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Largest Fleet Of Ships

11K views 56 replies 35 participants last post by  fordie 
#1 ·
At the hight of the British Merchant Navy which company/Line had the largest amount of ships. I know City Line had a lot of ships as well as the Port Line. Anyone know the answer,this is not a quiz I would just like to know the name of the company.
John(Thumb)
 
#7 ·
I think it probably depends on what you use as a measuring stick & when you consider which were the peak years of the British Merchant Navy. During the late 50s, early 60s, BP was certainly a front runner in terms of number of vessels & deadweight tonnage. In 1958/59 when I joined BP they had about 130 deep sea vessels, all registered in London. I cannot say what was the total deadweight tonnage but as they owned some of the largest vessels (in dwt terms) in the world then I suspect they were also the world leaders. Shell's total world wide fleet was possibly larger but scattered under a variety of flags, although the UK flagged fleet was probably the largest in the group but not the largest in the UK.
I'm open to argument though.
Kind regards,
John.
 
#10 ·
Hi John,
I would think that Blue Funnel must have had one of the largest dry cargo fleets in the 50's. I think that when I was there in 1952/56 they had about 65 ships. I remember reading the "Journal of Commerce" in those days which gave every Thursday a Blue Flue Fleet list and where all the vessels were or where they were due.

Trader.
 
#12 ·
Quote from Board of Trade Aquaintances
Between 1914 and 1946 P&O acquired a number of other shipping companies, beginning with the British India Steam Navigation Company whose Chairman Lord Inchcape also became Chairman of P&O following the retirement of Sir Thomas Sutherland. The New Zealand Shipping Company, Federal Steam Navigation Company, Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Hain Steamship Company and James Nourse were taken over during the First World War. Orient Line, Mercantile Steamship, General Steam and Strick Line were acquired soon afterwards, Moss Hutchison Line and New Medway Steam Packet Company in the 1930s, and Eastern & Australian Steamship Company in 1946.

Under Lord Inchcape’s Chairmanship from 1915 to 1932, the combined fleet grew to a peak in the mid 1920’s of nearly five hundred ships of many different kinds, ranging from P&O’s traditional black-hulled passenger and mail liners to coasters, colliers, Thames pleasure steamers, state-of-the-art refrigerated cargo liners on the New Zealand/UK service, and passenger/cargo ships of all shapes and sizes trading along the coasts of India, the Gulf, and East Africa.

P&O itself continued to concentrate on large, fast passenger and mail steamers. Its best ships served as troopships and armed merchant cruisers in both World Wars. Several were sunk, but most losses suffered by the P&O Group - 85 ships in the First World War, 179 in the Second - were as part of the massive contribution by its cargo ships to the struggle to keep Britain supplied with munitions, raw materials and foodstuffs.

TomS
 
#14 ·
Following quote from introduction to Merchant Fleets Furness Withy by Duncan Haws
'Of all the compnaies in my 6,000 plus file Furness Withy has been among the most frustrating. My records sprawled across many companies and from Lloyds Registers I amassed over 600 FW ship names, excluding Houlder Bros, Prince and Manchester Liners'.
I suspect, John, you would have to subdivide your question - it would have to be either 'company' or 'line' because in their heydays shipping companies were made up of several shipping lines at any given time. In some cases only a percentage of a subsidiary was owned. Even then it will probably be tough to get a definitive answer.
An interesting thread to follow...
All the best
Jim MacIntyre
 
#21 ·
Most ships



John

You're right. I would put a lot of money on it. Between Shell and BP. That's based on the question of most ships under the british flag.

When i sailed with shell between 84-88, many of the older hands would often state the statistics of early to mid seventies and sometimes the statistics from just after WW2.

Mick S
 
#25 ·
Great thread I was impressed with the detail of P.& O. which went a long way to confirm my first thoughts. It would be interesting to get a final tally, but me thinks rather difficult. To lose so many ships in the 2nd WW gives a good lead to the general size of the Company and we all know the vast majority sailed the Red Duster. Still food for thought I suspect we will never get a final result.

Regards Ron
 
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