B+I Line

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The B&I line was established in Dublin in 1836 with an initial fleet of paddle vessels. The company was based on Eden Quay, Dublin until it moved to No. 46 East Wall in 1860. The fleet changed to iron in the 1840s and 1850s to ply on the company routes of Falmouth-Torquay-Southampton-Portsmouth and London together with Dublin-Wexford-Waterford. The company acquired the London service of the Waterford Steamship Company in 1870 by which they dominated this route.

The controlling owner of the B&I line the Coast Lines formerly The Liverpool Shipping Company were taken over by the Kylsant Royal Mail Company in 1917 and renamed The Coast Lines which by the end of 1917 held all the shares in the B&I. Among the operations of this group were

• Burns and Laird
• City of Cork Steam Packet
• The Dublin and Lancashire Shipping Co. (1922)
• Dundalk and Lancashire Shippiing Co. (1922)
• Dundalk and Newry Steam Packet Co (1926)
• City of Dublin Steampacket Company, originally founded 1823, (1920)
• The Belfast Steamship Co.
• Tedcastle and McCormack of Dublin (1919)

The 1930s was a difficult period for the B&I line and its owner the Coast Lines offered the Irish Government a share in the company but they declined. This was a decision which was regretted as the B&I lines owners withdrew most of the vessels on the outbreak of war and placed them at the disposal of the British authorities. In the second world war the company sustained casualties with the loss of two vessels: the Innisfallen in 1940 in Liverpool and the Munster sunk by a mine in Liverpool in 1940.

The B&I line line was taken over by the Irish Government in 1965 and it had 10 passenger and carge vessels many built in the late 1940s. The new management commenced a major programme of modernisation. The car ferry Munster (1969), Innisfallen and Leinster (1969). The Munster and Leinster plied the Dublin-Liverpool route and the new Innisfallen changed from Cork Fishguard to Swansea in 1969. The company was also operating new freight ships.

In 1978 a jetfoil service from Dublin to Liverpool started but was withdrawn as it was not a commercial success. The company ran into major financial problems in 1981, this and labour disputes persisted into the early 1992 when the company was privatised and taken over by the Irish Continental Line

[edit] References

• The B&I Line: by Hazel P.Smyth - Gill & Macmillan 1984
• History of B&I Line, Aidan McCabe [1]