^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

British shipping companies (E)

See also:

William Edgar & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 25 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
William Edgar & Co (#576, p. 64), a West Hartlepool-based company, as white with a red border, charged in the center with a blue "E".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/29/
Ivan Sache, 25 April 2021

Edinburgh Tankers plc.

image by Jarig Bakker, 20 November 2005

Edinburgh Tankers plc., Edinburgh - blue flag, white diamond, red "ET".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 20 November 2005

John Edwards & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of John Edwards & Co. (#1854, p. 125), a Liverpool-based company, as white with a red stripe at the top and bottom of the flag, charged in the center with the light blue letters "JE & Co".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#90
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Effluents Services Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 25 December 2005

Effluents Services Ltd., Macclesfield - horizontal green-white-green flag; in center black "ESL".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 25 December 2005

Elders & Fyffes Ltd.

image by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957)

Bristol - Jamaica and Central America
Houseflag: blue, with white diamond and E&F in blue.
Jarig Bakker, 13 October 2003

Elders & Fyffes, London: Larousse Commercial Illustré (1930) shows this flag as blue with a white diamond bearing blue characters (without serifs) `E & F' in the centre, the `&' being somewhat smaller than the letters. Sampson's (1957) image has a slightly larger diamond.
Jan Mertens, 4 June 2004

Elders & Fyffes. Became Fyffes Group Ltd. in 1969.
Neale Rosanoski, 31 May 2005

Established in 1901 with a nominal capital of 150,000 pounds, Elders & Fyffes was a subsidiary of Elder Dempster of Liverpool but working capital was at first in short supply. Alfred Jones of Elder Dempster had supplied some, as had the London fruit distributors Fyffes, Hudson & Co. (hence the company title) and even the small Bristol stevedoring company C.J. King and Sons contributed, receiving in return the contracts to handle the discharge of fruit and the supply of tugs. 60,000 pounds was raised with some difficulty and placed as deposits on four second-hand ships which were on offer by the West Hartlepool shipbuilder Furness, Withy & Co.

By acquiring Fyffes' capital and half share in their main U.S. competitor, the Atlantic Fruit Company of New Orleans, the United Fruit Company had established a virtual monopoly in the trade.
The peaks and troughs of the inter-war years included one hour of glory for the "Buyano" (II) when she embarked the Prince of Wales (Duke of Windsor) to open a dock extension at Avonmouth in 1927, disaster for the "Chagres" (II) when she rammed and sank the barque "C.B. Pederson" off the Azores in 1937 and euphoria as trade arose to an all time high in 1938.
War came and history repeated itself. In early 1940 the "Chagres" (II) was mined and sank off the Mersey Bar and the company was to lose another fourteen ships before the clouds lifted.

https://iancoombe.tripod.com/id14.html
Merchant Navy Nostalgia

The same flag is shown in Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) (#1318, p. 99).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#64
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021

Elder Dempster and Co. Ltd.

image by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2021

Elder Dempster and Co.Ld., Liverpool. White swallow-tail with tapering edges, a red St George's cross bearing a yellow royal crown in the centre. A 1953 artistic
impression can be seen here: http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/edl.htm.
Jan Mertens, 19 May 2004

Elder Dempster Lines Ltd. This UK company traded with West Africa (and other places) and was based in Liverpool. The flag originated with the African Steam Ship Co., the crown being granted under the Royal Charter under which it was formed in 1852 and for whom Elder Dempster & Co. became agents and then gradually took over by 1890 with Elder Dempster Shipping Co. Ltd. being established in 1898. Some sources give a tapered version but this would seem without basis.
Neale Rosanoski, 31 May 2005

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) [llo12] shows the same house flag (#1193, p. 93) as blue with a white saltire.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#58
Ivan Sache, 29 April 2021

based on image by Jorge Candeias

The company commodore had the flag shown on a white swallowtail i.e. one flag upon another.
Neale Rosanoski, 31 May 2005

The houseflag of Elder Dempster Line as shown at row 1 with col.2 on card n.º D57, one of the six cards of set [o9oXXb]: It is a blue flag, of the medium shade among the three blues shown on this card, with a thin white cross throughout and forked fly, resembling a blue-for-red variant of the Danish naval ensign. The measures are (6+2+6):(6+2+13) = 14:21 = 2:3, approximately; the flyside cutout seems to be 90° and the whole is not tapering.

This is very different from the image shown above. It does match Ivan Sache’s 29 April 2021 mention of the "same house flag (#1193, p. 93) as blue with a white saltire," from [llo12], but that seems to be a mistake, as flag n.º 1193 on p.93 (middle on row 6) of [llo12] is this very flag, white with red cross. It looks like there have been two different flags of Elder Dempster Line, as seen on two timetable covers shown in the webpage reported by Jan Martens [http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/edl.htm], of 1926.10-12 [http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/edl26a.jpg] and [http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/edl36a.jpg] 1936.01-06 — or rather that at this time Elder Dempster presented itself as managers of both The British and African Steam Navigation Company and the African Steam Ship Company, showing both their flags.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 25 May 2024

British Shipping lines: continued