British India Steam Navigation Company

British India Steam Navigation Company ("BI") was formed in 1856 as the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company.

History

The Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company had been formed out of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co, a trading partnership of the Scots William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie, to carry mail between Calcutta and Rangoon. It became British India SN Co in 1862. Under the hand of Lord Inchcape, who had become chairman in 1913, the company became part of the P&O group of companies in 1914 through a complex amalgamation, but continued with its own identity and organisation for another nearly 60 years until 1972, when it was entirely absorbed into P&O. P&O was eventually sold to Emirati logistics company DP World in 2006.

Fleet and routes

As one of the largest shipowners of all time, the company owned more than 500 ships and managed 150 more for other owners. At its height in 1922, BI had more than 160 ships in the fleet, many built on Clydeside, Scotland. The main shipping routes of the line were: Britain to India, Australia, Kenya, Tanganyika. The company ran services from India to Pakistan, Ceylon, Bay of Bengal, Singapore, Malaya, Java, Thailand, Japan, Persian Gulf, East Africa and South Africa. BI had a long history of service to the British and Indian governments through trooping and other military contracts. In the last decade of its operational existence BI carried thousands of school children on educational cruises.

was sunk in February 1917 by a torpedo from a German submarine off the coast of Ireland with a substantial cargo of silver bullion.

The cargo ship , carrying silver bullion, pig iron and tea, which was sunk at great depth by the in February 1941 some southwest of Galway Bay, Ireland, carried the richest cargo of any sunken ship in world history.

Some of the company's better known passenger ships included , , , , Leicestershire, , , the sister ships and , and and , and , which was sunk by a terrorist bomb in 1961.

of 1956 was the final passenger ship built for BI. Serving as a troopship until redundant in 1962, Nevasa was assigned new duties with the BI educational cruise ship flotilla until 1974, when she became uneconomic due a fourfold increase in crude oil prices and was scrapped in 1975 having earlier been joined in this trade by the more economic Uganda. The highly popular Uganda was taken up (STUFT) by the British Ministry of Defence in 1982 as a hospital ship during the Falklands War with Argentina. Returning to BI's tradition of government service again in 1983 – this time as a troopship – Uganda was "the last BI" when finally withdrawn in 1985. Dwarka holds the distinction of closing British-India's true "liner" services, when withdrawn from the company's Persian Gulf local trades in 1982, in her 35th year.

Company timeline

File:BItimeline.jpg

Rank badges of ship's complement

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Commander.png|Commander

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Chief officer with superior certificate.png|Chief Officer with superior certificate

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Chief officer with certificate.png|Chief Officer with certificate of rank

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 2nd officer with superior certificate.png|Second Officer with superior certificate

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 3rd officer with certificate of rank.png|Second Officer with certificate of rank

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 3rd officer with certificate.png|Third Officer with certificate of rank

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 4th officer with certificate.png|Fourth Officer with certificate of rank

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 3rd & 4th officer without certificate.png|Third & Fourth Officer without certificate

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Cadet.png|Cadet

</gallery>

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Chief engineer officer.png|Chief Engineer Officer

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 2nd engineer officer with superior certificate.png|Second Engineer Officer with superior certificate

File:Placeholder-image.png|Second Engineer Officer with certificate of rank

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 3rd engineer officer with certificate.png|Third Engineer Officer with certificate

File:Placeholder-image.png|Third Engineer Officer

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 4th engineer officer.png|Fourth Engineer Officer

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Junior engineer officer.png|Junior Engineer Officer

</gallery>

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Senior electrician.png|Senior Electrician

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Second electrician.png|Second Electrician

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Junior electrician.png|Junior Electrician

</gallery>

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Senior purser.png|Senior Purser

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Purser.png|Purser

File:Placeholder-image.png|Assistant Purser

</gallery>

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Chief steward.png|Chief Steward

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 2nd steward.png|Second Steward

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - 3rd steward.png|Extra Second Steward

</gallery>

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Doctor.png|Doctor

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Nurse sister.png|Nursing Sister

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Matron.png|Matron

File:British India Steam Navigation Company - Assistant matron.png|Assistant Matron

</gallery>

Source:

References

C. Michael Hogan. 2011. SS Gairsoppa recovery. Topic ed. P.Saundry. Ed.-in-chief C.J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC

External links

BI Ship Site
A Short History of British India Steam Navigation
Clydeside built BI ships
Miller, William H., The Last Blue Water Liners, Conway Press, London, 1986 -
Morton, Michael Quentin, "The British India Line in the Arabian Gulf, 1862-82", Liwa journal, December 2013, Vol. 5, No. 10, pp. 40–63 [https://web.archive.org/web/20140222010521/http://www.ncdr.ae/liwa/issues/LIWA10E.pdf]