered ships) to pay wages equal to those of British citizens.

2. Weddings at sea or not permitted on British registered ships since, under UK law, they must be held in a "publicly accessible place" Weddings are sea are a profitable and growing segment within the cruise industry.

Hopefully, this will force Cunard to focus even more on their British traditions and experience while on board their ships. Only time will tell.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts !

Since the founder was Canadian it ,at least, should have been switched to Canada

Well, Bermuda IS, after all, a British Overseas Territory/. It's better than sailing them under a Panamanian flag.

The Bermudan Flag:

ANd -
The Queens will still be eilgible to fly the "Red Ensign," which is used by the UK's Merchant Navy: