Dart Containerline Co Ltd (as it was incorporated in Bermuda) was a consortium of shipping companies that commenced operations in 1969, thus becoming one of the first container shipping operators.
The consortium comprised Cie Maritime Belge (CMB), Charles Hill of Bristol, England (owners of the Bristol City Line) and Clarke Traffic Services Ltd from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [1] The company operated between Antwerp and Southampton in Europe and Halifax, New York and Norfolk in North America. [2]
Bristol City Line was a British shipping line based in Bristol, England that traded from 1704 until 1974. From 1760 Bristol City Line also built ships.
Montreal is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-most populous municipality in Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with warm to hot summers and cold, snowy winters.
Antwerp is a city in Belgium, and is the capital of Antwerp province in Flanders. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium, and with a metropolitan area housing around 1,200,000 people, it's the second largest metropolitan region after Brussels in Belgium.
At first, the consortium deployed three chartered German container ships to Halifax plus four 18,000-ton "Painter" class ships, including Breughel, which had been launched in 1963 and operated by CMB, to US ports. [2] The purpose-built vessels operated by the consortium included the 31,036-ton MV Dart America, owned by Clarke and launched in 1970, and her sister ship MV Dart Atlantic, owned by Bristol City Line and launched in 1971. [3] Both these vessels were later owned by the Bibby Line, which acquired Bristol City Line in 1971. Bibby later sold its share in Dart Containerline to Orient Overseas Container Line, which took over the Clarke shareholding in 1973. [1] The third ship, MVDart Europe, was owned by CMB.
Bibby Line is a UK company concerned with shipping and marine operations.
The consortium ceased operating in 1981, when the St Lawrence Coordinated Service was formed by Orient Overseas Container Line (though its subsidiary Manchester Liners), Compagnie Maritime Belge and CP Ships, and Halifax was dropped for the Canadian service in favour of Montreal, while a separate service was begun to the US. The Dart America became the Manchester Challenge, the Dart Atlantic the CP Ambassador and the Dart Europe the CMB Europe, while a fourth ship was added as the Canadian Explorer. In 1983, Orient Overseas took over the whole of the US service, under which name it operates today. In Canada, the successors are Orient Overseas Container Line, which eventually shed the Manchester Liners name, and Hapag-Lloyd, which took over CP Ships in 2007. [3]
