Blue Star Line

Blue Star Line was formed  on 28 July 1911 by the Vestey Brothers, a Liverpool-based importer of frozen meat from South America to Britain. Blue Star Line ordered their first new ship in 1914, and by the outbreak of the First World War were operating twelve refrigerated cargo ships. These were initially prefixed 'Brod', e.g. BRODFIELD, BRODHOLME and BRODLAND before the name format was altered in 1919 with the introduction of the 'Star' suffix to ship names, the first being ROYAL STAR. The company expanded its operations to include services to the Pacific coast of North America from 1920, and Australia and New Zealand from 1933. The Blue Star Line acquired Frederick Leyland and Company in 1935 and operated it as a subsidiary, while moving into passenger transport with the ordering of all-first class ships like ARANDORA STAR.

By 1939 Blue Star Line operated 39 ships. Many were requisitioned during the Second World War and the fleet suffered heavy losses, 29 ships being sunk. The Blue Star Line bought Lamport and Holt Line in 1944 and Booth Steamship Company in 1946.

Another building programme was enacted to replace wartime losses, supplemented by the purchase or hire of existing ships. In 1952 Austasia Line was formed to operate services between Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, while Blue Star Line took over the North American routes previously operated by the Donaldson Line in 1954. In 1957 Blue Star Line joined with three other shipping companies, the New Zealand Shipping Company, Port Line and Shaw, Savill & Albion to form the Crusader Shipping Company, and in 1965 entered a partnership with Italian shippers to form Calmeda S.p.A di Nav, Cagliari. Blue Star Line now had global interests, with ports of call on the Pacific North American coast, in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South America and Italy. They were also one of the major shareholders, along with several other large shipping firms, in British United Airways.

Blue Star Line divested itself of its holdings in British United Airways in 1968 and became one of the founding partners that year in Associated Container Transportation (ACT). Blue Star Line gradually moved towards containerization, ending its passenger services to South America in 1972. Blue Star took over ACT's Pacific Australia Container Express (PACE) line which operated between the USA and Australia.

Blue Star Line was acquired by P&O Nedlloyd in 1998, which acquired the name and most of the assets, with the exception of most of the reefer ships, which were kept by the Vestey Group under the name Albion Reefers, and then merged with Hamburg Süd's reefer fleet under the name Star Reefers. Star Reefers was sold in July 2001 to Norwegian interests, and then subsequently merged with NYK Group as NYK Star Reefers Ltd.

The Blue Star Line ships acquired by P&O Nedlloyd, which included those operated as part of ACT, continued in service with P&O Nedlloyd under Blue Star Line names and liveries. Some of the original Blue Star vessels sold to P&O Nedlloyd traded until February 2003 on the West Coast of America to Australia and New Zealand. They were the AMERICA STAR (ex ACT 3), MELBOURNE STAR (ex ACT 4), SYDNEY STAR (ex ACT 5) and QUEENSLAND STAR (ex ACT 6). 

P&O Nedlloyd formed Reederei Blue Star in 2002 as a ship management company, from which it chartered ships. P&O Nedlloyd was acquired by the AP Moller Maersk Group in 2005 and merged into its operations to form Maersk Line. On 18 June 2009 Komrowski took over Reederei Blue Star GmbH from Maersk Ship Management. In July 2012, the Komrowski Group-owned Blue Star merged with Komrowski Befrachtungskontor and E.R. Schiffahrt to form The Blue Star Holding.