This company had its origin in 1843 in Seville when José María de Ybarra y Gutiérrez de Caviedes (of Bilbao origin) established a regular line between Bilbao and Seville.
        Later, in 1860, was founded a shipping company domiciled in Seville, called José María de Ybarra y Compañía, to acquire steamers for regular cabotage traffic between peninsular ports.
        In 1919 he established the regular line to the United States for the transport of general cargo.
        In 1927 he established the regular line to South America, Due to the great demand, it soon incorporated ships with a large passenger capacity. The arrival of large-scale aviation caused the regular passenger transport line to end in 1976, with the sale of the only two ocean liners it had at that time: Cabo San Vicente and Cabo San Roque. For a few years now, she had only made a few trips a year, using them during the southern and European summers to cruise through their respective areas, including cruises to Antarctica, in which she was a pioneer.
        From then on, it continued with general cargo traffic on the Europe-Brazil-Río de La Plata line, which was the only one that it retained. It had times of great splendor.