British & Commonwealth Shipping Company

[vic mcclymont]

British & Commonwealth Shipping Company
Although named as shipping company the name was a misnomer as the group was diverse and operated in many segments of UK Industry.

Its shipping companies consisted of :-
Clan Line Steamers 100%
Union Castle 100%
King Line 100%
Houston Line 100%
Scottish Tanker Company 100%
Scottish Shire Line 100%
Neptune Shipping Co. Ltd., Bermuda 100%
Cayzer Irvine & Co. Ltd., 100%
Safmarine Corp Ltd., 11.0%
Common Brothers 16.2%
Overseas Containers 19.4%
British & South American Steam Navigation Company Ltd. 100%
Springbok Line 100%
Cayzer Irvine Reefers 100%

SHIPBUILDING

Greenock Dockyard Company Ltd.
Greenock Dockyard Company (Gateshead) Ltd.

AIR INDUSTRY

Hunting- Clan Airlines 100%
Servisair 100%

FINANCE

Gartmore Financial Services 100%
Sea Lion Investments 100%
Foreign Railway Trust Company 100%
Sea Lion ventures 100%
Angola Holdings 100%
This is not a complete list of companies owned by B&C, it is purely indicative of the spread of companies owned by B&C in the early sixties.
Regards
Vic

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Vic.
Now that is what I would call concentrated Capitalism. Did this happen after or before the second world war?
Cheers Des

[vic mcclymont]

Des, majority of these companies were owned by the by the Cayzer family and had been bought over a number of years.
Regards
Vic.

[John Arton]

Back then there were any number of ship owners who not only owned and managed ships but had holdings, or owned, many other business's.
The Vesty family spring to mind with its chain of Butchers, Cold Storage, Property etc. mostly all related to the meat trade.
rgds
JA

[john walker]

Add to that list P&O with its shipping division of the recognisable ships in the Peninsular & Orient lines also British & India plus General Steam then add at various dates, Strick Line, Haines Nourse European ferries plus trident tankers pan ocean Bovis construction etc. Its own bank and goodness knows what else. Most of those companies did not know what to do with their money at the time. As long as they did not pay it to their crews they just got richer.

[Bryan Portwig]

thank you for your posting - it makes for interesting reading - i understand that with the event of containerization - the cayzer family interest was sold to mr john gunn in 1987 who in turn sold off the remaining interests - also the last ship owned by british & commonwealth was a king line vessel ?

[Tony Taylor]

British & Commonwealth Shipping Company
Although named as shipping company the name was a misnomer as the group was diverse and operated in many segments of UK Industry.

Its shipping companies consisted of :-
Clan Line Steamers 100%
Union Castle 100%
King Line 100%
Houston Line 100%
Scottish Tanker Company 100%
Scottish Shire Line 100%
Neptune Shipping Co. Ltd., Bermuda 100%
Cayzer Irvine & Co. Ltd., 100%
Safmarine Corp Ltd., 11.0%
Common Brothers 16.2%
Overseas Containers 19.4%
British & South American Steam Navigation Company Ltd. 100%
Springbok Line 100%
Cayzer Irvine Reefers 100%

SHIPBUILDING

Greenock Dockyard Company Ltd.
Greenock Dockyard Company (Gateshead) Ltd.

AIR INDUSTRY

Hunting- Clan Airlines 100%
Servisair 100%

FINANCE

Gartmore Financial Services 100%
Sea Lion Investments 100%
Foreign Railway Trust Company 100%
Sea Lion ventures 100%
Angola Holdings 100%
This is not a complete list of companies owned by B&C, it is purely indicative of the spread of companies owned by B&C in the early sixties.
Regards
Vic

I wonder why the B&C lads were always complaining about not being paid on time (65 - 67) or underpaid etc. for such a wealthy (apparently) company.

[Red Lead Ted]

Tony, I am trying to remember certain ships that would regularly go through Liverpool pool, That had the reputation of no overtime at sea there where quite a few, Everyone gave the WILLIAM WHEELWRIGHT. the wide berth for that very reason as we all know if you never got your 3 hours a day overtime the job was no good to you there where many more that where renown Terry.

[Captain Kong]

I did four months on the WILLIAM WHEELWRIGHT, it was after the Seamens strike in 1960,
she had been manned by Spanish coal miners during the strike, when we joined, My bunk was full of FLEES, I was bitten all over.

a Lousy trip in more ways than one.
Brian

[Ivan Cloherty]

As long as they did not pay it to their crews they just got richer.

I always got paid the rate I'd signed on for, if I didn't like the rate I went elsewhere, we knew what the rates were when we joined the profession, the minimum rates were in the NMB book.

I didn't mind shipowners getting rich, meant they could buy more ships I could serve on, I sailed on old ships (1914!) and new ships, I know which I preferred