The Aberdeen Line : George Thompson Jnr's Incomparable Shipping Enterprise /Peter H. King

A history of the Aberdeen Line founded in 1825 by George Thompson Jnr. The business developed rapidly from its initial operations in the North Atlantic, Baltic and UK coastal trade routes to provide services to South America and Australia by the mid-1840s. The line is famous for its fast clipper Thermopylae, rival to the Cutty Sark, launched in 1848 and its first steamship, SS Aberdeen, launched in 1881. Facing fierce competition on its Australian routes, the company was restructured with the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (White Star Line) and Shaw Savill and Albion taking effective control in 1906 and fully acquiring the company in 1920. The Aberdeen name survived later takeovers first by the Royal Mail Group and then Furness Withy, continuing as the renamed Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line following the acquisition of the Australian Commonwealth Line. However, when the Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line ceased trading in 1957 the name disappeared. Appendices include a corporate chronology, family trees of the Thompson and Henderson families involved in the Aberdeen Line, and a fleet list of vessels owned or managed by the company. The book is illustrated throughout.