ATLAS & COMPASS LINE

Ian. J. Farquhar

When the rival British container consortia – Overseas Container Limited (OCL) and Associated Container Transportation Limited (ACT) were formed in 1965 and 1966, ACT found that within the trades their members served, there was no link between Australia and the Far East. ACT members having Australian links - Blue Star Line, Port Line and Ellermans - applied to the Australian Northbound Conference for a share of the trade. When the application was rejected the lines decided to set up a new company called the Atlas Line, to mount their own fortnightly service from Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and North Queensland to the main Japanese ports and Hong Kong in direct competition the Conference. Rockhampton Star took the first sailing in September l967 and she was followed by the Gladstone Star, Port St Lawrence and Hobart Star. The photograph of the St Lawrence shows the determination of the three lines with ATLAS LINE painted along the hull and a new flag (Blue Star and Port Lines used a similar style for their Compass Line between South Africa and Australia in 1969 with the white circle containing a red compass point design).

Atlas Line ~ Letter Head ~ Courtesy Ian Wood

 The Conference appealed to shippers’ loyalties by taking full-page advertisements in the newspapers and saying that the Atlas Line partners would upset the efficient and economic development of the trade. The Conference also reminded shippers “It’s your freight, Mate”. As the scramble for cargo took place, the Australian Northbound Conference told their British members (P&0 controlled Eastern & Australian Line and the China Navigation Company) to sort out their invading countrymen. Then just two months later P&O and  Ocean Steam announced , that the following talks, the Atlas Line members would be entitled to purchase a minority interest in any container service that might be  developed between Australia and the Far East. Any such interest would come out of  E & A and C.N. Co. shares. As a result of the agreement the Atlas Line service ceased and life returned to normal for the Conference. The option to enter the Japanese trade was never exercised. Less than four years later when P&0 was going to be a minority player in a new containerised trade from East Coast of North America to Australia and New Zealand, they agreed to withdraw from the service, subject to ACTA (the additional A denoting the three Australasian members of the parent ACT) not exercising the “rights” obtained as a result of the Atlas freight-war of 1967. P&O eventually had the last word, taking over ACTA in 1991 and the remaining Blue Star Line Australasian service in 1998.