Blue
Star Line (Est.
1911)
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The
Early Years (1911 – 1939): The Vestey
family originated
from The Blue
Star Line was
founded by the Vestey family to carry their chilled beef from The
company continued to
trade profitably and became famous for its all first class passenger
vessels
the Almeda
Star, Andalucia Star, Arandora Star, Avelona Star and
Avila
Star. The Arandora Star in
particular became popular to the rich and
famous for cruising in the Mediterranean, the Baltic and the The
Second World War (1939 – 1945): On the
outbreak of WWII,
most of the vessels were commandeered by the British Government,
continuing to
carry much needed food to the Of the
pre-war vessels, only
the Albion
Star, Australia Star, Brisbane Star, Columbia Star, Fresno Star, Gaelic
Star,
New Zealand Star, Norman Star, Sydney Star, Trojan Star, Tudor Star
(ex. Empire
Star) and Britanica survived. The
Final Years (1945 – 1998): After WWII
the company
rebuilt the fleet by new building and the purchase of some second hand
tonnage.
Notable among the new building was the replacement Plate or so called
"A"-boats. These cargo passenger ships, the The
company continued
trading successfully during the post war years, with operations as far
a field
as In 1952
Austasia Line was
formed to operate services between In
the 1950s Blue Star Line along with Furness Withy Group and
British
& Commonwealth Shipping Group owned 72% of British United Airways
(BUA). The remaining 28% was
shared among the Clan Line (8%), Loel Guiness
(10%) and Whitehall Securities (10%). But in 1961 these various
shareholdings were reorganised into Air Holdings as a new holding
company for the entire group.In January 1962, British Aviation Servies
joined Air Holdings. Britavia and Silver City Airways were its airline
subsidiaries. P&O Group was the largest shareholder with a
70% stake, while Eagle Star and Cable & Wireless were minority
shareholders that respectively owned 20% and 10% of its share capital.
In 1962, Jersey Airlines,
a former "BEA associate", and Silver City Airways joined the BUA group
of companies. The operations of these airlines were reorganised into
BUA (C.I.), British United (Manx) Airways and British United Air Ferries (following the merger of Channel Air
Bridge and Silver City Airways on 1 January 1963. In late 1964,
Air Ferry
joined the BUA group of companies as a consequence of Air Holdings'
acquisition of Leroy Tours, Air Ferry's owners, thereby restoring the
cross-Channel vehicle ferry services monopoly of British United Air
Ferries. In the late
1960s due to declining fortunes of BUA Group it was reorganised. BUA
(Holdings) became the new holding company for BUA and British United
Island Airways (BUIA), which combined the "second-level" scheduled
operations of BUA
(C.I.) and British United (Manx) Airways under the new name of Channel
Islands and Manx Air Services (CIMAS)
and "third-level" charter activities of Morton Air Services, as well as
the BUA group's stakes in Bristow Helicopters, Gambia Airways, Sierra
Leone Airways and Uganda Air Services. Air Holdings, the old
parent company of the unreconstructed BUA group,
became a separate holding company for British Air Ferries (BAF) — the
new name adopted by British United Air Ferries in 1967 — and Aviation
Traders. It also assumed ownership of Air Ferry, Airwork Services, the
BUA group's tour operators
(Leroy Tours, Lyons Tours and Whitehall Travel). The reorganisation
also involved the British & Commonwealth Shipping Group buying out
all the other shareholders in BUA (these included Blue Star Line,
Furness Withy Group, Clan Line, Loel Guiness, Whitehall Securities,
P&O Group and Cable & Wireless) apart from Eagle Star for £17m
in May 1968. Thus Blue Star Line's involvement in BUA ceased. In 1968 Blue Star
Line became a partner in setting up Associated Container
Transportation (ACT) with Blue Star Line, Ben Line, Cunard (Port Line),
Harrison Lines and
Ellerman Group. Passenger
services to The
Legacy (1998 onwards): The
company finally was
disposed of in 1998 to P&O Nedlloyd, complete with its name
and ship's
livery including the famous funnel. While most of the container vessels
including those formally operating as ACT vessels were also sold to
P&O
Nedlloyd, most of the refrigerated liner ships were retained in the
Vestey
organisation under the ownership of Albion Reefers. These were operated
by Star Reefers formed by the merging of the conventional
reefer
fleets of Hamburg Sud and Albion Reefers. In July
2001 the Vestey
Group announced that Star Reefers, operating a fleet of 24 ships had
been sold
to Norwegian Owners. The business would continue to be managed from On the 22nd
April
2002, P&O Nedlloyd placed its first contract with its own,
newly
formed ship management company, Reederei Blue Star, based in P&O
Nedlloyd Ltd. was
acquired by the AP Moller Maersk Group (Maersk) in 2005 and was
combined with
their existing container shipping business Maersk-Sealand to form
Maersk Line. However today the Blue Star colours still live on with the vessels of Reederei Blue Star who provide ship management services and is now owned by the AP Moller Maersk Group. A.P. Moller - Maersk Groupwww.maersk.com Maersk Line www.maerskline.com Reederei Blue Star GmbH www.bluestar-chartering.com Star Reefers www.star-reefers.com
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