House flags of British shipping companies (7)

Last modified: 2004-01-09 by rob raeside
Keywords: house flag | peninsular & occidental | p&o | port line | purvis | sir william reardon | souther line | red funnel | swayne & hoyt | s&h | peninsular and oriental | p&o |
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• P & A Campbell
• Pacific Steam Navigation Co.
• Palm Line
• Peninsular and Oriental (P&O)
• Port Line Ltd.
• Prince Line
• Purvis Shipping Co., Ltd.
• Red Funnel Line
• Sir Robert Ropner & Co.
• Royal Mail Lines
• Walter Runciman & Co.
• Wm. Sloan & Co.
• Sir William Reardon Smith & Sons Ltd.
• South American Saint Line
• Southern Line, Ltd.
• Stephenson Clarke
• John Stewart & Co. Shipping
• Straits Steamship Co., Ltd.
• Frank C. Strick & Co.
• Swayne & Hoyt Lines

• House flags of British shipping companies
• House flags of shipping companies
• United Kingdom

P & A Campbell

by James Dignan

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

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

  by James Dignan

Brown 620: Thompson Steam-shipping Co., Ltd., London
Funnel: Yellow with a red T; a black top.
Flag: White, a red, approximately square, diamond in the center, with a white T. The T is about one-third as high as the flag; the square is half the flag's height across.

This flag is shown as the flag of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. in Sampson (1957), although it is described in Flags and Funnels as white, with blue St. George's
Cross, gold crown in center and red PSNC in quarters.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 18 October 2003

Pacific Steam Navigation, founded 1938 in London with routes to South America at first. The first house flag was similar to that shown in Brown, but with a Chilean style star where the crown in. The company was granted a Royal Charter and the star eventually replaced by the crown. In the early 1840's the company headquarters was moved to Liverpool. With Anderson, Anderson & Co., and F. Green & Co. co-founded the Orient Steam Navigation Company to compete with P&O in offering service to Australia (1877). During the Boer War one of their ships was used as a hospital ship and four others as troop carriers. In 1902 their royal charter was extended for another 21 years and in 1905 Pacific Steam Navigation sold their share of Oriental Steam Navigation to Royal Mail, the service being discontinued in 1909. In 1910, Pacific Steam Navigation was purchased by Royal Mail. In 1922, the royal charter was extended in perpetuity. After the Royal Mail scandal (referred to earlier in this thread), the company was operated independently for a while before being repurchased by the newly reorganized Royal Mail in 1938. In 1952 the crown on the flag was replaced by the Edwardian style crown. After Royal Mail was purchased by Furness Withy in 1965, the company continued to operate a limited number of ships under the Pacific Steam Navigation flag until operations for PSNC were ceased in 1985.
Phil Nelson, 18 October 2003

I found the Palm Line house flag in "All about Ships and Shipping", Edwin P. Harnack, (1959 edition).  The scan doesn't show it well, but it is all dark green.
Jarig Bakker, 04 Feb 2002

Quartered per saltire in white, red, yellow and blue.
Jorge Candeias, 23 Feb 1999

Throughout its 150 years P&O has been a premier British shipowner, and in its time the largest in the world. [About the flag:] It has flown the same quartered flag, embodying the royal colours of Portugal and Spain, from its very beginnings.
Jarig Bakker, 22 Jan 1999, quoting from the P&O website.

This image is redrawn from one provided by Ted Harrison, based on a menu card from the shipping line.

by Phil Nelson, 9 April 2000

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963: note the narrower crosses.

The Port Line was in operation from about 1923 to 1980.

Prince Line

Red swallowtailed pennon with the Prince of Wales' ostrich feathers in white.
James Dignan, 17 October 2003

Founded 1884. The first ships were Saxon Prince and Highland Prince. Incorporated 1885 as Prince Lines out of Newcastle. Sold to Furness, Withy & Co in 1916 after Sir James Knott, the owner, had his three sons killed during World War I. In 1917, Furness, Withy created a subsidiary to the company, Rio-Cape Line Ltd. Rio-Cape was merged back into Prince Line in 1954. By the 1960s the company was leasing ships on an as needed basis, although it would venture into container ships in the 1970s before the company was amalgamated with Manchester Lines. Furness, Withy was sold to C.Y. Tung and later to Hamburg Sud. Today it exists in name only as part of Hamburg Sud's entity Shaw Savill Holdings Ltd.
Phil Nelson, 18 October 2003

Purvis Shipping Co., Ltd

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963

Red Funnel Line

a.k.a. Southampton, Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Public Limited Company

Quartered per saltire in white, green, red and blue.
Jorge Candeias, 23 Feb 1999

The Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Public Limited Company. Universally known as Red Funnel for short.
Roy Stilling

The Southampton and Isle of Wight RMSP Co Ltd used a diagonally divided flag that was - clockwise from the top - white, green, red and blue.
James Dignan

Sir Robert Ropner & Co.

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 19 October 2003

Quartered red and white; on each quarter letters R.R.&Co. in white and red respectively.
Jarig Bakker, 19 October 2003

Royal Mail Lines

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 15 October 2003

Houseflag: White, with red St. Andrew's Cross and Gold Crown in center.
Jarig Bakker. 15 October 2003

Founded as the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1839 originally between the UK and the Caribbean and Central America and extending north to Halifax and New York. Purchased the White Star Line in 1927. In 1932, became the Royal Mail Line following significant losses by the company and conviction of the company chairman Lord Kylsant for larceny (specifically having falsified the company financial books). In 1965 RML was purchased by Furness, Withy & Co and in the 1970s sold successively to C Y Tung (HK) and Hamburg-Süd (DE). Currently operates a refrigerated cargo service between South America and Europe.
Phil Nelson, 16 October 2003

Walter Runciman & Co.

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 11 October 2003

Based in Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK
Phil Nelson, 11 October 2003

Wm. Sloan & Co.

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 19 October 2003

Blue with white diamond over all, charged with red letters W.S.&Co (o superscript)
Jarig Bakker, 19 October 2003

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963

South American Saint Line

White, with a red saltire which doesn't quite reach to the edges of the flag (almost as if there was a white border around the whole flag. In the centre, a white shield containing what looks like a yellow flower.
James Dignan, 17 October 2003

UK and Continent - South America; Houseflag: white, with red St. Andrew's cross; white field edged red in center, containing rising sun over Tudor rose.
Jarig Bakker, 17 October 2003

Southern Line, Ltd.

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963

Stephenson Clarke

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 19 October 2003

Stephenson Clarke & Associated Co.'s, Ltd.
Description: blue with red St. Andrew's cross; white letters S&CCo in each quarter.
Jarig Bakker, 19 October 2003

John Stewart & Co. Shipping

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 11 October 2003

Based in Glasgow, Scotland
Phil Nelson, 11 October 2003

---

The old Straits Steamship Company operated out of Singapore. The Company was associated with the Blue Funnel Line (Alfred Holt & Co.) Liverpool. It was operating for around 100 yrs up to the late 1950's when it was bought out by Kepal.
John Bax, 6 July 2001

Flag is blue ground; white cross on red diamond, according to Lloyd's Calendar (1957). Grote Elsevier Atlas (1951) has an image for Straits Lines (Gr. Br.), which I have used to make this image. The funnel in Elsevier's has a thin white line between the black and blue (as on the Blue Funnel funnel).
Jarig Bakker, 6 July 2001

Talbot-Booth (c1934) shows a large diamond with the corners almost touching the edges of the flag, but Stewart (1953), revised by Styring (1963), shows a small diamond with the corners well back from the edges of the flag.
David Prothero, 7 July 2001

Frank C. Strick & Co.

by James Dignan

Based on Sampson (1957).
James Dignan, 8 October 2003

Houseflag: white burgee, blue border, top and bottom, with red, blue, red and blue chevrons. Sailing: United Kingdom-Persian Gulf.
Jarig Bakker, 9 October 2003

Brown 195: Strick Line, Ltd., London.
Funnel: Black, a wide white band with four shortened chevrons pointing to the viewers left, alternating from the left, red and blue.
Flag: 2:3, a forked white flag with blue borders along the fly-wise edges, four shortened chevrons pointing towards the hoist, alternating red and blue. The chevrons, together with the spaces between them that have the same width as the bars of the chevrons, fill almost the entire depth of the flag. The chevrons and the fork are all orthogonal. (It may be that the intention is that only a single width separates the last chevron from the fly edges, but the print quality of Browns' is not sufficient to be sure.)

James's images is more like:
Flag: 2:3, a forked white flag with blue borders along the fly-wise edges, four shortened chevrons pointing towards the hoist, alternating red and blue. The chevrons, together with the spaces between them that have the same width as the bars of the chevrons, fill approximately half the depth of the flag. The fork is orthogonal, the chevrons are obtuse.
 Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 20 October 2003

Swayne & Hoyt Lines