Formed in 1925, the company, then known as American South African Line, began serving South Africa from Eastern U.S. ports in January of 1926, and continued to operate in that trade until August of 1980. In 1947, upon the commencement of regularly scheduled liner service to West Africa from the U.S. east coast, the name of the company was changed to Farrell Lines Incorporated. Farrell Lines expanded its trade range to Australia-New Zealand from the U.S. east Coast in 1965 and from the U.S. west coast in 1975. These two services were terminated in 1983 and 1982, respectively.

In March of 1978, Farrell Lines purchased American Export Lines, which was then serving the Far East, South Asia, North Europe and the Mediterranean from U.S. North Atlantic ports. Due to heavy debts Farrell was forced to retrench throughout 1980s and 1990s. By 1991, the entire line consisted of only four ships serving the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf and the remaining operation was sold to P&O Nedlloyd in 2000. In 2005 A.P. Moller-Maersk Group from Denmark acquired P&O Nedlloyd and it became Maersk Line and part of the world’s largest container shipping line.