British shipping companies (E)

Last modified: 2016-03-05 by rob raeside
Keywords: esso | jre | eagle (black) | lion (yellow) | etc | et | e&f | e&b | ellerman | ea | egc | el | esl |
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• Ensign Express Shipping Ltd.
• Essex Line, Limited (Meldrum & Swinson)
• Esso Transportation Co., Ltd
• F.T. Everard & Co.
• Euroasia Container Line
• European Gas Company, Limited
• Euxine Shipping Co. Ltd.

• House flags of British shipping companies
• House flags of shipping companies
• United Kingdom

Ensign Express Shipping Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 10 December 2005

Ensign Express Shipping Ltd., Ramsgate - vertical blue-white-blue, in center black italic "EE".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 10 December 2005

Based on Wedge 1926 Essex Line, Limited (Meldrum & Swinson), London - white flag with blue Maltese cross, charged with a blue rectangle with "EL" in white.
Jarig Bakker, 16 December 2004

Esso Transportation Co., Ltd

image by Jarig Bakker

Esso Transportation Co., Ltd (also Esso Petroleum Co., Ltd., and practically all affiliates of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey) - White ground; blue ellipse in center containing Esso in red letters.
Jarig Bakker, 20 October 2003

Esso Transportation Co. Ltd. An unusual variation and such sketches appear in the files of E.P. Harnack (All About Ships & Shipping). The company itself is shown by Lloyds in the 1950s but the regular sources of that period, Stewart and Brown, show it using the common group flag of white with the red legend "Esso" within a blue oval ring [see the USA Exxon page for the group detail]. The main British shipping company of the group was Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd. which changed its name in 1951 from Anglo-American Oil Co. Ltd. with its use of the flag with the oval ring being confirmed on the National Maritime Museum website though I note that in the accompanying written description they mistakenly describe the lettering as being "red within a blue oval" instead of "red within a blue oval ring". The use of the new flag is confirmed officially by a letter from Esso Transportation Co. Ltd., dated 30.11.1951 to E.P. Harnack, stating that it was also used by Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd. and most of the affiliates of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. They also enclose the official drawings with measurements etc. dated October 1946 and ironically it may well have been these which caused the initial problem [certainly Harnark has interpreted it wrongly] as they talk of the colours as being white for the ground, red for the letters and blue for the ellipse, just as does the NMM, and then give measurements including both for the ellipse and the ellipse band, but faced  with the actual flag of Esso Petroleum Co. Ltd. and funnel markings from photos it becomes clear that they really meant the ellipse band to be blue and the field inside the ellipse to be white with the red letters thereon.
Neale Rosanoski, 31 May 2005
 

image by Ivan Sache, 17 March 2004

The flag is quartered per saltire red and white.

The flag of F.T. Everard is like that of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, one of the major High Street banks in the UK, with quarters reversed.
Ron Lahav, 17 March 2004

F.T. Everard has no association with the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. It is an international and multinational private company based in Britain.
Mike Nancollas, 2 September 2005

The Swire group also has a connection with Hong Kong and a similar flag, differing only by a vertical blue stripe in the middle of the flag. See this page for reference.
Ivan Sache, 18 March 2004

Euroasia Container Line

The logo is a flag-like drawing like this [sic].
Jorge Candeias, 7 January 1998

Euroasia. Would appear to relate to the Euroasia Container Line which was a service begun in 1985 by the international Contship Group which is based in U.K.
Neale Rosanoski, 18 April 2005

image by Jorge Candeias, modified by Rob Raeside, 23 December 2009

To the best of my knowledge the flag was in fact black, with the wavy lines being white-red-white. Euroasia Container Line, based at Ipswich like the other companies in the Contship group, was a joint venture of Contship Deutschland and Neptune Orient Lines of Singapore. The black white and red are, of course, the old German colours. The funnel of ships sailing for this company, identical to the houseflag, was reported on 22.2.86 in the Suez Canal, and at Hamburg in 30.4.87, the latter accompanied by the houseflag which I have described.
   I cannot explain the version by Jorge, unless the partners in the joint version changed, or a change was later made to the more modern German colours.
J.L. Loughran, 25 August 2009

European Gas Company, Limited

image by Jarig Bakker

Source: Brown's Flags and Funnels [Wedge 1926]

European Gas Company, Limited (H.A. Brightman), North Shields - white flag, "E.G.C." in red. North Shields is a suburb of Newcastle.
Jarig Bakker, 5 February 2005

Euxine 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 Euxine Shipping Co. Ltd., London. A rectangular white swallow-tailed burgee with a red, white and blue stripe across 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 toggle is attached."
Jarig Bakker, 12 August 2004

     images by Rob Raeside

Euxine Shipping Co. Ltd. There may have been a subsequent change as Stewart and Brown from 1953 to 1978 show the flag as being a tapered swallowtail. The Brown editions of 1951 and 1958 show a similar format other than that in that the red and blue bands are separated by an equal width of white field but Stewart 1953-1963 and then Brown 1978 show narrower bands well apart with the shape of the flag also differing as a result.
Neale Rosanoski, 31 May 2005

British Shipping lines: continued