Brocklebank Line

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The British shipping company Brocklebank Line existed from 1801 to 1970

history

The shipping company was founded in 1801 as Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank in Whitehaven . The company initially focused on the coal trade with sailing ships. After the abolition of the British East India Company's monopoly on trade in India in 1813, Brocklebank began to get involved in this trade too. Although India and the surrounding area subsequently developed into the main field of activity of the still young shipping company, it also served the areas of North and South America and the Caribbean. In 1819 the company moved from Whitehaven to Liverpool, which then became the main port of the Brocklebank fleet. In 1858 the shipping company started a service to the Chinese contract ports and ended trading in Brazil two years later.

Remarkably, the Brocklebank shipping company continued its Indian service around the Cape of Good Hope even after the Suez Canal opened in 1869. It was not until 1889 that the company put its first steamship into service and operated sailing ships until 1901. After Brocklebank had taken over part of the shares in Shire Line operated by David Jenkins & Company in 1906 , five ships were transferred to the UK-Japan service of this shipping company. As early as 1907, Jenkins' remaining shares were acquired by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company , which in 1911 also took over Brocklebank's shares in the Shire Line. In the same year Brocklebank sold its own shares to some of the members of the board of directors of the shipping company Cunard , who in the same year also acquired the Anchor Line and formed the shipping company Anchor-Brocklebank Limited from both. In 1916, the Sunderland-based Well Line was bought and incorporated by Tyzack & Branfoot, and in 1920 the shipping company commissioned the world's first fully welded ocean-going vessel, the Fullagar .

In the Second World War, all but eleven ships were lost by 1945. However, the independence of the states of India and Pakistan two years after the end of the war weighed more heavily, because their trade restrictions reduced Brocklebank's trade volume in these states by more than half. The closure of the Suez Canal from June 1967 to January 1971 and the subsequent Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel forced the shipping companies operating in this area to detour around 5000 nautical miles around the Cape of Good Hope. But it was not until the end of the 1960s that containerization finally ended Brocklebank's services to India.

In 1968, Cunard merged its cargo ship division with Brocklebanks in a common pool under the name Cunard-Brocklebank Limited. In 1970, Cunard merged all other subsidiaries (Cunard-Brocklebank, Port Line , Moss Tankers and Offshore Marine ) into the parent company Cunard Cargo Shipping Services Limited. Cunard-Brocklebank and the other conventionally operated freight services only made losses, whereupon Cunard withdrew from the freight business. The last two ships in Brocklebank colors were sold in 1983.

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