The British India Steam Navigation Company Limited, dating from 1862, was one of Britain’s largest and most important shipping firms and has been owned by the even larger P&O since 1914. BI, as it was commonly called, created and maintained a great network of sea-going services – to Africa, India and the Middle East, and to the more distant Far East. BI passenger ships in particular were important for the steady, uninterrupted flow of representatives and citizens of the Crown – from the likes of High Commissioners in first class to Indian workers in deck class. These were links in an age now gone completely. William H. Miller, author of over eighty maritime books, reviews the final fleet, the last great era, in the 1950s and 1960s, of the British India Steam Navigation Company’s passenger ships.
