Originally the Thomson brothers were "merchants and marble-cutters" and were involved in importing Carrara marble from Leghorn, Italy, with help from Thomas Henderson.

She was used on the North Atlantic trade, carrying Alloa coal to Canada, and returning with timber to Leith, and was lost on Sable Island on the approaches to the St. Lawrence River in 1841.

Their first (brig-rigged) steamship, Benledi of 1,557 tons gross was built in Glasgow at Barclay Curle Clydeholm shipyard.

William Thomson appointed Killick Martin & Company agents for Ben Line Steamers in 1883, and within a few weeks loaded their first ship Benarty in Antwerp.

[1] Between 1902 and 1914, Bartram & Sons of Sunderland built nine ships for Ben Line, whose captains nicknamed them "North Country kerosene cans".

Previously each ship voyage was a separate actuarial entity, with shareholders holding large or small numbers of 1/64 shares.

Between 1950 and 1972, Ben Line continued to develop its liner services between Europe and the Far East, operating fast, custom-built 'tween deck vessels.

These ships operated within the 17 strong fleet of a three-nation consortium (the Trio Group) made up of Ben Line, Hapag-Lloyd, Mitsui O.S.K.

Lines (MOL), Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and Overseas Containers Ltd (OCL) all engaged in the Far East trade.

During this period Ben Line Agencies operated from offices in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Over the next decade the company built a portfolio of shipping services including a liner agency, port agency, project logistics, offshore support, international freight forwarding, port representation, tank containers & leasing and P&I club representation and surveying.