Maersk was established as a privately run shipping business (Svendborg Steamship Company) when 28 year old Arnold Peter Moller together with his father, Captain Peter Maersk Moller, bought a secondhand steamer of 2,200 tons dead weight.
In 1928, the first liner service under the name Maersk Line on the trans-Pacific route from the Far East to the United States. Maersk Line purchased its first container vessel in 1973.
Maersk entered the offshore support market in 1967 as the first Scandinavian shipping company and within a decade became a world leading operator of large offshore support vessels.
Later the offshore services were separated out to a separate business entity in 1974 with the new division named Maersk Supply Service.
In 1975 and 1976 the company bought nine fast container vessels for its transpacific line, the largest investment in the company’s history.
In 1965 Arnold Maersk McKinney Moller, son of Arnold Peter Moller, assumed the eldership of Maersk.
History of Maersk
