High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by Scot James Macqueen. After good and bad times it became the largest shipping group in the world in 1927 when it took over the White Star Line. The company ran into financial trouble, and the British government investigated its affairs in 1930, resulting in the Royal Mail Case. Chairman Lord Kylsant was imprisoned in 1931 for misrepresenting the state of the company to shareholders.