Last modified: 2021-05-29 by rob raeside
Keywords: british india steam navigation co. |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
based on Sampson (1957)
See also:
Houseflag: White burgee with red St. Andrew's cross.
Brown's Flags and Funnels (1940):
British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. London
Funnel: Black with two white bands.
Flag: A white, forked flag, a red orthogonal saltire, starting from the hoist
corners. The arms of the saltire are pictured 3:14 of the hoist wide. The fork
is orthogonal as well, leaving a white border between saltire and edges. This
border is pictured 4:14 of the hoist wide. (One can not help but wonder whether
in the actual flag the white is as wide as the red beside it.)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 18 October 2003
British India Steam Navigation Co. The fleet commodore used this flag with the
addition of a red ball in the white hoist area.
Neale Rosanoski, 22 March 2004
Larousse Commercial Illustré (1930) shows British India, London: white
swallow-tail with a red saltire. The flag's indentation is about one fourth
deep, the distance between this edge and the saltire equalling the width of the
saltire's arms. Now this width appears to be one fourth of the flag's height.
The image shown above as `British India Steam Navigation Co.', shows a thinner
saltire and much more room between the saltire and the indentation. The on-line
1912 Lloyd's Flags & Funnels has this flag under No. 638:
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/32/
Jan Mertens, 16 May 2004
The BI houseflag was a white burgee with red St Andrew's cross. Although no
record remains as to the origin or meaning of the flag, the book Shipping
Wonders of the World did recount a yarn which, though unauthenticated, perhaps
contains some of the truth: It is to the effect that the founders, William
Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie, being good Scots, instructed a flagmaker to make
sets of flags for their first ships, taking the St Andrews's cross as their
design and cutting a triangle from the fly to distinguish it from the national
flag. One of the partners drew an outline to indicate the flag's shape and
position of the cross, but the ignorant Sassenach flagmaker based the saltire on
a red-on-white St Patrick's cross instead of the intended white-on-blue. Rather
than waste the completed flags, the story goes, the frugal Scots adopted the
design.
John Prescott, 19 August 2008
An example at
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/171.html, circa 1951,
shows the middle lines of
the saltires going through the corners, and the
angle in the saltire seems closer to orthogonal.
Peter Hans van den
Muijzenberg, 6 May 2019
image by David Mitchell, 19 August 2008
[Click on image for double
sized version.]
image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.
From the website of the National
Maritime Museum, "Commodore's broad pennant, British India Steam Navigation
Company, London. A white burgee bearing a red saltire and a red ball at the
hoist. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton
hoist and is machine sewn. A rope and two Inglefield clips is attached.
The company was set up in 1856 by a Scottish firm of general merchants,
Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co., as the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company
to run a mail service between Rangoon and Calcutta. A new company was founded
called the British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd in 1862 to run services from
Calcutta and Bombay to Indian Ocean ports, using local coal and with a subsidy
from the government of Bombay. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, BI
began direct services between India and the UK, their routes eventually
extending to East Africa, the Far East and Australasia.
BI ships were used for trooping in most conflicts until the British Government
changed over to air transport in 1960. In 1893, the original company chairman
Sir William Mackinnon died. In 1914 BI amalgamated with
P&O. The company suffered a loss of business
as a result of Indian independence in 1947. It lost its separate identity with
the reorganisation of P&O in 1971.
Jarig Bakker, 5 August 2004
[The following section was prepared from http://www.biship.com with material and links added by Jan Mertens, 15-21 January 2007.]
“For all those with an interest in British India Steam Navigation (BI)" the site
at http://www.biship.com has much to offer:
The ‘History’ section recalls
the beginnings:
“...in the mid-1850s when the Hon. East India Company, then the effective
government of both India and Burma, invited bids for a contract to carry mail
between Calcutta and Rangoon on a strict schedule of regularity [, William]
Mackinnon was quick to make an offer; he would form a limited liability company
to run at least two screw steamers between the two great ports, the promptitude
of their services guaranteed. This was accepted. William Mackinnon then hurried
home to Scotland to raise the necessary capital and buy the vessels he required.
The Calcutta & Burmah Steam Navigation Co Ltd was registered in Glasgow on
September 24. 1856. The capital was what we would regard nowadays as the modest
sum of £35,000.
(...)
That was the beginning of what is now the British India Steam Navigation Co and
the anniversary of BI must date from the formation of the Calcutta & Burmah
Company. It is of more than romantic interest that Mackinnon chose as the badge
of his new concern — on crockery, cutlery, etc — the
peacock of Burma.”
image by Eugene Ipavec, 24 August 2008
Based on a lithographed image at biship.com. Colours are unknown.
More on this peacock emblem on the page dedicated to ‘BI Associate and
Affiliated Companies’:
“This badge, copied from a piece of company crockery, is the only known
surviving representation of a C&BSN device.” [Colours unknown to me.] I do not think this is a
swallowtail; in any case there are nine horizontal stripes, four of them
lighter in colour, and a very large double-rimmed disk showing a peacock in
his pride.
More flags from this
British India Steam Navigation Co. page, but to begin, some recent BI flag
sightings (fittingly hoisted, or shown, during reunions):
http://www.biship.com/portsmouth/portsmoutheventpix/pages/Reunion040004x_jpg.htm
http://www.biship.com/portsmouth/portsmoutheventpix/pages/Reunion040074x_jpg.htm
http://www.biship.com/imagesengineers/pages/group24_jpg.htm
"Fittingly", as since 1971, BI symbols had to make way before P&O livery. The
flag lives on.
- Back to above house flag page. The second listed is 1866
Nederlandsch-Indische Stoomvaart Maatschappij
which, as Jarig states, was British rather than Dutch - a white, red saltire,
blue initials between the arms ‘NISM’.
image by Eugene Ipavec, 24 August 2008
Based on image at biship.com
- Third one is 1873 /
British India Associated Steamers, although the following page mentions 1885
as founding year and absorption into BI in 1903 (this particular ship along with
the others, too, I suppose). Flag was white swallowtail with red saltire, large
blue disk in centre. The British India Steam Navigation page in question is the
only source showing the swallowtail I am aware of (it may well be erroneous).
[This flag for which Jan has doubts is that of the British India Associated
Steamers as shown by Lloyds 1882 as British India Association. According to
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
the company was registered 5/1885 with its first ship "Jumna" built in 1886 and
its fleet was absorbed into the main BI fleet in 1903.
Neale Rosanoski,
26 August 2008]s
- Fourth one is 1881 / Queensland Steam Shipping Co.
Red swallowtail, white saltire as given by BI page.
- Fifth one is unknown, being 1885 Eastern Steamship Company (Ducal Line).
See
this comment
on a discussion list:
“the Eastern Steamship Co (Ducal Line) which traded between the UK and
Calcutta. (…) in 1884 agreement was made between the Ducal Line and British
India Steam Navigation Co whereby Ducal Line ships would trade alongside
BISN Co ships on the Queensland trade.”
Apparently the end came in 1902:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~westat58/articles/westraysatsea.htm.
Possibly the house flag is shown on the last picture (painting of ‘Duke of
Devonshire’), here,
but there is not enough detail – same problem
here.
- Sixth firm named is 1885 / British India & Queensland Agency Company showing
the flag of British India Steam (taking some artistic liberty it is true – the
swallowtails on this page do match their saltires). Could this have been the
Australian branch?
- Seventh is 1887 / Australasian United SN Co. showing a white saltire defining
red (upper, lower) and blue (left, right) triangles. Shown at
au~hfau.html#ausn. Check out Neale' comments on the
merger of firms and house flags to obtain this one.
- No. eight is 1895 / Ceylon Steamship Company, house flag unknown. Some history
(including rates for cows and the notorious boiler) is available
here. According
to the BI ship site, 1895 was the year when BI acquired a controlling interest.
- Ninth is 1901 / Eastern Coal Company, no flag shown (or found); 1901 is year
of foundation.
image by Ivan Sache, 29 March 2008
- Tenth named is 1912 / Apcar & Co., purchased by BI in that year, a
Calcutta-based firm active in mining founded by a family of Armenian descent. A blue saltire defines two white triangles (upper
and lower) and two red ones (left and right). Also seen in the on-line 1912
Lloyds Flags & Funnels:
http://www.mysticseaport.org (source of the flag image No. 133). (See
also: Apcar & Co.)
- Eleventh is 1913 /
Archibald Currie
& Co. (year of purchase),
a Melbourne firm (I think “Archo.” is a typo for “Archd.”). White flag with
red saltire, a blue lozenge placed over it in the centre. Jorge’s version
has it large, the BI site small. Large again, bolstering up Jorge’s
version, in Lloyds mentioned above, No. 470:
http://www.mysticseaport.org
Founder’s biography (small but excellent fleet; famous for transportation of
horses): http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030477b.htm
- Twelfth is 1915 / Mazagon Dock Company, no house flag, but a funnel showing
the P&O and BI flags together. Saying it all in a few sentences (http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/bistart.html):
"April 1915 Mazagon Dock Co. formed at Bombay jointly by BI and P&O. Part of the
dock had been in use as a dockyard since 1700. The company was sold in 1960" (to
the Indian government, jm).
I should add that its successor, Mazagon Dock Ltd, is now a very important
shipyard in India: http://www.mdlindia.com/
- No. thirteen is 1916 / Garden Reach Workshops (Calcutta), no flag given. This
was a ship repair yard also acquired by the Indian Government, Again, a quote
from the same
Merchant Navy Officers webpage:
"August 1816 (surely 1916, jm) Garden Reach Workshops, Calcutta, formed in
conjunction with [P&O] S.N. Co Ltd. The land had been acquired in 1865. The
company sold it in 1960."
- Fourteenth is 1917 Hain Steamship Co. Two are
shown, both red with white initials `EH and `H' respectively. Founder's
biography:
http://www.botacquaintances.co.uk/Sir_Edward_Hain.html
- Fifteenth is James Nourse, also acquired in 1917, see
our page. White, a blue saltire, and a red lozenge in the centre. The
Merchant Navy Officers
site gives a history.
- Sixteenth is 1919 / F.C. Strick and Co. showing the white swallowtail,
horizontally edged in blue and containing the famous
red and blue chevrons already familiar.
Company history at
Merchant Navy Officers (incidentally presenting two related firms I had
never heard of).
- Seventeenth is 1919 / Eastern & Australian Steamship Co., London, the year in
question logically being that of acquisition by BI as the company was founded
much earlier: see our page. Green field, broad
descending diagonal in red bearing a crest (colours of wreath not detailed) of a
yellow lion – rampant reguardant - holding a white anchor. The main difference
with Jarig’s version is the anchor’s colour (white in the BI page version) but
that is covered by Neale’s comments.
- No. eighteen is 1928 / Arracan Flotilla Company, year of purchase, no flag
given. Totally unknown to me.
- No. nineteen is 1934 / Asiatic Steam Navigation Co., 1934 being the year a
controlling interest was acquired. See FOTW-ws giving a blue star on white and
broad horizontal edges, also blue. The BI version has the edges much smaller but
Jarig’s source is most authorative, backed up by the 1912 on-line
Lloyds Flags & Funnels. Asiatic Steam history from
Merchant Navy
Officers site
image by Eugene Ipavec, 24 August 2008
Based on image at biship.com
- Twentieth is 1962 Trident Tankers Ltd, a P&O venture aimed at getting a share
of the growing tanker market and quickly becoming the largest independent oil
carrier of that period. In the beginning of the seventies, rationalization
measures led to the company being absorbed by the P&O Bulk Shipping Division.
The house flag is the famous P&O flag with a
black-rimmed lozenge, bearing Neptune’s trident, added in the centre.
P&O flag at gb~hfp.html#po
Merchant Navy Officers site, pages dedicated to Trident Tankers:
http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/trident.html
No. twenty-one (and last) being 1965 / Mauritius Steam Navigation Co. Based at
Port Louis, 1965 being I think the year of foundation. Possibly still in
existence?
The flag shown is a white swallowtail,
completely edged in blue, bearing a red diamond touching the blue edges and a
blue initial ‘M’ in said diamond.
To end, a note on the British Indian Steam Navigation house flag referring to
comments of Peter Hans and my own regarding the exact placement of the saltire
above. Let me drag in the inevitable eBay offer, item no. 130003031892 (end 10
July 2006) showing an original house flag from several angles. "Size 67 x116 cm"
(See also photos of events in part 1 of this series – at least the version used
outside is not original, surely?) The image
here quite clear as to the regularity (placement, good design) of saltire
and flag field. Apparently Sampson’s image was approximate, not so the Larousse
Commercial 's (using Lloyds as a source I reckon).
Jan Mertens, 21 January 2007
British Shipping lines: continued