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 group ...

at a cost of £800,000 (equivalent to £ in ). In 1931, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was dissolved after an

accounting scandal Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

which led to the imprisonment of chairman

Lord Kylsant Owen Cosby Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant (25 March 1863 – 5 June 1937) was a British businessman and politician, jailed in 1931 for producing a document with intent to deceive. Background Philipps was the third of five sons of the Reverend Sir J ...

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 The British and Irish Steam Packet Company Limited was a steam packet and passenger ferry company operating between ports in Ireland and in Great Britain between 1836 and 1992. It was latterly popularly called the B&I, and branded as B&I Line ...

(1917) * City of Cork Steam Packet Company (1918) *Laird Lines (1919) *

Belfast Steamship Company The Belfast Steamship Company provided shipping services between Belfast in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) and Liverpool in England from 1852 to 1975.''Sea breezes: the ship lovers' digest'', Volume 42. Pacific Steam Navigation Company. 1968. ...

(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 The Dundalk and Newry Steam Packet Company provided shipping services between Dundalk and Liverpool from 1871 to 1926.Railway and Other Steamers, Duckworth and Langmuir, 1968 History In 1871 the Dundalk Steam Packet Company amalgamated with ...

(1926) *Michael Murphy Limited (1926) *

David MacBrayne Ltd David MacBrayne is a limited company owned by the Scottish Government. Formed in 1851 as the private shipping company David Hutcheson & Co. with three partners, David Hutcheson, Alexander Hutcheson and David MacBrayne, it passed in 1878 to David ...

(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 LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

) (1928) *

Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company The Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company provided shipping services in the United Kingdom from 1904 to 1943. History Four companies came together in 1904 to form the Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company. These were: *The Tyne Steam Shipping Co. Ltd, ...

(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 UK shipping company based in Aberdeen, originally formed in 187 ...

(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 ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The governm ...

. The remains of the company was acquired by

P&O Ferries P&O Ferries is a British shipping company that operates ferry, ferries from United Kingdom to Ireland, and to Continental Europe (France, Belgium and the Netherlands). The company was created in 2002 through mergers and acquisitions within P&O ...

in 1971.'The world's largest coaster fleet', Sea Breezes, E.R. Reader, February 1949.

References

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External links

* {{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