View source for Coast Lines

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Coast Lines Ltd
| logo             = 
| caption          = 
| type             = 
| genre            = 
| fate             = 
| predecessor      = 
| successor        = [[P&O Ferries]]
| foundation       = 1917
| founder          = [[Owen Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant]]
| defunct          = 1971
| location_city    = [[Liverpool]]
| location_country = 
| location         = 
| locations        = 
| area_served      = [[England]], [[Ireland]], [[Wales]], [[Scotland]], [[Channel Islands]]
| key_people       = 
| industry         = Shipping
| products         = 
| services         = 
| revenue          = 
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| aum              = 
| assets           = 
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| num_employees    = 
| parent           = 
| divisions        = 
| subsid           = 
| homepage         = 
| footnotes        = 
| intl             = 
}}

'''Coast Lines Limited''' provided shipping services in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Channel Islands from 1917 to 1971.<ref>Sea breezes: the ship lovers' digest: 1949</ref>

==History==
Powell, Bacon and Hough Lines Ltd was formed in 1913 in Liverpool. The name of Coast Lines Limited was adopted in 1917, when the company was purchased by the [[Royal Mail Steam Packet Company]] at a cost of £800,000<ref>A business of national importance: the Royal Mail Shipping Group, 1902-1937 By Edwin Green, Michael S. Moss</ref> (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|800000|1917|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}).{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}

In 1931, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was dissolved after an [[Royal Mail Case|accounting scandal]] which led to the imprisonment of chairman [[Owen Philipps, 1st Baron Kylsant|Lord Kylsant]] for misrepresenting the state of the company to shareholders.<ref name=lines>{{Cite web |url=http://www.plimsoll.org/OnTheLine/ShippingLines/royalmail/default.asp#2 |title=Shipping Lines: Royal Mail Steam Packet Company |access-date=31 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130610101408/http://www.plimsoll.org/OnTheLine/ShippingLines/royalmail/default.asp#2 |archive-date=10 June 2013 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Coast Lines achieved independence under the chairmanship of [[Alfred Read (shipowner)|Sir Alfred Read]] (1871–1955), who had previously built up the family shipping business of F. H. Powell & Co., and then been managing director of Coast Lines from 1917.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last=Moss |first=Michael S. |title=Read, Sir Alfred Henry (1871–1955), shipowner |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47431 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/47431 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=2022-05-18}}</ref>

From 1917 to 1951, Coast Lines acquired a controlling interest in a large number of coastal shipping companies, eventually numbering about twenty, of which the most important were: 
*[[British and Irish Steam Packet Company]] (1917) 
*[[City of Cork Steam Packet Company]] (1918) 
*Laird Lines (1919)
*[[Belfast Steamship Company]] (1919) 
*Tedcastle McCormick and Company (1919)
*[[City of Dublin Steam Packet Company]] (1919)
*Ayr Steam Shipping Company (1919)
*G & J Burns Ltd (1920) 
*[[Burns Steamship Company]] (1920)
*Ardrossan Harbour Company (1920)
*Little Western Steamship Company (1920)
*London Welsh Steamship Company (1924)
*British Motor Ship Company (1925)
*John Westcott Ltd (1925)
*[[Dundalk and Newry Steam Packet Company]] (1926)
*Michael Murphy Limited (1926)
*[[David MacBrayne Ltd]] (jointly with the [[London, Midland and Scottish Railway]]) (1928)
*[[Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company]] (1943)
*[[North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company]] (1961)

By 1951, the company operated a fleet of 109 ships, which carried over four million tons of cargo, over half a million head of livestock, and more than a million passengers.

The British and Irish Steam Packet Company and the City of Cork Steam Packet Company were sold off in 1965 to the [[Irish Government]].

The remains of the company was acquired by [[P&O Ferries]] in 1971.<ref>'The world's largest coaster fleet', Sea Breezes, E.R. Reader, February 1949.</ref>

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|last1=Robins|first1=Nick|last2=MacRonald|first2=Malcolm|title=Powell, Bacon and Hough: Formation of Coast Lines Limited|date=2017|publisher=Coastal Shipping Publications|location=Portishead, Bristol|isbn=9781902953816}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{PM20|FID=co/056653|TEXT=Documents and clippings about|NAME=}}

{{P&O}}

[[Category:Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Liverpool]]
[[Category:Shipping companies of England]]
[[Category:British companies established in 1917]]
[[Category:Transport companies established in 1917]]
[[Category:Transport companies disestablished in 1971]]
[[Category:1917 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1971 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:David MacBrayne]]