CleanupBot II at 19:58, 13 August 2023

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{{Short description|former British company}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox company
|name= British India Steam Navigation Company
|logo=House Flag of the British India Steam Navigation Company.svg
|image= BI Nevasa badge.jpg
|image_size= 250px
|image_caption= Souvenir badge from {{SS|Nevasa||2}} showing the BI [[Maritime flag#House flag|house flag]]: a white [[Swallowtail (flag)|swallowtail]] with a red [[saltire]]
|type= ship owner and ship operator
|industry= [[transport]]
|successor= [[Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company|P&O]]
|defunct= 1972
|key_people=
|products= passenger and cargo shipping
|revenue=
|num_employees=
|parent= P&O (1914 onwards)
|footnotes=
|foundation= 1856
|location=
|homepage=http://www.poheritage.com/our-history/company-guides/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 [[Scotland|Scots]] [[Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet|William Mackinnon]] and [[Robert Mackenzie (trader)|Robert Mackenzie]], to carry mail between [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] and [[Rangoon]]. It became British India SN Co in 1862. Under the hand of [[James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape|Lord Inchcape]], who had become chairman in 1913, the company became part of the [[Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company|P&O]] group of companies in 1914 through a complex [[Consolidation (business)|amalgamation]], but continued with its own identity and organisation for another nearly 60 years until 1972, when it was entirely absorbed into P&O.

==Fleet & 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: [[United Kingdom|Britain]] to [[India]], [[Australia]], [[Kenya]], [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]]. The company ran services from India to [[Pakistan]], [[Ceylon]], [[Bay of Bengal]], [[Singapore]], [[British Malaya|Malaya]], [[Java (island)|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.

The [[SS Mantola (1916)|SS ''Mantola'']] 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 {{SS|Gairsoppa||2}}, carrying silver bullion, pig iron and tea, which was sunk at great depth by the {{GS|U-101|1940|6}} in February 1941 some {{convert|300|nmi}} southwest of Galway Bay, Ireland, carried the richest cargo of any sunken ship in world history.<ref>C. Michael Hogan. 2011</ref>

Some of the company's better known passenger ships included {{SS|Rajula||2}}, {{HMT|Dunera||2}}, {{SS|Scindia||2}}, {{SS|Sirdhana|1947|2}}, [[SS Heraklion|''Leicestershire'']], {{SS|Dwarka||2}}, the sister ships {{SS|Kampala||2}} and {{SS|Karanja||2}}, and {{SS|Kenya||2}} and {{SS|Uganda|1952|2}}, and {{MV|Dara||2}}, which was sunk by a terrorist bomb in 1961.

{{SS|Nevasa||2}} 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<ref>{{cite web |title=Ship Fact Sheet - Nevasa (1956) |url=http://www.poheritage.com/Upload/Mimsy/Media/factsheet/93946NEVASA-1956pdf.pdf |website=P&O Heritage |access-date=20 September 2020}}</ref> due a four fold 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 (United Kingdom)|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==

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* C. Michael Hogan. 2011. [http://www.eoearth.org/article/SS_Gairsoppa_recovery?topic=49523 ''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==

{{Commons category|British India Steam Navigation Company}}
* [http://www.biship.com/ BI Ship Site]
* [http://www.biship.com/history.htm A Short History of British India Steam Navigation]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040415162821/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/british-india.asp Clydeside built BI ships]
* Miller, William H., ''The Last Blue Water Liners'', Conway Press, London, 1986 - {{ISBN|0-85177-400-8}}
* 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]
* {{PM20|FID=co/050410|TEXT=Documents and clippings about|NAME=}}

{{P&O}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ships of the British India Steam Navigation Company| ]]
[[Category:Shipping companies of British India]]
[[Category:Shipping companies of Scotland]]
[[Category:Economic history of Myanmar]]
[[Category:History of Pakistan]]
[[Category:British companies established in 1856]]

[[Category:1856 establishments in British India]]
[[Category:1856 establishments in Scotland]]
[[Category:Scotland and the British Empire]]
[[Category:P&O (company)]]

British India Steam Navigation Company - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 19:58, 13 August 2023