Blue Riband

Blue Riband

:"For use of the related term "Blue Ribbon", see Blue ribbon (disambiguation)."

The Blue Riband (pronEng|blu 'rɪbənd) is the award received by the ship with the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing. The term is believed to have been derived from Cordon Bleu. The first steam-only powered crossing of the Atlantic was in 1838. The Blue Riband was a creation of the transatlantic shipping companies in the 1860s, for the publicity opportunities of possessing the fastest ship. There were separate awards for the fastest eastbound and westbound crossings. It was represented by a blue pennant flown from the topmast of the ship, until 1935 when Sir Harold Keates Hales (1868-1942), a British politician and owner of Hales Brothers shipping company, initiated a trophy.

The Hales Trophy is awarded on the basis of average speed, since the distance of transatlantic routes varies. Theoretically the endpoints could be any port in the Canadian Maritimes or the Eastern Seaboard of the United States in the west, and any port in Ireland, Britain, or western Europe in the east, but traditionally routings considered for transatlantic records tend to involve service to or from New York City. The last "superliner" to hold the trophy was SS "United States", which set a time that was not beaten until 1990.

Holders of the Blue Riband

Some of the ships that held the record for the fastest crossing, including those recorded before the Blue Riband was instituted, with the date first achieved:

Westbound

Eastbound

References and links

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** which cites cite book|title=North Atlantic Seaway, Vol. 5|author=N.R.P. Bonsor|date=1980
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