Black Ball Line (trans-Atlantic packet)

This article is about the trans-Atlantic packet shipping company. For the Liverpool-based shipping company trading with the same name, see James Baines & Co.

Black Ball Line
Company typePartnership
IndustryShipping, transportation
Founded1817 (1817)[1][note 1] in New York, United States
Defunct1878
FateBankruptcy
Area served
Transatlantic
Map of the Port of New York on the south tip of Manhattan Island in 1851. Heavy broken line marks the waterfront below City Hall park in 1784. Area filled in prior to 1820. The docks of the Black Ball Line are in the upper part of the figure.

The Black Ball Line (originally known as the Wright, Thompson, Marshall, & Thompson Line, then as the Old Line) was a passenger line founded by a group of New York Quaker merchants headed by Jeremiah Thompson, and included Isaac Wright & Son (William), Francis Thompson and Benjamin Marshall. All were Quakers except Marshall.[1]

The line initially consisted of four packet ships, the Amity, Courier, Pacific and the James Monroe. All of these were running between Liverpool, England and New York City. This first scheduled trans-Atlantic service was founded in 1817. In operation for some 60 years, it took its name from its flag, a black ball on a red background.[2][3]

  1. ^ a b "Shipping Lines: Old Line (Black Ball Line)". Bruzelius.info. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  2. ^ Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships, Harper Collins (2003) ISBN 0-06-019595-9, pp. 3–16 (introductory chapter on sailing packets)
  3. ^ "House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: B". Archived from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2022.


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