Blue Star Line
The Blue Star Line was founded by the Vestey family to carry their chilled beef from Argentina and other South American countries. Responding to the development of refrigeration technology, they built up a worldwide food importation business, particularly frozen Chinese eggs and poultry.
1911 Blue Star Line was registered on 28 July.
1919 The company, with 15 refrigerated ships, was acquired by the Union Cold Storage Co[1] which carried goods for the Union company.
1920 Blue Star Line (1920) Ltd was incorporated
1924 Union sold the Blue Star Line of refrigerated ships.[2]
1925 The company entered the South American passenger trade. After the Ottawa Conference, shipping operations were extended to Australia and New Zealand.
1926 Lady Vestey launched the Almeda, a mixed passenger and meat freight ship, built by Cammell, Laird and Co at Birkenhead[3]
WW2 29 Blue Star ships were sunk and 646 people were killed.
1944 Vestey Group bought Lamport and Holt Line
1946 The Booth Steamship Co was acquired
1946 Booth Line and Lamport and Holt Line were integrated with Blue Star Line
1954 Acquired a substantial holding in Airwork, the airline[4]
1967 the South American trade of Donaldson Line was acquired.
1968 Blue Star Port Lines Management was formed in order to rationalize the two companies' Australasian services.
1998 The company was sold to P. and O. Nedlloyd.
2005 P & O Nedlloyd was itself purchased by Maersk.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Blue Star Line [1]