For much of its history Lamport and Holt traded with the east coast of South America, operating liner services there to and from New York, Britain and mainland Europe.

[2] A mid-19th-century painting of the three-masted sailing ship Emma, which Lamport and Holt owned from 1847 to 1852, shows her flying a house flag from her foremast of three horizontal bars.

[9] In 1872 Brazil founded a Companhia Nacional de Navegação a Vapor ("National Steam Navigation Company"), but Lamport and Holt continued to compete with it for coastal trade.

But the company, popularly called simply the "Brazil Line", made the mistake of rejecting compound steam engines and continuing to use inefficient simple ones.

The contract required all ships on the service to be registered in Belgium, so Lamport and Holt founded a Belgian subsidiary, Societé de Navigation Royale Belge Sud-Americaine.

[29] Lamport and Holt replaced Velasquez on the New York – River Plate route with the 10,117 GRT liner Vasari, which was built by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co and launched in 1909.

Lamport and Holt decided that its route between Liverpool and the River Plate via Vigo, Leixões and Lisbon should also have 10,000 GRT liners, so in 1910[17] it ordered three sister ships from Workman, Clark & Co.

Lamport and Holt then transferred Vandyck, Vauban and Vestris to strengthen its service between New York and the River Plate via Barbados and Trinidad, where they became the largest, quickest and most luxurious ships on the route.

[34] On 16 January 1913 Veronese was heading from Liverpool to Buenos Aires with 144 passengers and 77 crew[35] when she struck rocks off Leça da Palmeira in Portugal in heavy sea and thick fog.

[38][39] In December 1917 Lamport and Holt took over the Nicholas Mihanovich fleet, which operated passenger services on the River Plate and to Asunción and tugs at Buenos Aires and La Plata.

[36][41] On 26 October 1914 Vandyck was about 690 nautical miles (1,280 km) west of St Paul's Rocks with 200 passengers and a cargo that included about 1,000 tons of frozen meat when Karlsruhe intercepted her.

On 9 February 1916 the German merchant raider Möwe intercepted and sank the company's 3,335 GRT cargo ship Horace about 600 nautical miles (1,100 km) northeast of Pernambuco.

[43] On 2 December 1916 Möwe intercepted and sank the V-class liner Voltaire about 650 nautical miles (1,200 km) west of Fastnet Rock in the Western Approaches.

[36] On 17 December 1916 SM U-70 torpedoed the 5,587 GRT cargo ship Pascal 12 nautical miles (22 km) north of the Casquets in the English Channel, sinking her and killing two of her crew.

[47] On 28 April 1917 SM U-81 torpedoed and sank the 4,309 GRT cargo ship Terence about 150 nautical miles (280 km) northwest by north of Fastnet, killing one crewman.

[36][48][49] On 22 August 1917 SM U-53 torpedoed and sank the V-class liner Verdi in the Western Approaches about 115 nautical miles (213 km) northwest by north off Eagle Island, County Mayo, killing six of her crew.

[36][50][51] On 26 August 1917 the Austro-Hungarian submarine SM U-14 sank the 4,170 GRT Titian in the Mediterranean about 170 nautical miles (310 km) southeast of Malta, fortunately without loss of life.

[36][54] On 24 December 1917 SM U-105 torpedoed and sank the 4,637 GRT cargo ship Canova in the Western Approaches about 15 nautical miles (28 km) south of Mine Head, County Waterford, killing seven crewmen.

[36][55][56] On 6 January 1918 SM U-61 torpedoed and sank the 4,186 GRT cargo ship Spenser[18] in St George's Channel about 35 nautical miles (65 km) northeast of Tuskar Rock, Ireland.

On the final day of the Franco-British Norwegian campaign, 10 June 1940, German dive bombers bombed and sank her off Andenes in northern Norway, killing two officers and five men.

[68] On 7 July 1940 in the South Atlantic off Ascension Island the German auxiliary cruiser Thor captured and scuttled Delambre, a Japanese-built 7,032 GRT cargo steamship that Lamport and Holt had bought in 1919.

[76] On 15 October 1940 German submarine U-138 torpedoed and sank the 5,327 GRT B-class cargo steamship Bonheur in the Western Approaches about 38 nautical miles (70 km) northwest of the Butt of Lewis.

[83] On 31 January 1942 U-98 torpedoed and sank the 5,623 GRT B-class cargo steamship Biela in the North Atlantic about 400 nautical miles (740 km) southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

[88] On 24 June 1942 about 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) southeast of Bermuda, U-156 shelled the 4,857 GRT cargo steamship Willimantic, which Lamport and Holt was managing for the Ministry of War Transport.

[89][90][91] On 23 September 1942 the 5,335 GRT B-class cargo steamship Bruyère was approaching Freetown in Sierra Leone when U-125 torpedoed and sank her, fortunately without loss of life.

On 24 September 1942 the D-class cargo motor ship Defoe was in the North Atlantic southwest of Rockall,[95] en route from Manchester in England to Famagusta in Cyprus laden with chlorine in drums and aeroplane varnish, when she suffered an explosion.

[92][97][98] On 12 November 1942 the 5,332 GRT B-class cargo steamship Browning was laden with munitions, tanks and other materiél for the Allied invasion of French North Africa when U-593 torpedoed and sank her off Oran on the coast of Algeria.

[102][103][104] On 21 November 1943 the D-class motor ship Delius in the Western Approaches about 300 nautical miles (560 km) southwest of Land's End when an enemy aircraft attacked her with a glide bomb.

[107] After the German and Soviet Invasion of Poland the UK Ministry of War Transport put three Gdynia–America Line passenger liners under Lamport and Holt management.

Lamport and Holt's traditional break-bulk cargo ships were not equipped to carry containers, but the company believed that it would be some time before all ports in South America would be adapted to handle them.