Last modified: 2021-05-29 by rob raeside
Keywords: shipping lines |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Dale Steamship Co., Ltd. houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfdas.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 30 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Dale
Steamship Co., Ltd. (Lucas & Co.) (#1240, p. 96) a Bristol-based company, as red
with a thin white cross, charged in the center with a blue rectangle inscribing
a red "D".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#61
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
image
by Jarig Bakker, 29 December 2004
R.S. Dalgliesh Ltd., Newcastle - blue flag, red "D"; inside D white space.
From Scott, R.M., The Caltex book of Flags and Funnels, Capetown, Caltex Africa
Ltd. (1959).
Jarig Bakker, 29 December 2004
Brown (1951) [Wedge (1951)] has a
"D" whose inside is blue.
Jarig Bakker, 29 December 2004
image
by
Jarig Bakker, 29 December 2004
R.S. Dalgliesh Ltd. The version by Scott with the white core to the "D" is
not shown by any other source.
Neale Rosanoski, 23 March 2005
A plate at
this website also shows the D pierced blue.
Jan Mertens, 13 May 2005
Robert Dalgliesh commenced business in 1906 when the Dalgliesh Steam Shipping
Co was formed in Newcastle. By the start of World War I the company owned three
tramp steamers, but all were lost due to enemy action. However several second
hand ships were purchased in 1917 and two new ships built the same year. At the
end of the war, the company owned five deep sea tramps and two coastal colliers.
A large expansion took place after the war and the fleet was divided into the
foreign going tramps which were managed by Dalgliesh SS Co and the coastal fleet
which was managed by Robert Stanley Shipping Co. The Stanley Shipping Co was
wound up in 1929 and the coastal fleet transferred to Dalgliesh SS Co. Seven
ships were lost during the second World War. In 1964 the company took delivery
of their first bulk carrier and in 1969 the subsidiary company Watergate Steam
Shipping Co was acquired by Lonrho and in 1974 was resold to Jebsen (UK) Ltd,
although still managed by Dalgliesh. By 1979 the last of their ships had been
sold and the company went into liquidation.
Mariners L
http://mariners-list.com/site_pages.php?section=Shipping+Companies&category=English&page_name=R.S.+Dalgliesh+Ltd
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
Dalgliesh Seam Shipping Co. Ltd. (R.S. Dalgliesh) (#1858, p. 125) with the "D"
pierced blue.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#90
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021
![[Dart Container Ships houseflag]](../images/g/gb~dartc.gif)
image
by Ivan Sache, 17 March 2004The flag is swallow-tailed, blue with three darts horizontally divided white-red and placed 2 + 1.
![[C.R. Davidson & Co. houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfdav.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 21 April 2021
Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912)
shows the house flag of "C.R. Davidson & Co." (#2, p. 37), a company based in
Aberdeen (Scotland), as quartered per saltire red and blue with, in the
middle, a white disk charged with a blue "A".
Ivan Sache, 12 March 2008
![[J. & A. Davidson, Ltd. houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfjad.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 28 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of J. &
A. Davidson, Ltd. (#1043, p. 86), an Aberdeen-based company, as horizontally
divided red-blue, charged in the center with a white "D".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/51/
Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021
![[Thomas Davidson houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfthd.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 2 April 2008
Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912)
shows the house flag of "Thos. Davidson" (#146, p. 43), a company based in
Aberdeen (Scotland), as divided blue-yellow by an ascending diagonal.
There are a few mentions of a "Thomas Davidson Fishing Co., Ltd.", based in
Aberdeen. "[...] Among the nets Thomas Davidson, of Aberdeen, Scotland,
exhibited one called the jackal net, a long narrow net, by dropping which from a
boat it is claimed that it may be seen whether there are any herrings under the
boat and at what depth. [...]"
The Edinburgh Fisheries Exhibition, "The New
York Times", 3 July 1882
Ivan Sache, 2 April 2008
![[Dean & Dyball Shipping Ltd houseflag]](../images/g/gb~dedy.gif)
image by Jarig
Bakker, 3 November 2005
Dean & Dyball Shipping Ltd., Poole - white flag, red disk charged with a white
circle containing a white horse's head.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 3 November 2005
![[Deddington S.S. Co., Ltd. houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfded.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 30 April 2021
Deddington is about as far from the sea as you can get in England, so how was it
that, at the end of the 19th century, it had its own Steam Ship Company and its
very own steam ships, s.s. "Deddington" and "Clifton"? Both the company and the
ships were owned by Henry Samman, who was born in the village in 1849.
Samman,
and its variants, is an old Deddington name but Henry’s parents do not seem to
have had any links to the village. His father Alban was born in Walton Grounds,
Kings Sutton, and his mother, Sarah Fallower, in Hammersmith.
In 1844,
aged 26, Alban Samman opened a drapers shop in the Market Place. In later life
he also became a valuer and selling agent of drapery businesses, and an agent
for the Standard Life Insurance Co., the County Hailstorm Insurance Co. and the
Birmingham-made Patent Airtight Metallic Coffin. Clearly a successful
businessman, when he died in 1888, by then living in New Street, he left an
estate of £8223 1s. 4d. It’s not recorded whether he was buried in a Metallic
Coffin.
Apparently, his son Henry started out as an apprentice on a tea
clipper or even, more romantically, a “cabin boy”. What is certain is that, on
the 1871 census, he is shown as a seaman, aged 21, visiting his aunt in London
along with Alban, his father.
Henry married Elizabeth Sanders of Kiddington
in 1877. he 1881 census shows the Samman family living in Hull; Henry, aged 32,
was already a “Steam Ship owner and broker.” His first vessel, purchased in
1876, appears to have been “Bonnie Kate”, a small steamship of 827 tons which
was built in 1870. In 1878, commanding "Bonnie Kate", he was engaged by the
Admiralty to carry explosives to the Mediterranean. "Elf" and "Knight Templar"
were purchased in the 1880’s, but "Oxon", launched in 1883, was the first
brand-new ship he owned. Almost all the ships that followed were specifically
built for his companies. He seemed to have an aversion to owning any ship more
than ten years old so frequently sold them on and launched new ones.
The
launch of "Deddington", "Clifton" and "Somerton" in 1889 marked the start of a
major expansion for the Deddington Steam Ship Co. "Bonnie Kate" had been sold in
1883, "Elf" went in 1889, presumably to raise capital, and the remaining ship,
"Oxon", sank that same year. By 1900 the company owned 10 vessels, all
built-to-order, none more than ten years old. It’s possible that Henry's father
Alban, who died in 1888, left him a legacy which provided enough working capital
to commission "Deddington", "Clifton" and "Somerton", thereby kick-starting the
company.
With Captain Samman at the helm, the Deddington Steamship Company
went from strength to strength, launching new ships and selling old ones until
World War 1 intervened.
All the indications are that, as befits a
sea-captain, Henry was pugnacious, argumentative, outspoken, and impatient. A
man who liked hunting, trout-fishing and hare-coursing and was, naturally, a
world traveller, he was proud to acknowledge his Deddington roots and his
adopted town of Hull.
Covering his visit in 1921, the Australian newspapers
described him as “a picturesque character”, “larger than life” and “aggressive
and mentally vigorous at seventy-two.”
Henry always seemed “up for a fight”
as seen from a number of court cases, and, in one instance at least, actual
fisticuffs. Often, only trifling sums of money were involved, indicating that it
was the principal that mattered to him, rather than any monetary gain or loss.
He was sued by the Board of Trade for £1 10s., claimed £16 14s. 3d. from the
Trinity House Corporation, disputed the compensation due to a ship that came to
the aid of "Elf", committed an "Extraordinary assault in the hunting field,"
and, aged 62, got into a 'scrap' with a man abusing his wife.
Perhaps the
most entertaining is the claim for £30 18s. 4d. made against Captain W. H. Coysh,
formerly master of s.s. "Somerton" for various items, chiefly the cost of
carriage of 200 turkeys which belonged to the Captain, the ship’s mate, and
steward. There was also some suggestion that the turkeys had been fed on the
ship’s cargo of grain. And, according to a report in the "York Herald", “On the
question of the pigs his [i.e. the Court Registrar’s] decision was in favour of
the defendant.”
Of the 19 ships that belonged to the Deddington Steamship
Co. and Henry's other companies, only 1, "Garton" (1895-1963), survived long
enough to go to the breakers yard. Another, "Flixton", was scuttled in 1944 to
act as a blockship at Leghorn in Italy but all the rest, 17, were wrecked,
though not necessarily while Henry owned them; 6 were sunk by submarines during
WW1. Newspapers carried frequent reports, not just of sinkings but also of
groundings, collisions or any of a myriad of disasters which might befall a
ship. Being a Merchant Seaman was a dangerous occupation.
Foreseeing a slump
in shipping at the end of the war Henry sold up and, in his own words, “made a
substantial profit.” On a visit to Australia in 1921 he gave several newspaper
interviews in which he highlighted the depressive state of world shipping. He
couldn’t resist adding some very trenchant, and non-PC, comments about
Australia's problems and how to put them rig.
After he had sold his fleet
Henry devoted himself to charitable activities. He built a seaman’s institute
and church in Hull; gifted his former offices, Deddington Chambers, to the Hull
Chamber of Commerce and Shipping, erecting a magnificent council chamber at the
rear of the building complete with an impressive stained glass window. The Henry
Samman Endowment Fund, which still exists, was founded to provide bursaries to
assist students travel abroad to study business or foreign languages.
Henry
was elected (Conservative) Mayor of Beverly in 1911. He was vice chairman of the
Hull Chamber of Commerce and Shipping, a long-standing member of the committee
of management of Lloyds's Register of Shipping management committee, a member of
the Executive of the Shipping Federation and an Elder Brother of Trinity House.
Sir Henry was made a baronet in 1921 for public services.
Aged 78, he was
still ready for a fight, defending a court case in 1927 in which a former
employee, Robert James Watkin, sued him £1350, "for services rendered." In a
naked attempt at blackmail Watkin had written to Henry claiming that one such
service involved handling a payment of £35000 to the Lloyd George Fund, which,
he asserted, was aimed at buying Henry's baronetcy. He had also passed £1000 to
two women, Henry's former housekeeper and her child, which Henry had fathered in
his youth, and he also made the suggestion that some company profits had not
been declared to the revenue.
The newspapers followed the case avidly,
carrying headlines such as "what is hush money?" and "was it blackmail?". "Cash
for honours" didn't quite make an appearance but was certainly implied. Even
"The Times" carried the full story, relying on court transcripts to highlight
the more lurid bits.
Henry died in 1928, in Nice, leaving an obituary in "The
Times", £500 to his gardener and an estate worth £428575 1s. 9d.
http://www.deddingtonhistory.uk/deddingtonsteamshipco.,andsirhenrysamman
Deddington History
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows
the house flag of Deddington S.S. Co., Ltd. (H. Samman & Co., Managers) (#1317,
p. 99), as blue with the white letters "D . S" (top) and "S . C°" (bottom).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#64
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
![[Denaby & Cadeby Main Collieries, Ltd. houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfd&c.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 25 April 2021
The Denaby Main Co. chose the site for Cadeby Main in order to work reserves
of the Barnsley seam within it Denaby colliery’s take. It was confined to a
small area between the Cadeby Cliff and the Dearne Valley Line and the River
Don. Because the Don is navigable to Conisborough, the colliery had a staith for
shipping coal to the Humber. Upstream, boats could use the Sheffield & South
Yorkshire Navigation.
Work began on sinking two shafts in March 1889. Large
inflows of water meant that continuous cast-iron tubbing was used to line the
shafts to a depth of 128 metres. The Barnsley seam was reached at a depth of 687
metres, and the shafts completed, in February 1893 with production starting
later that year. It was worked until exhausted in 1966.
With its new
colliery proved, the company restructured itself as the Denaby & Cadeby Main
Collieries Ltd in 1893. In 1924 the Parkgate seam was developed by drifts from
the Barnsley seam and it was worked until 1947. In 1936 the company became part
of Amalgamated Denaby Collieries, which included: Denaby Main, Cadeby Main,
Dinnington Main, Rossington Main & Strafford Main. It worked Cadeby until
nationalisation.
The 0.86 metres thick Beamshaw seam was opened in 1944
and worked, at a depth of 578 metres, until 1966. Under the NCB the Dunsil seam
was worked from 1952 to 1964. 1956 saw the Haigh Moor (aka Swallow Wood) came on
stream, and it was worked until 1982. Also in 1956 Cadeby and Denaby Main were
linked underground and all coal was wound at the former. The two collieries were
officially merged on March 23rd 1968.
The Dunsil seam was re-entered in 1974
and worked until poor geological conditions forced the colliery’s closure on
November 7th 1986. The surface plant was demolished and cleared in 1987.
On the 9th July 1912 a series of explosions rocked the pit; the first claimed
the lives of 35 men and the second 6 hours later killed colliery managers &
members of the rescue team who had gone to search for survivors killing 53 of
them. After a third explosion the following day access to that section was
sealed and the men withdrawn from the pit.
https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/yorkshire-coalfield/doncaster/cadeby/
Northern Mine Research Society
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and
Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
Denaby & Cadeby Main Collieries, Ltd.
(#629, p. 66), as horizontally divided blue-white-blue with the red letters
"D&C" in the center.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/31/
Ivan
Sache, 25 April 2021
![[J. & J. Denholm, Ltd. houseflag]](../images/g/gb~s0978.gif)
image
by Phil Nelson, 10 April 2000
from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963
White with a dark blue lozenge and a white
"D" in the lozenge.
Jorge Candeias, 17 Feb 1999
The current name of the company is Denholm Shipping Services Ltd. The company
was founded in 1866 as a ship agency on the Clyde, in Scotland. It is now
registered in Glasgow. Denholm's first ship was the sailing ship David Sinclair,
bought in 1873. The company experienced heavy losses in the 1940s and had to
move to on-shore activities. Denholm recently diversified its activity among
four branches: logistics (ship agency), shipping, sea foods and industrial
services. The company website is at
http://www.denholm-shipping.co.uk
Ivan Sache, 1 March 2004
The same house flag is shown (#1586, p. 112) in Lloyd's Book of House Flags
and Funnels (1912).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#77
Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021
![[Dennison Shipping Ltd houseflag]](../images/g/gb~denni.gif)
image
by Jarig Bakker, 28 October 2005
Dennison Shipping Ltd., Kirkwall (Orkneys) - horizontal white-blue-white; in
center white disk, blue "D".
Source:
Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 28 October 2005
![[Devitt and Moore houseflag]](../images/g/gb~denny.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker
William Denny & Son, Dumbarton - white flag, blue elephant. This is an
old-established firm of shipbuilders, having been founded in 1840. Their flag
was quite unusual in having for its emblem an elephant. This device was taken
from the civic arms of Dumbarton, bit also served to symbolizes the strength and
solidity of the company's products. Denny's became famous as builders of
short-sea passemger vessels and similar craft in British waters, and at one
time, a very large proportion of the cross channel ferries and similar craft in
British waters had been built by them. Their flag is no longer to be seen, for
the company closed down during the 1960's.
Source: Loughran (1979) "A Survey of Mercantile
Houseflags & Funnels".
Jarig Bakker, 4 April 2005
![[Devitt and Moore houseflag]](../images/g/gb~dm.gif)
image
by Zachary Harden, 27 June 2001, modified by Jarig Bakker, 12 July 2001
Devitt and Moore ran a fleet of about 20 sailing ships in the wool trade to Australia in the 1800s and early 1900s. In the 1920s they got rid of the ships and founded The Nautical College Pangbourne which, along with the Conway and Worcester, provided cadet training for the MN, RNR and direct entry to the RN College, Dartmouth. The design was wine red and deep blue alternate quarters with a white rectangle (woolsack?) centred in the flag.
Peter Armitage, 24 June 2000
This flag is illustrated in Carr (1961), Flags of the World, and in
Barraclough (1971), Flags of the World.
Jarig Bakker, 24 June 2000
Devitt & Moore of London carried passengers and cargo between Great Britain and
Australia from 1863 until the end of the First World War, mainly in sailing
vessels.
Port Cities: Jan Mertens, 7 February 2005
![[T. Devlin houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hftde.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 30 April 2021
From a small beginning in the 1880s, T.L. Devlin's fleet went on to become the
largest private fleet of steam trawlers in Britain. In 1910 Devlin operated a
fleet of 21 steam trawlers, 21 in 1922 and 12 in 1933. By early 1960s they were
down to 8 vessels.
EdinPhoto
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_edin/1_edinburgh_history_-_recollections_granton_devlin_trawlers_trawlers.htm
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
T. Devlin (#1438, p. 105), as white, charged in the center with a blue disc
inscribing a red "D".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#70
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
![[Devon Steam Trawling Co., Ltd.houseflag]](../images/g/gb~hfdvt.gif)
image by Ivan
Sache, 4 May 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Devon
Steam Trawling Co., Ltd. (#1874, p. 126), a Fleetwood-based fishing company, as
chequered, six squares in turn green and white.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#91
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021
British Shipping lines: continued
