ACL was formed in
Stockholm in 1965 by
Olof Wallenius who created a consortium, which consisted of four shipping companies,
Wallenius Lines,
Swedish America Line, the
Rederi AB Transatlantic and
Holland America Line, to handle both growing competition and the massive capital required in face of increasing containerization of the liner traffic on the North Atlantic. These were joined by
Cunard and
CGT in 1967. In 1976 ACL took over the
Care Line, its ships,
Mont Royal and
Montmorency, and its direct route to
Montreal. During the
Falklands War the British registered and were requisitioned by the
Ministry of Defence.
Atlantic Conveyor sank on 25 May 1982 after being hit by two Argentine
Exocet missiles. She is the only British flagged merchant ship sunk by missile. ==Fleet==