Silver Line (shipping Company)
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Silver Line (shipping Company)
OR:
Silver Line (shipping Company) on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The Silver Line was a shipping company formed in 1908, part of the
British Merchant Navy The British Merchant Navy is the collective name given to British civilian ships and their associated crews, including officers and ratings. In the UK, it is simply referred to as the Merchant Navy or MN. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensi ...
. By the 1930s they were offering round the world passenger/cargo services, with the passenger fare on a freighter being £100. Entirely on foreign service, the ships did not include UK ports of call. Managing owners were the S & J Thompson family. Most of their merchant ships bore the name Silver followed by the name of a tree. The
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
claimed 11 of their ships. One of them, the ''Silverfir'', was sunk by the German battleship on a voyage from Manchester to New York in 1941. Silver Line switched to tramping around the world in the 1950s, then went through several ownership changes, and by 1985, with the sale of their last ship, was no more. The ''Silverplane'', a sleek twin funnel vessel of 7,226 gross tons built in 1948, was sold to the
Cunard Line The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...
in 1951 and renamed ''Alsatia II'', and so was her sister ship ''Silverbriar'', to become ''Andria I''. Their forward funnels were false, containing the chart room and the captain's cabin, looked like miniature s, and carried just 12 passengers, the maximum allowed without a regulation onboard doctor. They were sold to the
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
and renamed ''Union Freedom'' and ''Union Faith'' respectively. The latter ship was demolished in a fiery collision with an oil barge outside New Orleans in 1969, with considerable loss of life.SS Andria and Alsatia ''
/ref> An associated company, Joseph L. Thompson & Sons of Sunderland, was involved in the design of the first
Liberty ships Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. ...
that saw service in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and beyond. During the 1970s, Silver Line had a fleet of chemical tankers carrying many types of (often hazardous) cargoes; from
sulphuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
to
tetraethyllead Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula lead, Pb(ethyl group, C2H5)4. It was widely used as a fuel additive for much of the 20th century, first being mixed with gasoline begi ...
. These ships often traded in the Baltic region. They were usually called ''Silver''- plus the name of a bird of prey (e.g. ''Silvermerlin'', ''Silverosprey'', etc.). Promotion on these ships could be very rapid for those officers prepared to serve regularly on them. Captains of 25 years of age were not uncommon. The company also had bulk carriers, tankers, OBOs and general cargo ships. The ''Silvermain'' and ''Silverfjord'' were on a regular run between Japan and the US, carrying grain one way and Toyota cars the other.


Ships


See also

*
Barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...
s *
British Merchant Navy The British Merchant Navy is the collective name given to British civilian ships and their associated crews, including officers and ratings. In the UK, it is simply referred to as the Merchant Navy or MN. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensi ...
*
Cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...
*
J.L. Thompson and Sons J.L. Thompson and Sons was a shipyard on the River Wear, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, Sunderland, which produced ships from the mid-18th century until the 1980s. The world-famous Liberty Ship was among the designs to be created, produced and manuf ...
*
Liberty Ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...
* Richardsons Westgarth & Company *
Ship transport Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it provi ...
* Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Ltd. *
William Doxford & Sons William Doxford & Sons Ltd, often referred to simply as Doxford, was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British shipbuilder, shipbuilding and marine engineering company. History William Doxford founded the company in 1840. From 18 ...
*
United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...
*
Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by American shipyards during World War II. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engin ...


References


External links


NTSB Report of Union Faith (ex Silverbriar) collision in Mississippi River, 6 April 1969

Oil recovery from wreck after 32 years









Seafarers International Union, Liberty Ships, and the Sunderland connection


{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Line Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom