[2] Due likely to reasons related to desired control over operations underway at Douglas Lapraik & Company and future expansion opportunities, in 1883, John Steward Lapraik founded the Douglas Steamship Company 28 July 1883 with two partners.

[7][8] The same year, the Douglas Steamship Company issued around $1,000,000 HKD in new share capital following the publication of a prospectus.

The resulting price war forced the Douglas Steamship Company to cease all business operations at Taiwan by 1904.

With the outbreak of WWII, the company had most of its ships seized by the Ministry of War Transport and with the capture of Hong Kong by the Imperial Japanese Army in December 1941, most of the staff of the DSCo were interred in prison camps in Hong Kong, including Stewart Taylor Williamson.

Stewart Taylor Williamson died suddenly on 5 September 1950, ceding control of the company to James Robertson Mullion who became the new chairman with Robert Ho Tung and John David Alexander serving as directors.