(Est. 1919)

The origins of the company started in 1839 with the completion of the sailing ship CARRARA for William and Alexander Thomson to import marble from Italy. In 1847 Alexander Thomson retired from the partnership and William Thomson & Company, Leith was founded. The main trade at this time was coal to Canada, returning with cargoes of timber. In 1859 the first voyage to Singapore, China and Japan took place and eventually the Far East became the company's major trade route. Routes were extended to the Baltic and Mediterranean, and the Canadian timber trade ceased in the mid-1880s.

In 1919 the company became Ben Line Steamers Ltd and in 1927 the last of the Baltic Sea ships was sold. In the early Twenties William Thomson, Sir James Wishart Thomson and their cousin Edward Thomson managed the Company. During the immediate years after the First World War the Company began to dispose of its older vessels replacing them with second hand but relatively modern ships. Two notable purchases were from Holland America Line Sloterdijk renamed Benvannoch and Maartensdijk renamed Benvrackie. Both ships had been built by Furness Withy of West Hartlepool and at the time of purchase were far the biggest ships operated by Ben Line about 6, 500 gross tons apiece.

During the Second World War the Company's Head Office moved from Leith to a larger premises in Edinburgh and by War's end the Company had lost a total of 18 ships in action and Bendoran which had been sold to the M.O.W.T. for use as a block ship during the D-Day landings. Ben Line had to replace its lost Fleet and if it was to remain a force to be reckoned with as quickly as possible. At war's end the Ben Line fleet had been reduced to six wholly owned ships with various others managed for the Government. As the Company purchased new tonnage vessels unsuited for Ben Line's Far East trade were finally handed back to the Government for disposal elsewhere.

During 1946 the Company had to hand back certain ships, Empire Macalpine and Mackendrick went back to the Ministry of War Transport and sold on, Macalpine to McGowan & Gross Ltd of London, Mackendrick to Mediterranean and Atlantic Lines Ltd. Empire Dee was handed over to Union of Soviet Socialist Republic's at Port Said and renamed Admiral Ushakov. Ocean Valentine and Ocean Gallant were retained becoming Benlomand and Bennevis respectively. It was in this year that the Company changed the colour scheme of its ships, out went black hull, red boot top and white lifeboats, in came grey hulls, green boot top and varnished lifeboats, only the yellow funnel and grained upperworks remained, altogether quite pleasing to the eye. The following year Fort Louisbourg returned to the U.S. Marine Corporation to be laid up, this was the last coal burning ship in the Fleet as the Company had already begun to convert its remaining Fleet to oil burners.

As trading increased in 1947 Ben Line acquired three Liberty ships and an Empire Class from the Government they were named as follows, Benarty, Benvrackie, Bendoran and Benalbanach. Four of its older servants left the Fleet, Bengloe to a Palestinian concern, Benvannoch to Andrew Weir & Co and Benalder to the Malabar Steamship Company of India.

Cargoes outward bound to the Middle and Far East included steel and concrete, locomotives, earth moving machinery and munitions as Great Britian attempted to assert its authority in the regions, alas to little too late. Homeward bound the cargoes consisted of timber from Sarawak, jute and manioc from Thailand, pineapples from Taiwan and the Philippines and manufactured goods from Japan and the emerging economy of Taiwan. The old trades of rubber, spices, timber, rice, hemp, copra and tea also continued to flourish hand in hand with the new and the fortunes of Ben Line improved apace. During 1947 the Company made seventeen outward bound voyages to the Far East and eighteen homeward, by 1948 this had increased to 23 outward and 20 homeward. As trade increased so did the size of the Fleet and at the same time as building it's own tonnage Ben Line attempted to secure suitable vessels second hand.

The Company set up its own dock office at 'C' shed in the Royal Victoria Dock, London in 1951, opened a new office in Singapore in 1953, these were followed by further office openings in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Port Swettenham and Hong Kong as trade increased within the region.

In 1963 both William Thompson great grandson and David Thomson great great grandson of the first William Thomson became partners in the Company. In 1964 the partnership was dissolved and all the partners became Directors of Ben Line Steamers Limited. Major E.G. Thomson retired as Chairman from the Company in April of 1966 but was persuaded to become the first Company President in recognition of his sixty years service, he was succeeded in the Chairmanship by his cousin Sir Douglas Thomson.

In 1967 the Suez Canal was closed during the war between Israel and various Arab States, most notably Egypt. Having commenced its even faster service to the Far East in 1965 with Benledi which had managed to reduce the passage time from the U.K. to Singapore to a mere 16.5 days in the autumn of 1966 Ben Line was forced to re-route its ships via the Cape of Good Hope. A knock on effect was that with the ships spending more time on passage there was a serious shortfall in the availability of vessels to carry the increasing cargoes and so Ben Line purchased five ships from Ellermans in February of 1968.

With the advent of by far the biggest innovation in the transport of materials in the Twentieth Century, and to date, Ben Line accepted the offer to join a new consortium of British Companies which became known as Associated Container Transportation Ltd (ACT). Ellerman Lines was the only other partner which served the Far East routes and so they formed a partnership which became known as Ben Line Containers Ltd in March of 1970.

Ben Line Containers had three 73, 000 ton ships delivered between October of 1972 to November of 1973 each had a carrying capacity of 2, 687 T.E.U., they were Benalder, Benavon and City of Edinburgh.

Ben Line diversified in 1974 entering into the offshore drilling trade forming a partnership with the American firm of Ocean Drilling Exploration of New Orleans it also ordered a dynamically positioned Drillship from Scott Lithgow Ltd. Under its new joint name of Ben Odeco it also purchased the self propelled Drillship Typhoon renaming her Ben Ocean Typhoon the following year. Also in 1974 Ben Line ordered a Chemical Carrier which came into service at the end of the year, she was the Benvenue.

With the re-opening of the Suez Canal in 1975 the four main carriers to the Far East, Blue Funnel, Ben Line N.S.M.O. and Glen Line decided that it was in all their best interests if Ben Line was to operate the only conventional Cargo Liner sailings under the new title of Ben Ocean. Also this year Ben Asia Container Service came into being calling at Kobe, Moji, Yokahama, Singapore and Port Kelang, initially the Company operated a chartered vessel until Benvalla was delivered in 1979.

Ben Line's Bulk interests increased in 1976 when it acquired Sheaf Steam Shipping Co Ltd of Newcastle along with its subsidiary Bamburgh Shipping Company Limited and by the end of 1978 Ben Line was operating six Bulk Carriers.

Sheaf Steam Shipping had owned shares in a rig owning company and in 1977 this became wholly owned by Ben Line becoming the Atlantic Drilling Co Ltd, by year's end the Ben Line Group became Britain's biggest offshore drilling contractor.

By 1977 Ben Line had moved its offices from Leith to St. Mary's Street in Edinburgh, its Fleet employed over 2, 000 staff both ashore and at sea and consisted of five Container Ships, six Bulk Carriers, four Cargo Liners, three Chemical Carriers and five Rig/Drillships it also managed three Oil Tankers for other owners.

By 1991 with the decline in British shipping, Ben Line combined with East Asiatic Company, Copenhagen to operate a weekly service to the Far East and the following year sold their remaining ships. By 1996 their only remaining maritime asset was an oil rig. Today its only surviving element is its network of offices as Ben Line Agencies. Meanwhile the East Asiatic Company largely divested itself of shipping interests between 1994 and 1997 and now concentrates on other business interests.

Thus Ben Line was another well known British shipping company that disappeared as a result of mergers and consolidation within the shipping industry and globalisation. It was truly the end of a glorious era.