Formed on Merseyside in 1913, Coast Lines grew from a small fleet of sixteen coastal ships operating in the Irish Sea to the world’s largest coastal fleet. At the time, over 4 million tons of shipping sailed from the Mersey on coastal voyages. At its height, the company included Powell, Bacon & Hough Lines, British Channel Islands Shipping, Queenship Navigation, the Belfast Steamship Company, Burns & Laird Lines, the British & Irish Steam Packet, the North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Shipping Company, Tyne Tees Shipping and the Zillah Shipping Company. Pioneering the coordination of road transport with coastal shipping from the 1950s onwards, in 1971 Coast Lines was eventually taken over by P&O, by which time the fleet had declined from 110 passenger and cargo vessels in 1955 to only twenty-five.

In this book, Ian Collard both examines the fascinating history of this famous Liverpool shipping company and provides a comprehensive fleet list.