Southampton liner Queen Mary 2 is making maritime history as she sails across the Atlantic to New York today. (Sunday/Monday).

Exactly 175 years ago Cunard's first ship set out on a pioneering voyage to North America establishing one of the great shipping lines of the world and now QM2 is retracing that historic journey as the company celebrates this remarkable anniversary.

QM2 left her home port of Southampton last Thursday to make her way to Liverpool, for a brief stop, before starting her five day long trans-Atlantic crossing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then to Boston before arriving in New York.

While in Liverpool Cunard staged an anniversary concert in the city's Anglican cathedral attended by the ship's passengers together with dozens of specially invited guests including television personalities, politicians, and former Cunard captains.

Amongst the guest list was Thelma Barlow and Roy Barraclough, best known for their performances in Coronation Street, broadcasters Jennie Bond, one time royal correspondent for the BBC, and Michael Buerk (correct), Lord Prescott, who, before his political career, worked as a steward on a number of Cunard vessels, and Lord David Steel.

Daily Echo:

Capt Kevin Oprey, master of Queen Mary 2, with the bell boys

One time Cunard officers, retired Commodore Ron Warwick, the first to command QM2, and Captain Ian McNaught, the last master of the former Queen Elizabeth 2 and now Deputy Master of Trinity House, both well known in the port of Southampton, also attended the concert which retold the history of Cunard in words and music, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, the band of the Welsh guards and the Liverpool Cathedral choristers.

Southampton based Cunard historian, Michael Gallagher, who co-produced the concert, said: "Few would have thought, 175 years ago, when Samuel Cunard's tiny steamship Britannia set out from Liverpool for the first time bound for Halifax and Boston, that the company would blossom into one of such national significance.

"Cunard has survived when almost all of its competitors on the Atlantic have disappeared. It was the first to offer a scheduled trans-Atlantic service and now 175 years on, it is the last. It is indeed a triumph of a great tradition."