The oldest company that Portugal had was formed to make transport not to the colonies, but between the Islands of Madeira and the Azores. Founded in 1871, the Empresa Insulana de Navegação, or EIN, was created to unite the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores to Lisbon. Their first ship was called “Atlântico” which navigated until 1877. The company did get more ships during the years, but in 1883, they lost the “Luso”.
2 years later, in 1885, the EIN was the only Portuguese company (until now) to make runs to New York, which only lasted until 1910, since there was no backing of the Portuguese Government and the competition, manly Cunard and White Star. Still, one of those ships was the Vega, which in 1899 was sold to ENN and became Benguella, which was lost in 1909 in Angola. 
1914 brough difficulties to the company, in which they were forced to hand over operations to the State due to the First Great War, which run under the name “Serviço Insulano de Navegação” until 1919. Portugal entered the war in 1916, and in 1918, the “San Miguel” which was enroute to Ponta Delgada, had an encounter with the U-139 and was almost sunk, but the captain of the mine-hunter “Augusto Castilho”, the 1º Lieutenant “Carvalho Araújo” order the men to fight the submarine and managed to save the ship, but he and the mine-hunter were lost. EIN later gave the name to a ship built in 1929 and served until 1971.
In 1922, EIN received the ex-German Line Westerwald, which was renamed the “N.T. Lima” in 1916, when was in service of TME and in 1929, they received the already mentioned “N.T. Carvalho Araújo”, even though they were in the best position in these years. In 1961, the beloved Portuguese vessel “N.T. Funchal” went on her maiden voyage, and served many years, even becoming a “Presidental Yacht” for the then Portuguese President Américo Tomáz and in 1966 they received the ex-Zim Line “Israel”, which became the “N.T. Angra do Heroísmo”.
Though, in 1974, EIN was merged with the Companhia Colonial de Navegação, or CCN, and was created the Companhia Portuguesa de Transportes Maritimos, which lasted until 1985, the same time as CNN. By this point, only Funchal and the smaller Ponta Delgada were operating when EIN emerged, since Angra do Heroismo was sold in 1971.
Funchal was the last Portuguese vessel to operate, until 2015, which served alongside the Astoria, or, as it was once known, the S.S. Stockholm, the ship which sunk Andrea Doria in 1956.