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British shipping companies (C)

See also:

K. McD. Cameron & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

Kenneth McDonald Cameron was the son of Alexander Cameron, a draper from Stockton-on-Tees. He came to West Hartlepool to work and was soon able to set up as a shipbroker at No.20, Church Street. His interest soon turned to ship-owning, and he was able to place an order with local shipbuilder Irvine’s Shipbuilding & Dry Docks Co., for a 5,000 ton spar deck steamer.
On July 18th, 1905, his wife named this vessel "Cameron" at the launch.
On August 22nd the "Cameron" ran her trials, achieving a speed of 11˝ knots, and following which she sailed for the White Sea to load her first cargo. She arrived back in Hartlepool on September 30th, 1905, with a record cargo of 1,450 fathoms of pit-props for local importer C.A. Forslind & Co., which she had loaded at Orega. The vessel continued tramping in the years that followed and in 1910 a ‘paper’ change was made when she was registered under the ownership of the Cameron Steam Ship Co. Ltd., with Kenneth Cameron as Manager.
Five years later she was sold to C. Salvesen for Ł34,000. As a measure of the inflated prices paid for ships after the First World War, she was sold again in 1919 to J. Harrison, for Ł85,000, and then again later that same year to the Glynn Shipping Co. Ltd., of London, for Ł115,000.
In 1922, as the Woldingham, she was taken as part-payment of a debt by the West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Co., before being sold to Greek owners in 1924 for Ł18,000. Renamed "Stylianos Coutsodontis", she was eventually sold for scrap and broken-up at La Spezia, Italy in 1934.

http://www.hhtandn.org/venues/3809/mcdonald-cameron
Hartlepool History Then and Now

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of K. McD. Cameron & Co. (#427, p. 57) as white with a black device.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#22
Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

C.H. Campbell

image by Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of C.H. Campbell (#1031, p. 86), a London-based company, as horizontally divided red-white-red (2:3:2), charged in the center with the blue letters "CHC".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/51/
Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021

James Campbell

image by Ivan Sache, 21 April 2021

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "James Campbell" (#17, p. 37), a company based in Middlesborough (England), as white with a red border and a blue letter "C" in the middle.
Ivan Sache, 14 March 2008

John M. Campbell & Son

image by Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of John M. Campbell & Son (#925, p. 81), a Glasgow-based company, as red with a blue saltire charged in the center with a white diamond inscribing a blue "C".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/46/

Photo (National Maritime Museum)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/1063.html
Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021

P & A Campbell

image by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957)
James Dignan, 14 October 2003

Operated ships along the British coast.
Phil Nelson, 14 October 2003

"Flags and Funnels of the British and Commonwealth Merchant Fleets" shows slight differences: a couped chevron, i.e., with blue (background) gaps between it and the edge.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 8 June 2006

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the same flag for P. & A. Campbell, Ltd. (#1765, p. 121).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#86
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Canadian Australian Royal Mail Line

image by Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of the Canadian Australian Royal Mail Line (#1747, p. 120), a London-based shipping company, as white with a red saltire, charged in the respective quarters with the blue letters "C, "S", "A", and "Co.".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#85
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Hugh Cann & Son

image by Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
Hugh Cann & Son (#266, p. 49), a Yarmouth-based company, as white with the red letters "CANN", the "C" bigger.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#14
Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

The Cape Steam Shipping Co., Ltd.

image by Ivan Sache, 26 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of the Cape Steam Shipping Co., Ltd. (#645, p. 67), a Glasgow-based company, as red with a white anchor placed per bend and surrounded by the white letters "T" and "R".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/32/
Ivan Sache, 26 April 2021

Capper, Alexander Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, after Loughran (1979)

Capper, Alexander Ltd. lost all 13 of their ships during WW2, and were taken over by Houlder Line Ltd. after the war. Their house flag was the "busy bee" - blue background with a golden bee in the centre.
Bernard de Neumann, 11 August 2004

Capper, Alexander Ltd. The flag was originally that of E.H. Capper & Co. of Cardiff who dated from 1875 and later became Capper, Alexander & Co. In 1914 they formed the Alexander Shipping Co. Ltd. and operated under that name with the flag. Capper, Alexander became a public company around 1937 when Houlder Bros & Co. Ltd. took a large interest and full control post WW2 continuing to operate the Alexander Shipping Co. Ltd. and fly the flag inferior to that of the Houlder Line. This lasted until around the early 1980s when they seem to have ceased as shipowners although the company itself was not wound up until 1990.
Neale Rosanoski, 14 April 2005

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the same house flag (#204, p. 46).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#11
Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

Cardiff Steam Ship Co., Ltd.

(W.R. Corfield & Co.)

image by Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021

Set up in 1881 to operate a passenger/freight business between Cardiff and Bordeaux. By 1893 the company owned the ships "Garonne", "Dordogne", "Taff", "Ely" & "Usk". Principal partners in the business would appear to have been Horatio Hooper, William Campbell & A.G.Todd. Nothing else known about this company at the present.

Short histories of some Cardiff area shipping companies
http://www.angelfire.com/de/BobSanders/SHIPCO.html

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Cardiff Steam Ship Co., Ltd. (W.R. Corfield & Co.) (#1549, p. 110), a Cardiff-based shipping company, as white with a blue cross, in the respective quarters, the blue letters "C", "S", "S", and "C".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#75
Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021

Cargill Steam Trawling Co., Ltd.

image by Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Edward Buckton Cargill was a trawler owner from Hull who was born on 25 May 1856 and died on 6 March 1914. His mother was Susannah Buckton who married James Allen Cargill, a lithographer from Perthshire. Her father was Edward Buckton, a mariner from Hull born in 1804/5.
Susannah's brother, also named Edward, set up a sweet factory in Hull. After running into financial difficulties, he sold the business in 1886 to Fred Needler for Ł100. Edward had taken on Fred as an 18 year old book-keeper 4 years earlier. Fred was obviously an astute businessman as this small enterprise grew into an established factory which still operates today.
Edward Buckton Cargill appears to have had something of a reputation and was not held in affection by his own children. Indeed, his household seems to have been a particularly unhappy place despite the fact that they enjoyed considerable luxury for the time.
As was the tradition at the time, Edward named a steam trawler launched in 1898 (H412) after himself. During the First World War, whilst just 2 hours out of port off Spurn Head, it struck a mine resulting in the loss of the vessel and all the crew.
Edward is buried in Hessle Cemetery near Hull, and his former residence, York Lodge, still exists today. Several of Edward's sons continued in the trawling industry and, of these, Arthur was also prominent in public service as a City Councillor who also became Sheriff of Hull in 1934.

Jacky Buckton
http://homepage.virgin.net/jacky.buckton/Genealogy/Edward.htm

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Cargill Steam Trawling Co., Ltd. (#1842, p. 124) as white with a blue horizontal stripe at the top and bottom of the flag, charged in the center with a red cross.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#89
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2021

Carmet Tug Co.

image by Jarig Bakker, 30 November 2005

Carmet Tug Co., Ltd., Liverpool - horizontal blue-white-blue; in center bright blue shield charged with a white dolphin, black "CM".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 30 November 2005

Carisbrooke Shipping plc.

image by Jarig Bakker, 10 January 2006

Carisbrooke shipping plc., Cowes - blue flag, yellow "CS". (See also Carisbrooke Shipping, Netherlands).
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 10 January 2006

This picture: http://jeaniusconsulting.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/24Peaks2014CS.jpg, source: http://jeaniusconsulting.com/maritime-corporate-fundraisers-scale-new-heights-for-seafarers-uk/), dated August 6, 2014, shows the flag variant of Carisbrooke Shipping. The picture was taken during the 2014 Seafarers UK 24 Peaks Challenge (official website: http://www.seafarers-uk.org/challenge-events/24-peaks-challenge/).

For additional information go to: Carisbrooke Shipping (official website) http://www.carisbrooke.co/
Esteban Rivera, 21 July 2015

L.S. Carr & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of L.S. Carr & Co. (#1405, p. 103), a Newcastle-based company, as blue with a white six-pointed star.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#68
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021

F. Carrick & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 27 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of F. Carrick & Co. (#782, p. 74), a Newcastle-based company, as diagonally divided red-white from upper hoist to lower fly, charged in lower hoist with a white "C" and in upper fly with a red Magen David inscribed in a red circle.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/39/
Ivan Sache, 27 April 2021

The Carron Company

image by Eugene Ipavec, 16 August 2008

The Carron Company, Carron - red flag with the company seal in the center. The Carron Company was on the Carron River, near Falkirk, Scotland, producing guns, ammunition, etc.
Jarig Bakker, 24 January 2005

The Carron Co. flag based on Lloyds (1912) showing a picture of the seal, which differs slightly from a couple of other sources, such as Loughran (1979) which is a bit more ornate, and Talbot-Booth (1936) and Campbell & Evans with their Book of Flags (1957) with both the latter sources showing an oval with flat sides, but this version shows the lettering more plainly and the design of a phoenix rising from crossed carronades over a pile of a cannon balls. It is also supported by the version shown by Fenton and Clarkson in their "British Shipping Fleets". Ships also had a cannon ball attached to the mainmast head from the time of the Crimean War originally to signify they were carrying munitions. The company itself dated from 1759 gaining a Royal Charter in 1773 and apart from munitions apparently achieved fame with their cast-iron baths developed in 1866. The company was dissolved in 1983.

[The Carron Company houseflag] images by Eugene Ipavec, 16 August 2008

As is usual with flags showing more complicated emblems and Arms, the early sources vary with their portrayals. The earliest I have is from the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce sheet of 1885 which shows the arms only, no writing, appearing on a white oval [see right above]. Griffin 1895 is more complex with a rounded background containing "ESTO PERPETUA" in chief and "CARRON CO." in base and showing some colour for the phoenix [see left above]. Reed 1901 and Lloyds 1904 differ slightly again by making the base inscription "CARRON COY". Then from 1909 onwards the sources shown are like the scan from Lloyds although the original flag as mentioned by Talbot-Booth in 1944 and shown by Fenton & Clarkson does note that the flag was at one time merely white with a red border and such a flag is shown by Reed 1891 for Carron Steamship Co., which had been taken over by them around 1782, [see image below] although the timing of Reed seems rather out as I get the impression that the red flag with seal had been adopted about the mid 1850s.
Neale Rosanoski, 14 April 2005

image by Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

The founding fathers of Carron Company were Dr John Roebuck (a GP then industrial chemist, born in Sheffield), Samuel Garbett (an entrepreneurial businessman), and William Cadell (a merchant and ship-owner from Cockenzie near Edinburgh.) Roebuck and Garbett were already in partnership producing sulphuric acid which was used to clean metal. Roebuck had invented a more efficient system of large lead containers to process the volatile liquid.

Roebuck and Garbett relocated to Cockenzie, near Edinburgh where they became friends with Cadell. A proud Scotsman, Cadell wanted to “improve the industrial capability of Scotland” and so the enterprise of an Iron Foundry was born. Carron Company was established in 1759 with the first iron produced in 1760. The company crest was a phoenix presiding over its products: ordnance and ammunition. The company motto, Esto Perpetua, echoed the everlasting nature of the phoenix rising from the flames and must have seemed, at the time, a reflection of the quality and ambition of the venture.

http://www.ourstoriesfalkirk.com/story/the-carron-company-an-introduction
Our Stories Falkirk
Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

Castle Mail Packet Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 28 December 2005

Castle Mail was – with Union Steamship Co. – the other ancestor of the famous Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. To some extent, the histories of Union and Castle run parallel so I won’t elaborate on things already mentioned in the Union Steamship Co. page. Links to relevant pages concerning Union-Castle are on that page, but some more specific ones are:

http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/castle.html
http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/castle.html
http://www.clydesite.co.uk/articles/SIR_DONALD_CURRIE.asp

In 1862 Donald Currie, a Scottish engineer who had worked for Cunard and already possessed a controlling interest in a few other shipping companies, set up a firm of his own: Donald Currie and Co. Sailing from Liverpool to India and introducing a novelty, fixed schedules, the firm quickly made its mark. As the ships were named after famous castles, it was only natural that the company would become known as the Castle Line and the ships as Currie’s Calcutta Castles. The opening of the Suez Canal (1869) had a negative impact on the India routes via the Cape but the failure of a competitor, the Cape & Natal Steam Navigation Co., enabled Currie to have new ships sail to South Africa rather than to India.

Important years were 1872, which saw the launching of the first steamship, and 1876 when the mail contract to South Africa (together, as we have seen, with Union Steamship) was awarded. In the same year the company had been reorganized as Castle Mail Packet Co.; it was to go public in 1881. As a member of Parliament, Castle’s owner – Sir Donald by now – proposed the introduction of armed merchant cruisers which was a new and radical idea at the time. How the South African mail contract was renewed and Union-Castle founded (1900).

The house flag was blue with a white saltire and a white diamond in the centre, bearing a red initial ‘C’; found on the Red Duster site: http://www.red-duster.co.uk/UNION10.htm
Jan Mertens, 20 December 2005

Castle Steam Trawlers, Ltd.

image by Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021

Castle Steam Trawlers operated trawlers preffixed "... Castle", including "Swansea Castle", "Picton Castle", "Neath Castle", "Harfat Castle", "Pembroke Castle", "Amroth Castle", "Oystermouth Castle", "Benton Castle", "Manorbier Castle", "Walwyns Castle", "Tenby Castle", "Powis Castle", "Dale Castle", "Harfat Castle", "Carew Castle", "Cardigan Castle", "Ruthin Castle".

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Castle Steam Trawlers, Ltd. (#1697, p. 117), a Swansea-based fishing company, as white with a blue cross, charged in canton with a blue star.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#82
Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021

Catcheside Steamship Co., Ltd.

T.H. Catcheside & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021

Catcheside was already registered in 1892 as steamship owners, coal exporters and chartering agents in Newcastle.

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Catcheside Steamship Co., Ltd. (T.H. Catcheside & Co.) (#1437, p. 105), as blue, charged in the center with a red square diamond with a white border and inscribing a white "C".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/70/
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021

Cay, Hall & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Cay, Hall & Co. (#1718, p. 118), a Bristol-based shipping company, as white with a red border and a red saltire.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#83
Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021

British Shipping lines: continued