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image by Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021
Founded in 1906 as single ship tramp companies mainly trading to the River Plate
with coal and returning with grain. However, all their ships were lost during
the Great War and the Gibbs Brothers stayed out of the shipping business until
1925 when they took delivery of two new ships. In WWII the company again lost
all three of their ships. Two wartime built ships were then purchased. A
partnership was formed with Counties Ship Management and London & Overseas
Freighters to operate ore carriers under the ownership of Welsh Ore Carriers
Ltd. In 1969 Gibbs became a subsidiary of London & Overseas Freighters and in
1982 Gibbs last ship was transferred to the parent company and Gibbs & Co
disappeared.
Mariners L
http://www.mariners-list.com/site_pages.php?section=Shipping+Companies&category=Welsh&page_name=Gibbs+and+Co
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
Gibbs & Co. (#1590, p. 112), a Cardiff-based shipping company, as red with a
white "G" in the middle.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#77
Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 20 March 2008
Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912)
shows the house flag of "Gibbs & Lee" (#47, p. 39), a company based in Cardiff
(Wales), as white with two red and white ascending diagonal stripes, a red
letter "G" in upper hoist and a blue letter "L" in lower fly. The shade of blue
is light is lighter than on most other flags shown by Lloyd's.
Bob Sanders lists Gibbs & Lee's "Royal Briton" among the tug boats of Cardiff,
1894 (http://www.angelfire.com/de/BobSanders/Tugs1894.html )
Ivan Sache,
20 March 2008
from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963
George Gibson & Co. Ltd. One of the survivors with origins back to 1797 and
still going. The flag however is one of uncertainty rather strangely. Not only
do sources disagree over dots after some or all letters or none, but also with
the colours of these letters. Basically they plump for either black or red,
although an 1895 source shows blue, neither of which appear to give any cause
for misinterpretation. In 1920 they absorbed the Rankine Ltd. and some sources
show the flag under Gibson Rankine Line
which appears to have been a service
name for trades associated with the latter company. At one stage in the late
1970s/early 1980s they had a German subsidiary, Deutsche George Gibson & Co Gastanker GmbH Reederei and a Mobil chart of German liveries shows another
version with the upper band being pink and the lower band red.
Neale Rosanoski, 6 June 2004
image by Jarig Bakker, 16 December 2004
Based on
Wedge 1926 G. Gibson & Company, Limited, Leith.
Triband red-white-blue, proportioned 2:1:2; on white "G.G.&Co" in black.
Jarig Bakker, 16 December 2004
image by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2021
George Gibson & Co. Ltd. The correct version as shown by the
National Maritime Museum site has red letters with dots and is dated
c.1951. The version shown for Wedge 1926 with a narrower white band, repeated in
the 1929 and 1934 editions, disagrees on the whole with other publications of
this period which show equal bands.
Neale Rosanoski, 18 July 2005
image by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows a similar house flag
(#1152, p. 91).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#56
Ivan Sache, 29 April 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Robert
Gilchrist & Co. - Henry Lamont & Co. (Glasgow, Greenock and Liverpool Steamers)
(#1670, p. 116), a Liverpool and Glasgow-based shipping company, as made of two
superimposed pennants, each horizontally divided blue-red.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#81
Ivan
Sache, 3 May 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Gillespie
& Nicol (#1323, p. 99), a Glasgow-based company, as horizontally divided
blue-white-blue (1:2:1), charged in the center with the red letters "G & N".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#64
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
It’s a triangular flag with horizontal
bottom, purplish blue with a dark blue
border around it except in the hoist.
Jorge Candeias, 24 Feb 1999
G.T. Gillie & Blair. Judging from the company website at www.gillieblair.com the flag image comprises a mauve field with a very dark blue border except at hoist, these two colours being fimbriated white [see above]. Although the image seems to suggest that the flag comprises a right angled triangle I wonder as this would be most unusual and a normal long pennant would seem possible, particularly as the flags previously shown have been pennants.
Talbot-Booth in Merchant Ships 1944 shows a blue pennant with a white
orle (above, left) whilst Brown1951 and Stewart 1963 have the orle
extending to the hoist (above, right) with Brown showing a
thicker white. Whether these represent changes in design or colours I do
not know but the format would seem to be basic after allowing for
artistic licence from the sources. Also note that Stewart shows under
the name of their subsidiary Firth Shipping Co. Ltd.
Neale Rosanoski, 15 June 2004
image by Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
Arthur Gladstone and John Cornforth formed their company in 1880. When John died
the company continued under Gladstone & Co. They ceased trading after they lost
their last two steamers to enemy fire in 1917.
Arthur Gladstone
(1852-1916) was born at Poplar, London. His father worked as a Lloyd’s shipping
surveyor. The family came to the North-East in 1853. Arthur’s first employment
was for Robert Irvine & Co. In 1875 he established the successful Vulcan Rivet
Works at Stockton-on-Tees and commenced ship owning in 1880. Arthur purchased
the iron works in 1881 from Jonathan Backhouse & Co. Matthew Gray joined him as
a partner and the works converted from iron to steel making when steel began
being used in shipbuilding. The works were eventually taken over by the South
Durham Steel & Iron Co. Ltd. In 1906 Arthur moved his offices from West
Hartlepool to Middlesbrough when he acquired the Grosmont Ironstone Mines along
with Arthur John Dorman.
https://www.hhtandn.org/venues/5087/gladstone-and-cornforth
Hartlepool
History Then and Now
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows
the house flag of Gladstone & Co. (#1252, p. 96), as yellow with a red cross
patty in the center.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#61
Ivan Sache, 30 April 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
Glasgow & South Western Railway (#1665, p. 116), a Greenock-based shipping
company, as triangular, blue with the central emblem from the company's badge.
hhttps://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#81
See also: Glasgow & South Western Railway
Ivan
Sache, 3 May 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021
The Glen family started shipowning in 1894 when they formed Glasgow Shipowners
Co Ltd and traded mainly with coal to Sweden, returning with timber. Shortly
afterwards they formed Scottish Navigation Co which operated deep sea tramps and
the Scandinavian Shipping Co. but ships were frequently transferred between the
companies. Three ships were lost during the Great War and in WWII the deep sea
fleet was wiped out and six Scandinavian traders were also lost. Eleven standard
type ships were managed for MOWT during and shortly after the war but no ships
were owned until the 1950s when the company took over management of the Dornoch
Shipping Co and Nile SS Co from Lambert Bros. In 1961 the Scandinavian traders
were taken over by F. T. Everard, Greenhithe and the services were terminated in
1967.
Mariners L
http://mariners-list.com/site_pages.php?section=Shipping+Companies&category=Scottish&page_name=Glen+%26+Co&PHPSESSID=ef52bc3e0066dee3235328f36a9f9f1e
Lawrence Glen died in 1938 in his 76th year. In the 1890s, he joined the
Napier Shipping Co., Glasgow, in which his uncle, James Napier, was interested.
Some years later, Glen formed the Glasgow Shipowners' Co., Ltd., and
subsequently took over the Napier shipping Co., changing its name to Glen & Co.
Glen & Co. were managing owners of about half a dozen shipping companies,
notably the Scandinavian Shipping Co., which together had a fleet of over 20
cargo vessels trading with Scandinavia. ("The Glasgow Herald", 4 July 1938)
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
(#1589, p. 112), a Glasgow-based shipping company, as swallow-tailed, blue, in
the center a white disk charged with a blue "G".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#77
Ivan Sache, 1 May 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 21 April 2021
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of
Gleneden Steamship Co., Ltd. (John Napier) (#84, p. 40), a Glasgow-based
company, as, swallow-tailed, white with a blue border and a red "N" in the
center.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#5
Ivan
Sache, 21 April 2021
image by Jarig Bakker, 3 November 2005
Glenlight Shipping Ltd., Ardrossan - red swallowtail, in center narrow white
stripe; white disk, charged with black "G".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 3 November 2005
image by Ivan Sache, 25 April 2021
Glen Coasters Ltd. was wound up voluntarily on 4 August 1914.
[The London
Gazette, 21 August 1914]
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912)
shows the house flag of
Glen Coasters, Ltd. (Matthew Worth) (#581, p. 64), a
Newcastle-based company, as blue with a white border, charged in the center with
a white "G".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/29/
Ivan
Sache, 25 April 2021
Based on Sampson (1957) This flag flies
under a blue pennon charged with a white Maltese cross (possibly on a black
square?)
James Dignan, 18 October 2003
Blue pennant with white Maltese cross over a red and white flag quartered
diagonally, with Union Jack in center.
Jarig Bakker, 18 October 2003
Founded in the mid 1800s in Glasgow. The company name emerged in 1868. In 1880
became known as McGregor, Gow & Company, although it was still promoted as the
Glen Line. Glen Line Ltd was formed in 1910. The shares of the company were
acquired by Elder, Dempster and Co. in 1911. As Elder, Demster was owned by
Royal Mail, the ensuing problems of caused by Lord Kylsant resulted in the line
being a part of Alfred Holt and Co. (later known as Ocean Transport and Trading
Co.). Glen Line ceased to own ships in 1978, and the Ocean Transport and Trading
Co. was purchased by P&O, which sold the Glen Line assets to Curnow Shipping
Limited. The company is not operating, although it appears to be still legally
registered.
Phil Nelson, 19 October 2003
Glen Line. Originally the blue pennant flown superior had a white hoist
bearing a blue saltire befitting the Scottish origin of the founders. By the
1912 books the Maltese Cross version was being shown whilst some sources show
this as just a cross couped. A couple of early sources also show the Union Flag
panel without any white but this seems to be printing blues.
Neale Rosanoski, 6 June 2004
image by Martin Grieve, 19 April 2009
I have re-drawn the flag of the Global Marine Systems ensign copying Graham's
version from "British flags and emblems". This
intrinsically "was" the old flag of the GPO (General Post Office), but the old
Father Time figure has been increased in size relative to the ensign's hoist
width.
Martin Grieve, 19 April 2009
Global Marine Systems is a descendant of Cable and Wireless.
Based on
Wedge 1926 Glover Brothers, London - quartered
diagonally white and red; on white "GB" in blue.
Jarig Bakker, 16 December 2004
The three Glover Brothers became ship owners in 1865 when they purchased the
barque "W. E. Gladstone" and bought their first steamship in 1872. Their primary
trades were coal to the Mediterranean, returning with grain from the Black Sea
and also the Baltic trade. The company owned four tramps at the outbreak of the
Great War of which three were lost. The fleet was built up after the war and by
1927 owned seven ships and traded worldwide. The depression of the 1930s caused
the sale of most of the fleet and by 1936 only two ships were owned. One was
lost to enemy action and the company was then sold to South American Saint Line
with their remaining ship which was also sunk shortly afterwards.
Several
of the company's ships were named for writers and poets: Dante, Milton, Ossian,
Shelley, Burns, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Byron, Tennyson, Ovid, Keats, Spencer,
and Chaucer.
http://www.mariners-list.com/mobi/site_pages.php?section=Shipping+Companies&category=English&page_name=Glover+Brothers%2C+London
Mariners L
Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the same
house flag (#46, p. 39).
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#4
Ivan Sache,
21 April 2021
image by Ivan Sache, 12 March 2008
Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912)
shows the house flag of "John Glynn & Son" (#5, p. 37), a company based in
Liverpool, as red with, in the middle, the white letters "A E".
Ivan Sache, 10 March 2008
Letters "AE" refers to the name of the company managed by Glynn & Son,
Atlantic & Eastern S.S. Co., Ltd.
Ivan Sache, 21 April 2021