The Norwegian America Line (), was a shipping line, originally an operator of ocean liners and cargo

ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...

s. Founded in 1910, the company ran a regular transatlantic service between

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and later included a route to

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as well. Primarily due to competition from air travel, transatlantic passenger voyages were slowly discontinued during the years. After the Great War, the company was one of Norway's largest shipping lines, owning a fleet that included 19 vessels, several of which were for commercial cargo transport. After the Second World War heavy ships losses were overcome by the building of new vessels, however the reduction in the passengers’ traffic by sea shifted the company’s focus mainly to the cargo business, including container and bulk shipping from the 1970s. In 1980 the last two passenger liners were handed over into a new joint venture company (Norwegian American Cruises) with Leif Höegh & Co, and finally sold to

Cunard Line The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...

in 1984. During the 1990s NAL main business were the Roll-on/roll-off operations and sea carriage of cars, through the NOSAC brand (Norwegian Specialised Autocarcarriers), with a fleet of nearly 20 vessels, then acquired by Wilh. Wilhelmsen in 1995.

Ships

List sourced from

Passenger ships

Other ships

Managing directors

*1911–39 Gustav Henriksen *1939–48 Andreas Johnsen *1948–73 Hans Christian Henriksen

Chairmen of the Board

* 1929–39 Sigval Bergesen * 1940–48 Thor Thoresen * 1948–?? Leif Høegh

Boutique hotel

The former headquarters of the shipping company (1919 – 1983) with ticket office and administration is still an iconic building in central Oslo. It was rebuilt inside and opened in March 2019 as a boutique hotel. The hotel took the name ''Amerikalinjen''.

References

External links

The Ships List: Norwegian America Line

Norway Heritage — "Hands across the sea"

GG Archives

GG Archives {{Authority control Defunct cruise lines Defunct shipping companies of Norway Transatlantic shipping companies Transport companies established in 1910 Transport companies disestablished in 1995 1995 disestablishments in Norway Norwegian companies established in 1910