Shipping line

History of shipping lines
Large-scale shipping lines only became widespread in the nineteenth century, after the development of the steamship in 1783. At first, Great Britain was the centre of development of the shipping line. In 1819 the first steamship crossing of the Atlantic Ocean took place; by 1833 shipping lines had begun to operate steamships between Britain and British Empire possessions such as India and Canada.[1] Three major British shipping lines were founded in the 1830s: the British and American Steam Navigation Company, the Great Western Steamship Company and the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company.[1]