Strandfaraskip Landsins was established in 1917 when the government took over the ferry "Smiril" from the brothers Petur og Niels Juel Mortensen from Suðuroy. They had bought the ship in 1895 and operated a scheduled service between Tórshavn and several ports in Suðuroy. In the first half of the 20th century, several other private regional services were founded, which combined freight, mail, passengers and milk transport to and from Tórshavn. Due to the lack of roads, ferries also served as a means for transport between villages-on-the-same-island. Many routes and vessels were taken over by Strandfaraskip Landsins in the 1960s and 1970s.