Elder Dempster & Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The British shipping company Elder Dempster Lines (company: Elder Dempster & Company, Limited ) existed from 1910 to 1989. They mainly operated liner services between Europe and West Africa.

history

The roots of Elder Dempster & Company, Limited lie in the African Steam Ship Company, Limited, which was founded in 1852 and operated a postal service from London to Madeira , Tenerife and the West African ports. From 1856 the company was based in Liverpool .

In 1894, the African Steam Ship Company took over the Dominion Line's Avonmouth Canada service. In 1898 the Beaver Line with its Liverpool-Canada service was bought. The following year, on May 3, 1899, ownership of the Elder Dempster and Company fleet was transferred to Elder-Dempster Shipping. With some of these ships, the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service Company was set up with its Caribbean service in 1901. In 1903, the shares in the Canadian service along with the fourteen ships used there were given to Canadian Pacific .

The Elder Dempster & Company Limited was finally formed in 1910 when the company was sold to Lord Kylsant and Lord Pirrie. Although the company collapsed in 1931 in the course of the global economic crisis , it was continued by a creditors' council and later reorganized and refinanced with the help of the government.

The Appam entered service in 1913

From 1951, all ships of the shipping company came into the possession of the newly founded British & Burmese Steam Navigation Company. This was followed by a series of ship transfers within the shipping companies Elder Dempster, Guinea Gulf, Blue Funnel Line and the British & Burmese Steam Navigation Company.

At the height of the liner service in the 1960s, the three ships Aureol , Accra and Apapa were added to the freight services , with which a passenger line service from Liverpool to Ghana and Nigeria was maintained.

In 1965 the Ocean Steam Ship Company ( Blue Funnel Line ) took over the Elder Dempster Lines, and in 1984 the Palm Line was also incorporated into the group.

In the 1970s and 1980s, changes in British merchant shipping and the rise in air traffic also made themselves felt in Elder Dempster Lines' shrinking West African services. Passenger service to West Africa was discontinued in 1974. In 1989 Elder Dempster Lines, Palm Line and Guinea Gulf Line were taken over by the French Delmas-Vieljeux group , but not continued. Until May 8, 2000 the Elder Dempster Agencies were still working as British line agencies for Delmas and were then formally dissolved and continued as Delmas UK.

Ships (selection)

The following ships, which were managed by Elder Dempster & Company Limited, are described in Wikipedia:

  • Aba - built in 1917, sunk in 1947
  • Abosso (I) - Commissioned in 1912, sunk by a German submarine in 1917
  • Abosso (II) - Commissioned in 1935, sunk by a German submarine in 1942
  • Accra (II) - Commissioned in 1926, sunk by a German submarine in 1940
  • Adda - Commissioned in 1922, sunk by a German submarine in 1941
  • Apapa (I) - Commissioned in 1915, sunk by a German submarine in 1917
  • Apapa (II) - Commissioned in 1927, sunk by German aircraft in 1940
  • Appam - Commissioned in 1913, scrapped in 1936
  • Aureol - Commissioned in 1951, scrapped in 2001
  • Burutu - Commissioned in 1902, sunk after collision in 1918
  • Falaba - Commissioned in 1906, sunk by a German submarine in 1915
  • Mendi - Commissioned in 1905, sunk after collision in 1917
  • Seaforth - Commissioned in 1939, sunk by a German submarine in 1941

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