The name of Thomas Wilson is closely linked to the early days of North Sea traffic. He was a merchant from York who, and along with John Beckington, started a shipping company in 1825. They bought the sailing vessel Thomas & Ann, a humble start of what at one point was the largest privately owned shipping company in the world.

The firm had sailings between England and Sweden from 1830. From 1830 it also served Kristiansand on the southern tip of Norway. Wilson had a contract with the Norwegian postal authorities for carrying mail between Hull and Kristiansand and could thus take risks with other cargos.

From 1852 Wilson sailed between Hull and Kristiania (now Oslo), for some years jointy with a Norwegian steamship company. Around the turn of the century there were several attempts to establish sailings between Eastern Norway and England. Fred Olsen Line was the most successful. It started sailings to Newcastle in 1906 after having bought a smaller company who had been sailing between Arendal and Newcastle since 1880. Even Grangemouth had for several years regular sailings from Norway.

Bergen, Western Norway and Northern Norway could offer fish & dried cod. There was rather limited interest for such goods in England, whereas Eastern Norway had its timber. England had very little to offer Norway which could not be bought in Hamburg as well. When Bergen in 1853 got its first major shipping company it started sailings to Hamburg.

In 1890 mail from Bergen to London took almost a week. In the summer it travelled by smaller vessels southwards along the Norwegian coast, then across to Denmark and by a combination of rail and coaches and the by another ship across the Channel. A regular mail service across the North Sea from Western Norway to Newcastle would make quite a difference and after years of negotialties the Norwegian government came up with the money to secure regular sailings. On 31st May 1890 the SS Mercur left Bergen and 36 hours later the mail reached London.

Even mail going from Southern Norway to Berlin travelled faster via England than via Denmark. Mail across the Atlantic from all of Scandinavia was directed via Bergen to Liverpool. The amouth of mail going across the North Sea was rapidly increasing. In 1910 there were three full-time post clerks onboard each of the ships used.

Tourism was in its early stages, mountaineering and salmon fishing were the correct pastimes for the British gentry. Norway could offer both. The first mountain hotels appeared. It became more and more important to have secure roads in the inner part of Western Norway.

The growing traffic across the North Sea had its impact on almost all aspects of commercial and everyday life in Bergen and Western Norway. At the beginning of world War one there were daily connections between Bergen and Newcastle. At first there were few problems, but after a while the vessels were regularly stopped by the Germans for control of papers and cargo.

mv Vega was stopped in November 1916 with a cargo of canned fish. It would have taken too long to throw it overboard so the crew were placed in life-rafts and towed ashore by the submarine after explosives were placed onboard.

In April 1917 BDS deceided to let all passengers vessels travel in convoys. The mv Jupiter came into a new British service between Bergen and Aberdeen and changed colours from Norwegian to camouflage. mv Jupiter served the North Sea until 1953.

Just after the war the mv Vega, a sister vessel to the mv Jupiter but faster and more comfortable was delivered. It was the mv Leda, mv Jupiter and mv Venus which dominated the North Sea between the two wars. The two cruise vessels mv Meteor and mv Stella Polaris also had regular sailings between Bergen and Newcastle, they also continued with their passengers into the fjords and up to Northern Norway.

In 1927, during extreme storms in January, both mv Venus, mv Jupiter and mv Leda were involved in rescue operations which became legendary. The mv Venus sailing westbound saved the crew of the mv Trym, on the eastbound return it saved the mv Veni in cooperating with the mv Jupiter. In the same storm the mv Leda saved the crew of the mv Karmt.

In September 1939 the mv Venus, mv Vega and mv Stella Polaris were taken out of operations and placed in one of the narrow fjords near Bergen. Several attempts were made by the allies to sink them in order to prevent the Germans from using them. Most of the BDS fleet was taken over by the Germans and put to different use. They were all subject to heavy damage, many were bombed and only a few were delivered back to the Norwegians after the war.

The situation in 1945 was a completly new one with a lack of suitable vessels. It took some years before new vessels were available, but the regular crossings however started almost immediately after the war.

The black funnel with the white rings was a regular sight in the North Sea, and elsewhere, until the 1970s. The Bergen Steamship Company and Bergen Line was sold in 1984 and the name has not been used since. However "Englandsbaten", the "boat for England", is still sailing.

After years with several companies in and out of the service, a group of private investors in Bergen, local traffic companies and hotels formed Norway Lines and used the mv Jupiter from 1985.

In 1990 Color Line was formed, incorporating Norway Line and Jahre Line which had sailed between Oslo and Kiel and later buying the ferry division of Fred Olsen Lines.

Finally in 1998 the Newcastle to Bergen route was sold to Fjord Line who have continued the long standanding route, initally being operated by the mv Jupiter but later in the hands of the mv Fjord Norway. Change was to come about again in 2006, when late in the year Fjord Line announched that it had sold the route and the mv Fjord Norway to DFDS Seaways. mv Fjord Norway refitted and renamed mv Princess of Norway commenced operations for her new owners in November 2006.

Early 2007 was to see further vessel changes to the Englandsbaten, the mv Princess of Norway was replaced with fleetmate mv Queen of Scandinavia who continues to sail between the United Kingdom and Norway.

On the 27th May 2008, DFDS Seaways made the announcement that due to the rapidly rising costs of fuel the route between Newcastle and Stavanger, Haugersund & Bergen is to close on the 1st September. This annoucement means that the "Englandsbaten", the "boat for England" dating from 1825 will come to a close.