Shipping company magnate Samuel Cunard was the son of a wealthy Loyalist timber merchant who fled the ARW & ended up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Suppose, instead, the father had taken HMG's offer of land in the Cape Colony? The son, Samuel, would be born there, not in Halifax, for a start.
With Samuel Cunard in South Africa, does he end up buying gold & diamond mines, instead of Cecil Rhodes?
In addition, the Halifax Banking Company & Dartmouth Ferry are likely to be negatively affected. SS Royal William, the first ship to make an all-steam transatlantic crossing, might never be built. And the biweekly packet service between Liverpool & Halifax, which became the Cunard steamship line, might never happen, either. It's likely there would still be a transatlantic packet service, but (without Cunard's insistence on it) not as safe a one.
Would the Cunard Line arise in South Africa, instead? Would the need to operate on the longer route push the company toward fast clippers, rather than steamers? Or toward larger ships, with more bunkerage?
Would the absence of a truly safe & reliable transatlantic steamer line inhibit the arrival of immigrants in North America, especially Canada?
How much does this impact the North American economy of the 1860s-1920s? How many Germans, Poles, Russians, & others never reach North America? How much is the musical history of Texas & the Southwest influenced by the absence of polkas? Does this mean the Oklahoma Panhandle & Palliser Triangle remain ranch land?
Would the *Cunard Southern Line encourage immigration to South Africa, instead? Would this drive out the Boers, or spark an earlier Boer War? Does this prevent the rise of apartheid?
Any thoughs?
With Samuel Cunard in South Africa, does he end up buying gold & diamond mines, instead of Cecil Rhodes?
In addition, the Halifax Banking Company & Dartmouth Ferry are likely to be negatively affected. SS Royal William, the first ship to make an all-steam transatlantic crossing, might never be built. And the biweekly packet service between Liverpool & Halifax, which became the Cunard steamship line, might never happen, either. It's likely there would still be a transatlantic packet service, but (without Cunard's insistence on it) not as safe a one.
Would the Cunard Line arise in South Africa, instead? Would the need to operate on the longer route push the company toward fast clippers, rather than steamers? Or toward larger ships, with more bunkerage?
Would the absence of a truly safe & reliable transatlantic steamer line inhibit the arrival of immigrants in North America, especially Canada?
Would the *Cunard Southern Line encourage immigration to South Africa, instead? Would this drive out the Boers, or spark an earlier Boer War? Does this prevent the rise of apartheid?
Any thoughs?