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

British shipping companies (P)

Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd.
Pacific Steam Navigation Co.
Palm Line
Panagiotis A. Lemos Associates Ltd.
Frixos V. Papachristidis
A.G. Pappadakis & Co., Ltd.
Pegasus Ocean Services, Ltd.
Peninsular and Oriental (P&O)
R.H. Penney & Sons
Phocean Ship Agency Ltd.
Pike Ward Ltd.
Pollok, Gilmore & Co.
Port Line Ltd.
Portosalvo Ltd.
Powergen plc.
Prince Line
Princess Cruises Ltd.
Giles W. Pritchard-Gordon (Shipowning) Ltd.
Purvis Shipping Co., Ltd.
Putford Enterprises Ltd.
Pyman Bros., Ltd

See also:

Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 20 December 2005

Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd., Warrington - green flag, white "PNTL". Same family of flags as British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 20 December 2005

Pacific Steam Navigation Co.

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 Pacific Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., Liverpool. A flag comprising a white field and a blue cross with a king's crown in the centre. The initials 'PSNC' are in the quarters. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn with the crown printed. A rope and toggle is attached."
Jarig Bakker, 24 August 2004

Pacific Steam Navigation, founded 1938 in London with routes to South America at first. The first house flag was similar to that shown in Brown, but with a Chilean style star where the crown in. The company was granted a Royal Charter and the star eventually replaced by the crown. In the early 1840's the company headquarters was moved to Liverpool. With Anderson, Anderson & Co., and F. Green & Co. co-founded the Orient Steam Navigation Co. to compete with Peninsular and Oriental (P&O) in offering service to Australia (1877). During the Boer War one of their ships was used as a hospital ship and four others as troop carriers. In 1902 their royal charter was extended for another 21 years and in 1905 Pacific Steam Navigation sold their share of Oriental Steam Navigation to Royal Mail Lines, the service being discontinued in 1909. In 1910, Pacific Steam Navigation was purchased by Royal Mail. In 1922, the royal charter was extended in perpetuity. After the Royal Mail scandal (referred to earlier in this thread), the company was operated independently for a while before being repurchased by the newly reorganized Royal Mail in 1938. In 1952 the crown on the flag was replaced by the Edwardian style crown. After Royal Mail was purchased by Furness Withy in 1965, the company continued to operate a limited number of ships under the Pacific Steam Navigation flag until operations for PSNC were ceased in 1985.
Phil Nelson, 18 October 2003

The flag for Pacific Steam Navigation Co. is that described by Peter of white, a blue cross surmounted with a Royal Crown and the red letters "PSNC" in the respective quarters. To add to Phil's summary, according to Loughran (1979) the originally proposed flag was a tapered swallowtail with a star instead of a crown as a courtesy to Chile with whom they planned to trade but by the time the first voyage was ready to be undertaken, which was not until 6/1840, with the Royal Charter having been granted in the February of that year the flag was changed to a rectangle and the star was replaced by a St. Edward Crown. This crown was replaced by another version after the accession of Edward VII but reverted on the instructions of Elizabeth II following her coronation.
Neale Rosanoski, 24 May 2004

Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Liverpool: Larousse Commercial Illustré (1930) shows this flag as white, a blue St George's cross with red letters (without serifs) in the corners: `P' in upper hoist, `S' in upper fly, `N' in lower hoist and `Co' in lower fly, the `o' raised (no dot). In the centre of the blue cross, a yellow-and-red royal crown. A picture (with `C' rather than `Co') is at the head of this page.
Jan Mertens, 4 June 2004

Palm Line

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 Palm Line Ltd, London. A rectangular green flag with a white saltire. In the centre there is a white disc with a green palm tree. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. The hoist and palm tree are cotton. The flag is machine sewn. A rope and toggle is attached.

The company was the major ship-owning subsidiary of Lever Brothers who used coconut oil as a basis for many of their products. The flag is based on the winning entry of a competition organised through the company magazine 'Progress' in the 1930s."
Jarig Bakker, 24 August 2004

Loughran (1979), in "A survey of mercantile houseflags and funnels", wrote:

"The humblest craft may bear markings of great interest. Even steam or motor lighters may have funnel marks which lead to a story. Until 1974, the small harbour craft employed by Lever Brothers Ltd., of Port Sunlight, to transport vegetable oils from the deep sea vessels in the Mersey ports to their factories at Bromborough, had red funnels with black tops. These markings were all that remained of a competition held within the firm to design a houseflag and funnel mark for their shipping fleet. This took place about 1930 and the winning entry was featured in "Progress", the house magazine of the Unilever group, of which Lever Brothers forms a part. The houseflag was a colorful one, with a palm tree as its main device:
Contest winning entry (not used)

image by Jarig Bakker, 14 June 2004

It does not seem to have been adopted and actually flown, but the funnel mark found its way on to these small lighters. Some years later, the houseflag-design, its format and coloring tidied up, was adopted for the Palm Line Ltd., of London, which is the major ship-owning subsidiary of the group. The palm tree, symbol of the coconut oil which is the basis of so many of the group's products, was also used on the very handsome funnel marking."

Jarig Bakker, 14 June 2004

Panagiotis A. Lemos Associates Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 21 February 2006

Panagiotis A. Lemos Associates Ltd., London - white swallowtail, connected blue stylized "PL".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 15 February 2006

Frixos V. Papachristidis

image by Jarig Bakker, 10 December 2005

Frixos V. Papachristidis, London - blue with a white-blue-white Scandinavian-type cross; in center white disk with inner blue circle containing Greek letters "FVP" (Phi - Beta - Pi).
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 10 December 2005

A.G. Pappadakis & Co., Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 29 January 2006

A.G. Pappadakis & Co., Ltd., London - yellow-blue-white-blue-yellow flag, over all black "P".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 29 January 2006

Pegasus Ocean Services, Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 30 November 2005

Pegasus Ocean Services, Ltd., London - white flag, blue winged horse.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 30 November 2005

Peninsular and Oriental (P&O)

image by Jorge Candeias, 23 Feb 1999

Quartered per saltire in white, red, yellow and blue.
Jorge Candeias, 23 Feb 1999

Throughout its 150 years P&O has been a premier British ship-owner, and in its time the largest in the world. [About the flag:] It has flown the same quartered flag, embodying the royal colours of Portugal and Spain, from its very beginnings.
Jarig Bakker, 22 Jan 1999, quoting from the P&O website.

This company uses as its logo an image of the flag waving above bold letters "P&O". This is emblazoned on the company's dark blue containers, which are quite ubiquitous at least in Portuguese rail-port cargo locations. At http://www.flickr.com/photos/93402044@N00/2088197733 is an example.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 December 2007

R.H. Penney & Sons

image by Jarig Bakker

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

R.H. Penney & Sons, Brighton - white flag bordered blue; red 5-pointed star.
Jarig Bakker, 5 February 2005

Phocean Ship Agency Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 21 February 2006

Phocean Ship Agency Ltd. (J. Eustathiou), London - white flag, blue Greek "e".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 15 February 2006

Pike Ward Ltd.

image by Eugene Ipavec, 17 April 2009

A venerable British company Pike Ward Ltd., established at Teignmouth (Devon):
“Pike Ward Limited offers a wide range of services to the shipping industry. These include Shipbroking, Ships Agents and Cargo Supervision. From our main office in Teignmouth we are well positioned to serve other ports in Devon including Bideford and Dartmouth.” (A further port served is Appledore.) The firm was founded in 1876.

Shown on the website is the house flag (a drawing – no photo found yet): green bearing a white six-pointed star in the centre.
Jan Mertens, 17 December 2008

Pollok, Gilmore & Co.

image by Jarig Bakker

Pollok, Gilmore & Co. white used white with the blue letters "P.G". They were taken over as Rankin, Gilmour & Co. and eventually as the Saint Line Ltd..

Port Line Ltd (Commonwealth and Dominion)

image by Ivan Sache, 30 December 2001

This image is redrawn from one provided by Ted Harrison, based on a menu card from the shipping line.

image by Phil Nelson, 9 April 2000

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963: note the narrower crosses.

The Port Line was in operation from about 1923 to 1980.

Port Line was the secondary name that the company acquired because its ships were named 'Port of .........'
David Prothero, 3 January 2008

The company was founded in 1914 as the Commonwealth & Dominion Line, by fusion of G.D. Tyser & Co. and several other companies. In 1916, it was purchased by the Cunard Steamship Company, but kept operating under its original name, to be renamed into the Port Line in 1937. In 1978, it was fully integrated into Cunard.
Source: Merchant Navy Nostalgia website: http://iancoombe.tripod.com/id42.html
The company flag was inherited from G.D. Tyser & Co.
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 December 2014

Portosalvo Ltd.

image located by Jan Mertens, 3 December 2008

‘Portosalvo Ltd’ is established at Aberdeen, UK (founded 1996) and operates two platform supply vessels (a third one is in the project stage) for offshore work (http://www.rimnap.it/portosalvo_limited.html). Here, a flagoid is shown repeating the white ‘RN’ monograph in the upper hoist corner of a flag divided by an ascending diagonal into a blue field (hoist) and a green one (fly), bearing a stylized white initial ‘P’.

Portosalvo Ltd. is part of the Italian towing company fleet, 'Rimorchiatori Napoletani Srl' (“Neapolitan Towing”), founded in 1917.
Jan Mertens, 3 December 2008

Powergen plc.

image by Jarig Bakker, 10 December 2005

Powergen p|c, London - dark green flag, outline of person in white lines holding a yellow radiant half-sun.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 10 December 2005

This logo is reminiscent of Prometheus giving fire to humans.
Phil Nelson, 10 December 2005

Prince Line

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 February 2008
[Click on image for a photograph of an actual flag, located by Jan Mertens, 24 December 2005: the representation here should not have the "ICH DIEN" included.]

Source: http://www.travellersintime.net/catalogue.php?action=section_search&section=flags

Red swallow-tailed pennon with the Prince of Wales' ostrich feathers in white.
James Dignan, 17 October 2003

Founded 1884. The first ships were Saxon Prince and Highland Prince. Incorporated 1885 as Prince Lines out of Newcastle. Sold to Furness, Withy & Co in 1916 after Sir James Knott, the owner, had his three sons killed during World War I. In 1917, Furness, Withy created a subsidiary to the company, Rio-Cape Line Ltd. Rio-Cape was merged back into Prince Line in 1954. By the 1960s the company was leasing ships on an as needed basis, although it would venture into container ships in the 1970s before the company was amalgamated with Manchester Lines. Furness, Withy was sold to C.Y. Tung and later to Hamburg Süd. Today it exists in name only as part of Hamburg Sud's entity Shaw Savill Holdings Ltd.
Phil Nelson, 18 October 2003

Posted as insolvent on 19 May 2004 (The Times).
Ron Lahav, 20 May 2004

Is it right that a shipping company was permitted to use as the sole item on its house flag the personal emblem of the heir to the throne?
Colin Dobson, 11 February 2008

The three feather badge of the Prince of Wales includes the motto "ich dien", but the three feather emblem on the Prince Line house flag did not, so I guess it can be argued that it is not the personal emblem of the heir to the throne.
David Prothero, 11 February 2008

Princess Cruises Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 10 October 2005

Princess Cruises Ltd., London - white, several blue and green waves.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 10 October 2005

The logo is a "princess" with wavy blue and green hair.
Albert S. Kirsch, 10 October 2005

from Loughran (1979), located by Neale Rosanoski, 21 July 2008

image by Neale Rosanoski, 21 July 2008

Princess Cruises was at the beginning an American company being formed by Stanley MacDonald in 1965, based Los Angeles, and with the "Princess logo" on funnels dating from 1968. In 1974 the company was acquired by P&O Steam Navigation Co. and was operated by them as a division coming under P&O Lines Ltd. of London, hence the UK connection. According to Lloyds it was again set up as a separate company as Princess Lines Inc. of Los Angeles in 1994. In 2000 P&O demerged its cruise interests into a new company, P&O Princess Cruises Ltd. which ended in a merger with Carnival Corporation in 2003 where it became Carnival plc. of London with amongst the brand name companies taken over being Princess Cruises Inc. which is now based in Santa Clarita CA though they also now operate out of Hamilton, Bermuda as Princess Cruises Lines Ltd. There has been more than one flag with Loughran (1979) showing white with the head [complete with eye] and tresses, which are in light blue and green, pointing to the hoist and in the base the black legend "PRINCESS CRUISES" and this may be the original colours prior to the P&O takeover. In 1999 I took a photo of the flag being flown by the "Sky Princess" which featured purple instead of blue, the whole design being large with no eye [logo can be seen on http://www.princess.com ] and in correspondence with Louis Loughran he stated that this was the original flag, possibly meaning under P&O ownership seeing that it varies from that in his book, but in 1997 he had seen ships in Vancouver with the flag bearing the logo all in blue. The P&O archivist of the time told him that the blue markings had prevailed for several years but without being able to give a date and in this case it would seem that it was probably a case of using up some old stock. Not having seen one of their ships since I do not know whether the all blue version is still around.
Neale Rosanoski, 21 July 2008

Giles W. Pritchard-Gordon (Shipowning) Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 20 September 2005

Giles W. Pritchard-Gordon (Shipowning) Ltd., London - 7 horizontal stripes of red and white, proportioned c. 1:1:1:2:1:1:1; over all white diamond bordered blue, blue "GPG".
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 20 September 2005

Purvis Shipping Co., Ltd

image by Phil Nelson, 7 April 2000

from Stewart and Styring's Flags, Funnels and Hull Colors 1963

Eugene Ipavec, 8 August 2006

Purvis Shipping Co. Ltd. According to Brown 1951 there was an earlier flag being a pennant of 6 black and red vertical bands with the black bearing the white letters "PSC" in descending scale.
Neale Rosanoski, 24 May 2004

Putford Enterprises Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 3 October 2005

Putford Enterprises Ltd., Lowestoft - white swallowtail bordered orange, except at the hoist; on white black "P".
Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 3 October 2005

Pyman Bros., Ltd

image by Eugene Ipavec, 23 July 2006

A red flag with blue disk charged with white "P", shown in Talbot-Booth (1937) "Ships and the Sea", 1937, #94 (British Empire). T-B shows a swallowtail with the disk at c. 1/3 flag length. The company was based in London.
Jarig Bakker, 23 July 2006

British Shipping lines: continued