Grove Steamship Company

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The British Hain Steamship Company Ltd. existed from 1901 to 1971 as a shipping company and then until 1978 as a shell company .

history

The company's roots go back to 1816, when the Hain family from the fishing town of St Ives in Cornwall acquired a share in the Dasher fish logger . In 1838 Edward Hain & Son bought the schooner Camilla and in 1850 the schooner Mystery was added. With these merchant ships, preserved fish was initially brought into the Mediterranean and dried fruit was brought on the return voyages. Soon afterwards, sugar was also imported from the West Indies and coffee from Brazil, and from 1860 the Hains traded worldwide.

1878 The first steamers

The construction of the shipping company's first steamship was initiated by Edward Hain IV, born in 1851. He first worked at Bolitho Bank in St Ives and then at a tea merchant in London. On his return to St Ives in 1878 he convinced his father of the advantages and Hain's first cargo steamer was commissioned from John Readhead and Sons in South Shields (who later built a total of 87 ships for Hain). Bolitho Bank financed the £ 18,000 new build, after which the ship Trewidden was named after a Bolitho estate near Penzance. In the following years the shipping fleet was expanded rapidly. With the switch to steamships, the naming of the ships was standardized - all names began with the abbreviation "Tre", which in Cornish means something like "the place of", farmstead or dwelling. The chimneys of the ships have since been black with a large white "H". By 1889 Edward Hain was operating 17 trampers built exclusively at Readhead and the last sailing ship Margaret Hain was sold. Hain used many ships in the then common trade based on coal into the Mediterranean and return journeys with grain from the Black Sea.

1901 Hain Steamship Company Limited

By 1901 the Hain fleet had grown to 22 tramp steamers built at Readhead, valued at around half a million pounds. On September 16, 1901, all of the one-ship companies were converted into the Hain Steamship Company Limited . In 1907, Hain took over Readhead's 50th tramp steamer, the Trevince - Readhead had built one in five ships for Hain since 1878. By 1913 the Hain fleet had grown to 36 units with another five ships on order.

1917 Takeover by P&O

After Hain's only son Edward was killed in the Battle of Gallipoli and the senior boss Sir Edward Hain also died on September 20, 1917, Lord Inchcape , chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company , offered the shareholders a takeover of Hain on September 27, 1917 Steamship Company for approximately four million pounds. The offer was accepted and half of the Hain shares were passed on to the P&O subsidiary British India Steam Navigation Company immediately after the takeover . The Hain Line relocated to London after the takeover, but remained as an independent shipping company in the P&O Group. Late in 1917, Hain took over the Mercantile Steam Ship Company Ltd. (J. & C. Dunkerley). In the First World War, 18 ships were destroyed by enemy action and another three were lost for other reasons - 100 sailors died.

The Mercantile Steam Ship Company was dissolved in 1923 because P&O saw no benefit in operating two trampoline shipping companies at the same time. In the same year, Hain took over the Strick Line . The recession of the 1930s also hit Hain and ships repeatedly had to be laid up in the River Fal. With the management and manning of ships in charter of the P&O, Hain was able to generate at least a small income.

1945 rebuilding of the fleet

During the Second World War, the Hain Steamship Company lost 28 ships, all of which were chartered by P&O. In the post-war years, Hain rebuilt the fleet and increasingly relied on motor ships.

Due to the Suez crisis in 1956/57, freight rates fell and by 1958 most of the Hain ships were making losses. In May 1962, the shipping company took over the Trebartha, the last new tramp ship from its parent shipyard Readhead, and in August 1963 the Treneglos was the last new ship to be delivered to Hain (the latter has already been registered with the P&O subsidiary New Zealand Shipping Company ). Freight rates remained at a low level until the early 1960s, and more and more of the cargo volume in tramp shipping was taken over by bulk carriers. Therefore, in 1963, P&O came to the conclusion that conventional tramping under the British flag no longer had a great future, and in the 1960s it rationalized its trampoline business .

1964 Hain-Nourse Ltd.

The Nourse Line and the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company had lost their traditional liner services in the 1950s and had no experience in the tramping area. Therefore, P&O transferred the joint management and operation of the fleet to Hain Nourse Management Ltd. in 1964. The following year, the Hain Steamship Company was established in Hain-Nourse Ltd. renamed and the ownership of the ships of the Nourse Line and the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company transferred to Hain-Nourse. At the same time, the management of the first bulk carriers from P&O, which were operated in the Associated Bulk Carriers group, was transferred to Hain-Nourse. The chimney color changed to blue with the white connected letters "HN"

1971 P&O General Cargo Division and P&O Bulk Shipping Division

In 1971, the P&O Group integrated the Hain-Nourse tramp ships into the existing P&O General Cargo Division and the bulk carriers into the P&O Bulk Shipping Division. The ships have been renamed and switched to the P&O colors. The company Hain Nourse Ltd. then remained in existence as a shell company and finally became P&O Ferries Ltd. in 1978 . renamed.

literature

  • KJ O'Donoghue, HS Appleyard: Hain of St. Ives , In: Sea Breezes , Volume 61, C. Birchell, 1987, pp. 366ff
  • Norman L. Middlemiss: Hain Steamship Co Ltd , In: Travels of the Tramps. Volume III: Twenty tramp fleets , 1st edition, Shield Publications, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1992, ISBN 1-871128-08-0 , pp. 107-120.

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