^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

British shipping companies (B)

James Baines & Co.
Baltic Steamship Co. Ltd
Baltic Trading Co Ltd.
R.B. Ballantyne & Co.
Bamburgh Shipping Co. Ltd
Bank Line
Alfred Bannister
Ed Bates & Sons

See also:

James Baines & Co.

image by Ivan Sache

James Baines & Co.: (UK): red swallowtail with a black? dot.
Ivan Sache, 5 September 2005

Baltic Steamship Co. Ltd

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.

From the website of the National Maritime Museum, "the house flag of the Baltic Steamship Co. Ltd, Liverpool. A blue swallow-tailed pennant with a white diamond bearing the red letter 'C'. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. A rope and toggle is attached."
Jarig Bakker, 4 August 2004

Baltic Steamship Co. Ltd. Operated by A. Coker & Co. Ltd.
Neale Rosanoski, 19 May 2005

Baltic Trading Co. Ltd

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.

From the website of the National Maritime Museum, "the house flag of the Baltic Trading Co Ltd, London. A black rectangular flag with a white diamond bearing a crossed hammer and torch and the letters 'BT Co' in red. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn."
Jarig Bakker, 4 August 2004

images by Rob Raeside

Baltic Trading Co. Ltd. Two previous flags are shown. Talbot-Booth between 1937 and 1944 shows white with the red letters "BT" towards the respective sides and enhanced over "C" and Brown 1943 and 1951 (Wedge, 1951) showing a golden field with the same lettering but spread closer to chief and base respectively
Neale Rosanoski, 19 May 2005.

R.B. Ballantyne & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 12 March 2008

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "R.B. Ballantyne & Co." (#98, p. 41), a company based in Glasgow (Scotland), as horizontally divided blue-white-blue with the blue letters "R.B.B." in the middle of the white stripe.
Ivan Sache, 12 March 2008

Bamburgh Shipping Co. Ltd

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.

From the website of the National Maritime Museum, "the house flag of the Bamburgh Shipping Co. Ltd, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A rectangular flag divided with pale blue over yellow and a red castle in the centre. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. A rope and two Inglefield clips is attached.

The shipping line was founded in 1956 as a subsidiary of the Sheaf Steam Shipping Co. who owned 51% of the capital, the remainder by the British Iron & Steel Corporation. The company ran ore carriers and bulk carriers in the iron ore trade with North Northumbrian names. The company was sold to Ben Line in 1976."

Bamburgh is a town in Northumberland, just south of the Scottish border.
Jarig Bakker, 4 August 2004

Bank Line

image by Jorge Candeias, 24 April 2002

This is a company that serves the South Pacific islands but is, at least originally, a Scottish company. A couple of websites include information on this company, namely www.freightertravel.hb.co.nz/shippinglines/bankline.htm and ships.utopia.co.nz/Willowbank.html. The Scottish origins are very evident in the flag, which could be described as a Scottish flag with an arm of the cross removed and half of the field turned red. In other more vexillological words, it's a diagonal bicolour (lower hoist - upper fly) red over blue with a white diagonal band throughout.
Jorge Candeias, 24 April 2002

The "Bank Line" is part of the "Andrew Weir Shipping Co. Ltd." founded in 1885 and established in London. The "Bank Line" was formed by Andrew Weir in 1905 and since that time has been operating regular services between Europe and the South Pacific. Another subsidiary of "Andrew Weir" is "McAndrews", a ship agency organization that provides services throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Its regional offices are located in Spain and Portugal. It was established in 1770 by William McAndrews as a shipping and trading company.
Aingeru Astui Zarraga, 25 April 2002

The "Bank Line" is part of the "Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd." founded in 1885 and established in London. The "Bank Line" was formed by Andrew Weir in 1905 and since that time has been operating regular services between Europe and the South Pacific. Recently the Andrew Weir website noted that Andrew Weir Shipping (AWS) has signed an agreement to sell The Bank Line (South Pacific) service to The China Navigation Co Ltd (CNCo), the deepsea shipping arm of the Swire Group.
Phil Nelson, 12 October 2003

Bank Line. More accurately this is the flag of Andrew Weir Shipping Co. Ltd. with Bank Line being an original alias, "bank" being the common suffix used for their ship names, before the formation in 1905 of The Bank Line Ltd. under which most of the ships were then registered. In 1989 this latter company changed name to Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd. and thus the Bank Line "service" reference reverted to its original position and it is this service only which has been sold to China Navigation, the ships involved remaining under Weir as owners and managers and likewise with the flag. During their operations Weir have operated several service lines and one, the India-Africa Line which originated from the 1932 takeover of the India Natal Line, had its own flag which was blue with a narrow diagonal biband of white over red from upper hoist to lower fly.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 February 2004

image located by Aingeru Astui Zarraga, 26 April 2002

The logo with the crown and a pair of hands holding the ship belongs to "Andrew Weir Shipping Ltd.". The one of the McAndrews is most simple.

Larousse Commercial Illustré (1930) shows Andrew Weir & Co. (Bank Line), London: diagonally divided red-blue (upward slant, lower hoist to upper fly), a thin white stripe between upper hoist corner and lower fly corner), the stripe's width being about one eight of flag height. The logo shown here of 'Andrew Weir Shipping Co. Ltd.' and similar flag of 'Bank Line': see the latter one for more information on the company names.
Jan Mertens, 28 May 2004

Alfred Bannister

image by Ivan Sache, 10 April 2008

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "Alfred Bannister" (#257, p. 49), a company based in Grimsby, as divided red-blue by a yellow descending diagonal, with a white "A" in the red triangle and a white "B" in the blue triangle.

"From April, 1917, to June 23rd, 1919, the whole of the fishing vessels were placed under the control of the Admiralty. [...] A Port Committee was appointed, consisting of Lieut.-Commander W. Grant, O.B.E. (the Port Fishery Captain), Messrs. T. W. Baskcomb, A. Bannister, G. Moody, J. D. Marsden, W. F. Goodwin, R. W. Roberts and H. L. Taylor. [...] The fishing vessels were now placed in sections, two vessels of each section being fitted with wireless and armed with guns."
"Grimsby Roll of Honour, 1914-1919"
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~englin/mem/grimsby.htm
Ivan Sache, 10 April 2008

Ed Bates & Sons

image by Ivan Sache, 9 April 2008

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "Ed Bates & Sons" (#213, p. 47), a company based in Liverpool, as white with a thick red Maltese cross in the middle.
Ivan Sache, 9 April 2008

British Shipping lines: continued