Coast Lines Limited provided shipping services in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Channel Islands from 1917 to 1971.
History
Powell, Bacon and Hough Lines Ltd was formed in 1913 in Liverpool. The name of Coast Lines Limited was adopted in 1917, when the company was purchased by the
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by a Scot, James MacQueen. The line's motto was ''Per Mare Ubique'' (everywhere by sea). After a troubled start, it became the largest shipping grou ...
at a cost of £800,000 (equivalent to £ in ).
In 1931, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was dissolved after an
accounting scandal
Accounting scandals are business scandals that arise from intentional manipulation of financial statements with the disclosure of financial misdeeds by trusted executives of corporations or governments. Such misdeeds typically involve complex ...
which led to the imprisonment of chairman
Lord Kylsant for misrepresenting the state of the company to shareholders.
Coast Lines achieved independence under the chairmanship of
Sir Alfred Read (1871–1955), who had previously built up the family shipping business of F. H. Powell & Co., and then been managing director of Coast Lines from 1917.
From 1917 to 1951, Coast Lines acquired a controlling interest in a large number of coastal shipping companies, eventually numbering about twenty, of which the most important were:
*
British and Irish Steam Packet Company (1917)
*
City of Cork Steam Packet Company (1918)
*Laird Lines (1919)
*
Belfast Steamship Company (1919)
*Tedcastle McCormick and Company (1919)
*
City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail. It was 'wound-up' by a select commit ...
(1919)
*Ayr Steam Shipping Company (1919)
*G & J Burns Ltd (1920)
*
Burns Steamship Company (1920)
*Ardrossan Harbour Company (1920)
*Little Western Steamship Company (1920)
*London Welsh Steamship Company (1924)
*British Motor Ship Company (1925)
*John Westcott Ltd (1925)
*
Dundalk and Newry Steam Packet Company (1926)
*Michael Murphy Limited (1926)
*
David MacBrayne Ltd (jointly with the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...
) (1928)
*
Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company (1943)
*
North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company
The North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company, which was more usually known as The North of Scotland or The North Company, its full name rarely being used, was a United Kingdom, UK shipping company based in Aberdeen, originall ...
(1961)
By 1951, the company operated a fleet of 109 ships, which carried over four million tons of cargo, over half a million head of livestock, and more than a million passengers.
The British and Irish Steam Packet Company and the City of Cork Steam Packet Company were sold off in 1965 to the
Irish Government
The Government of Ireland () is the executive authority of Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet – is composed of ministers, each of whom must be a member of the , which consists of ...
.
The remains of the company was acquired by
P&O Ferries
P&O Ferries is a British shipping company that operates ferry, ferries from Scotland to Northern Ireland, and from England to Continental Europe (France, Belgium and the Netherlands). The company was created in 2002 through mergers and acquisi ...
in 1971.
['The world's largest coaster fleet', Sea Breezes, E.R. Reader, February 1949.]
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
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{{P&O
Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom
Defunct companies based in Liverpool
Shipping companies of England
British companies established in 1917
Transport companies established in 1917
Transport companies disestablished in 1971
1917 establishments in England
1971 disestablishments in England
David MacBrayne