Several of the first Cunard ships were built by John Wood at Port Glasgow. As a schoolboy I spent my summer holidays at his house. He was then building the wooden steamer "Lusitania" for my father's firm. She was intended to trade between Lisbon and Oporto. Old John Wood was the father of shipbuilding on the Clyde, and a brass plate inserted in the wall of Messrs. Duncan's shipbuilding yard at Port Glasgow now marks the site of his house. I treasure these links of memory with those olden days of the shipping industry; they bridge over a period of most remarkable achievement and progress. Sir George Burns was made a Baronet by Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, and his son was raised to the Peerage on Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee under the title of Lord Inverclyde. Lord Inverclyde took a very warm interest in shipping matters; he was a keen yachtsman, and dispensed at Castle Wemyss a splendid hospitality. He was for many years Chairman of the Cunard Company. After the Cunard Company was formed into a Limited Company, in 1882, Mr. John Burns was the Chairman, but as he lived in Scotland, the Deputy-Chairman (the late Mr. David Jardine) had the practical charge. His devotion to the interests of the Company through difficult times was most praiseworthy. He built the "Umbria" and "Etruria," the two most successful and popular ships ever owned by the Company. The Marine Superintendent of the Cunard Line (Captain Watson) was a remarkable man, a seaman of the olden school, with great knowledge of a ship, but with a very narrow outlook. Of those who have passed away in connection with the Cunard Company, the most conspicuous figure was the second Lord Inverclyde, who succeeded Mr. Jardine as Chairman in 1905, and remained so until his death, five years later. Lord Inverclyde had a great grasp of affairs, and was a thorough master of the management of a steamer. He built the "Mauretania" and "Lusitania," and had he lived he was destined to take a leading position in the country. Lord Inverclyde was succeeded as Chairman by Mr. William Watson, who died in 1909. [Illustration: SS. "Umbria," 1884] THE INMAN LINE