History

A story is recorded that when a steamer bearing the first siren and beam lights pulled into a village in the mid-1880's, its entire population fled, returning days later to unload the cargo.

On April 28, 1942, following the Japanese invasion, Manager John Morton ordered the entire fleet to be scuttled, the thin steel hulls sunk by dynamite or machine gun.

In 1948 the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company became the Government Inland Water Transport Board. Their vessels still sport the black and white funnel of the former Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.