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World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

A public reference property of Baalvion

Open data · every figure carries its source

World Shipping DirectoryCompanies · Ships · Fleets

Blue Funnel Line

Alfred Holt & Co.

Dissolved 1988

Headquarters: Liverpool
Founded: 1866
Employees: —

Photo: Claes, Louis (fotograaf) · CC0 · file

Ships in this registry

Counted from individual vessel records · Wikidata

Reported fleet size

—

No published figure available

Container capacity

—

Not a ranked container line

Gross tonnage on record

17,975

Summed over 2 ships reporting tonnage

In brief

What Blue Funnel Line is

Full article ↗

Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK's larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significant role in the country's overseas trade and in the First and Second World Wars.

Quoted from Blue Funnel Line on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin

Who founded it

Blue Funnel Line was founded in 1866 by one named founder on record. Portraits are shown only where a freely licensed photograph exists and its photographer is known.

Founder

Alfred Holt

1829–1911

British businessman (1829-1911)

Photo: Robert Edward Morrison (1851-1924) · Public domain · file

Corporate profile

Identity and registration

Legal name: Alfred Holt & Co.
Industry: —
Legal form: —
Country of registration: United Kingdom
Headquarters: Liverpool
Formed in: —
Founded: 1866
Dissolved: 1988
Employees: —
Head office coordinates: 53.4072, -2.9917

Ships on record here: 2
Vessel types operated: 2
Flag states used: 1
Average vessel age: 88.5 years
Oldest vessel on record: 1926
Newest vessel on record: 1949
Largest vessel by tonnage: 10,093
Average tonnage: 8,988
Market share: —
Parent company: —
Alliance: —
Record source: wikidata
Last refreshed: 2026-09-05

Fleet on record

What this company sails

Composition of the 2 vessels this registry attributes to Blue Funnel Line. Bars are true proportions of that set, not of the company's full fleet.

By vessel type

General cargo1

Unclassified1

By flag state

United Kingdom1

By shipbuilder

Cammell Laird1

Workman, Clark and Company1

Delivery history

10-year fleet record

Ships delivered in each of the last 10 years, counted from the recorded build year of vessels attributed to this company, with the running total of its fleet on record. No deliveries fall inside this window — this company’s vessels on record were all built earlier.

Year	Gross tonnage added	Fleet on record
2017	—	2
2018	—	2
2019	—	2
2020	—	2
2021	—	2
2022	—	2
2023	—	2
2024	—	2
2025	—	2
2026	—	2

Vessel records

Ships on record

2 vessels

Ship	IMO	Type	Flag	Built	Gross tonnage	Deadweight	Length	Builder
Peleus	5273298	Unclassified	United Kingdom	1949	10,093	—	157.2 m	Cammell Laird
Orestes	5264687	General cargo	—	1926	7,882	—	459.6 m	Workman, Clark and Company

Ships in registry counts individual vessel records attributed to the company here. Reported fleet is the company’s published total. They measure different things and are shown separately on purpose.

In context

How Blue Funnel Line compares

Counts over companies and vessels actually held in this directory — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.

With 2 vessels attributed to it here, Blue Funnel Line is the 341st largest of the 965 operators in this directory that hold at least one ship on record, against a median of 2 across that group. That is a count of individually identified hulls, not the company’s published fleet size — the two are different measurements and both are shown above where available.

United Kingdom is the country of registration for 97 commercial operators in this directory, among which Blue Funnel Line ranks 26th by ships on record. Between them those companies hold 260 vessels here. See every operator registered in United Kingdom.

Founded in 1866, Blue Funnel Line is 160 years old. This directory holds 43 operators founded within five years either side of that date, whose median fleet on record is 1 ships. The median founding year across all commercial operators here is 1966, and the oldest on record dates to 1514.