A town is always the result of multiple eras throughout history. But if there’s one that really gave Cherbourg its heart and soul, it is without a doubt the transatlantic era!
So first of all, why was this town chosen as the location for this technological and human epic? It is undeniably thanks to the harbour, that could be accessed in any weather conditions and allowed for very quick stopovers, therefore attracting some of the most prestigious maritime companies.
Cherbourg very quickly became a popular port of call. More and more passengers began to board and disembark ships here, and the harbour pulled out all the stops so that these stopovers would be as efficient as possible, in other words, as short and as profitable as possible. That is what led to the creation of the railway tracks at the beginning of the 20th century, that would allow passengers and postal services to get to Paris in the shortest possible timeframe.
But these services developed so quickly that the current infrastructures were proven to be insufficient. That is where the idea to build a consequential maritime station came from! It was built in 1912, with a superb waiting area featuring some prestigious shops, reserved for first class passengers. At the same time, three new railroad tracks were developed. Cherbourg experienced significant growth, to the extent that in 1914, it was named the 3rd biggest French port, after Marseille and Le Havre. On some days, there were up to 1,500 passengers and 600,000 postal bags passing through here!
The only stopover in France for the Titanic!
When a cruise ship stops here, the station is transformed into a swarming ant colony! Back then, the ships would stay in the harbour while several ferries would go back and forth, carrying passengers to or from the dock. Of these incredible stopovers, there is of course one that will forever go down in history, from the 10th April 1912. Four days before it sank, 274 passengers boarded the Titanic from this port! Some of them had left Paris that morning on a train just before 10am. At 3:30pm, they had arrived at Cherbourg maritime station. Just three hours later, they were boarding the Titanic. Finally, at 8:10pm the ship left the harbour for Ireland… then came the awful disaster that we all know so well.
On a wider scale, the fate of the entire world would very soon change course, with the beginning of the First World War. The activity of the maritime station would suddenly come to a stop. But this interruption would not last forever. As soon as the war ended, life got back to normal and in just a few months, the transatlantic activity had picked up just as quickly as it had ceased. The number of stopovers once again began to increase exponentially. The country ‘s needs in terms of reconstruction were colossal. At the same time, the big American and British maritime companies came back to Cherbourg, while another phenomenon also began to pick up considerable speed: emigration to the United States.
That was when the hub of this activity would experience its most spectacular development. The construction work of the dock therefore began, and then in 1928, the current maritime station was built. The building site was unlike anything ever seen before: 12,000 m2 on the ground, for a 280-metre building, with a steeple on the top, making it 70 metres high in total! At its feet, the Quai de France was to become one of the most modern quaysides in the world, with nine mobile bridge cranes, and walkways so that passengers could disembark straight into the station.
Nearly 1,000 stopovers per year!
In 1929, the port beat all records in recording 985 stopovers and 300,000 passengers! That year, in just one day on the 30th May, eight cruise ships were docked in the harbour at the same time.
But this boom was short-lived. Unfortunately that same year, the United States went through an economic crisis that would have a brutal effect on the flow of emigrants. From then on, the activity would never again reach that peak, but would evolve progressively, until it would become almost exclusively devoted to tourism. This was also the golden era of the famous Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
However, aviation was to become more and more popular, which would have a damning effect on the significant activity from transatlantic cruise ships. This new page to open was that of more modern cruise ships, often bearing the characteristics of the great boom of the past. That of a time when these cruise ships were the only way of travelling around the world, whether you were a first class or third class passenger.
Now, the port is recognised as a key destination in the booming cruise sector. There are around 50 stopovers here per year. Because the cruise ships are now much bigger than before, the number of passengers has risen from 6,637 in 2007, to more than 70,000 in 2019.
