| Fate | Liquidated |
|---|---|
| Successor | Royal Mail Lines Ltd |
| Founded | 1839 |
| Founder(s) | James Macqueen |
| Defunct | 1932 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Fate | Acquired |
|---|---|
| Successor | Furness, Withy & Co. |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Defunct | 1965 |
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by Scot James Macqueen. After good and bad times it became the largest shipping group in the world in 1927 when it took over the White Star Line.[1]
The company ran into financial trouble, and the British government investigated its affairs in 1930, resulting in the Royal Mail Case. Chairman Lord Kylsant was imprisoned in 1931 for misrepresenting the state of the company to shareholders.[1] So much of Britain's shipping industry was involved in RMSPC that arrangements were made to guarantee the continuation of ship operations after it was liquidated. The Royal Mail Lines Ltd (RML) was created in 1932 and took over the ships of RMSPC and other companies of the former group.[2] The line's motto was Per Mare Ubique (everywhere by sea).
The new company's operations were concentrated on the west coast of South America, the West Indies and Caribbean, and the Pacific coast of North America; the Southampton - Lisbon - Brazil - Uruguay - Argentina route was operated from 1850 to 1980. RML was also a leading cruise ship operator.
In 1965 RML was acquired by Furness, Withy & Co.,[1] and rapidly lost its identity. In the 1970s parts of the Furness Withy Group, including RML, were sold on to Hong Kong shipowner C. Y. Tung, and later sold on to former River Plate rival Hamburg Süd; by the 1990s Royal Mail Lines was no more than the name of a Hamburg-Süd refrigerated cargo service from South America to Europe.
The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, founded in Halifax (1840) by Cunard and others, which later became the Cunard Line, had no connection with RMSPC.