Blue Star Line

The Blue Star Line was founded by brothers William and Edmund Vestey in 1911 to ship meat in refrigerated vessels from Australia, New Zealand and South America to the UK. Expanding into passenger services as well as refrigerated and general cargo, the line launched services to South America via Portugal and the Canary Islands in the 1920s. Possibly the most famous of the Blue Star Line vessels was the ill-fated Arandora Star, torpedoed by a U-boat off the coast of County Donegal in June 1940 while carrying German and Italian prisoners and internees to camps in Canada, although many other Blue Star Line vessels served in the First and Second World Wars. In this book, noted maritime author Ian Collard provides a comprehensive illustrated history of the ships of the Blue Star Line from the company’s foundation to the twenty-first century.