Federal Steam Navigation Co
Federal Steam Navigation Company, of London.
1894 Allan Hughes (who founded The Meteor Steam Navigation Company in London in 1892) purchased the assets goodwill and flag of Money Wigram & Sons. The company name was changed to King Steam Navigation to match the names of its first ships, Celtic King and Maori King.
1895 The name was changed again to the Federal Steam Navigation Co Ltd, which became one of Britain’s most illustrious shipping companies.
1904 A joint service: Federal-Houlder-Shire Line came into being.
1909 the combined fleet consisted of 7 Shire, 4 Houlder and 11 Federal ships plus 2 ships chartered from British India.
1912 Federal was taken over by New Zealand Shipping Co. Houlder withdrew from the combined group; the service became Federal & Shire Line, until it was cancelled on the outbreak of WW1 (but see Advert 1917).
1916/8 P & O acquired control of both New Zealand Shipping Co and Federal.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Federal Line [1]