Alfred Booth and Company was a British trading and shipping company that was founded in 1866 and traded for more than a century. It was founded in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, by two brothers, Alfred and
Charles Booth.
It grew into a significant merchant shipping company with its head office in Liverpool and interests in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. The group was broken up in 1964 and the last Booth company from the group was sold in 1986.
History
Alfred and Charles Booth were cousins of
William James Lamport, co-founder of the Liverpool shipping company
Lamport and Holt Line, and worked in the company's office. In 1851 Lamport transferred minority shareholdings in a cargo
steamship, the ''Nile'', to several associates including Charles Booth and
George Holt. In 1854 Lamport, Holt, Booth and Holt's father, also called
George Holt, all took minority shares in a new ship, the ''Orontes''. At the time it was common for a merchant ship to be in 64 shares held by a number of owners. Charles Booth had two shares in the ''Nile'' and one in the ''Orontes''.
In 1863 the Booth brothers founded a partnership, Alfred Booth and Company, to export English light leather to the US,
which was in the midst of
its civil war. The company had headquarters in Liverpool and a US office in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
In February 1865 the Booth brothers ordered two new ships.
[ Once again they were part-owners; relatives including ]Alfred Holt
Alfred Holt (13 June 1829 – 28 November 1911) was a British engineer, ship owner and merchant. He lived at Crofton, Aigburth in Liverpool, England. Holt is credited with establishing the long distance steamship by developing a type tha ...
and his brother Philip held most of the remaining 64 shares in each ship. The ships were named ''Augustine'' and ''Jerome''[ after St Augustine of Hippo and St ]Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
, two of the great Doctors of the Church
Doctor of the Church (Latin: ''doctor'' "teacher"), also referred to as Doctor of the Universal Church (Latin: ''Doctor Ecclesiae Universalis''), is a title given by the Catholic Church to saints recognized as having made a significant contribu ...
. It became a company tradition to name ships after notable bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
s and other historic figures. The ships carried English leather, both tanned and untanned, to the USA. In 1866 Booths started a regular steamship service between Liverpool and ports in northern Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and on the Amazon River. In 1881 the shipping line became a limited company
In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the lia ...
, Booth Steamship Co Ltd.[
After ]John Boyd Dunlop
John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish-born inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the first practical pneumatic tyres for his c ...
patented the pneumatic tyre
Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air.
Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and ele ...
in 1888, the trade in natural rubber from Brazil increased, and by 1900 Booth's had 14 ships.[ Booths had competitors on the Brazilian route including the Red Cross Iquitos Steamship Co, which operated up the Amazon to Iquitos in ]Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, and the Maranham Steamship Co.[ In 1901 Red Cross's founder, Robert Singlehurst, retired and his company merged with Booths to form the Booth Steamship Co (1901) Ltd.][
Booths' fleet developed to include substantial passenger liners. In 1903 the company started carrying tourists to and from Lisbon and Madeira.][
]
In 1912 Charles Booth retired and passed the chairmanship to his nephew, Charles Booth (1868–1938). In 1915 Charles senior returned from retirement to help the company in the First World War, despite suffering from worsening heart disease. He died of a stroke on 23 November 1916.[ In 1914 the fleet had more than 30 ships. 11 were requisitioned for war service and enemy action sank nine][ including two ocean liners, the sister ships and . By 1919 only 18 ships remained in the fleet.][
]
Alfred Booth & Co diversified into civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
, and in 1919 it bought the Unit Construction Company from Crittall. Booths lost one ship in peacetime between the two World Wars, when the ''Gregory'' ran aground and was wrecked. The company introduced passenger cruises, advertising "1,000 miles up the Amazon"[
Despite losing nine ships in the First World War, Booth did not buy any ships for the first nine years after the 1918 Armistice. In 1927 Booth bought a second-hand German ship that it renamed ''Dominic''. Between 1928 and 1935 it renewed part of its fleet with seven new ships and one second-hand one, ''Dunstan''.
Booth lost several ships in the Second World War. The cargo steamship was launched in 1934 and sunk by the in September 1939. The passenger liner , which was requisitioned as a ]troopship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...
in 1940, was sunk by torpedo in July 1941 with the loss of 254 lives.
After the war the company again modernised with new ships, and from 1955 it diversified its naming policy with Spanish names as well as early church ones. In 1957 Booths again suffered a peacetime loss, when the liner ran aground.
In 1946 Alfred Booth & Co sold Booth Steamship Co business to the Vestey group of companies,.[ Vestey already had its own shipping subsidiary, ]Blue Star Line
The Blue Star Line was a British passenger and cargo shipping company formed in 1911, being in operation until 1998.
Formation
Blue Star Line was formed as an initiative by the Vestey Brothers, a Liverpool-based butchers company, who had f ...
, founded in 1911. Under Vestey's in 1955 Booth Steamship Co started trading in the Caribbean with a service between Brazil and Canada ''via'' the West Indies.[ Through the 1940s, 50s and 60s Vestey's transferred numerous ships between Booth's, Lamport & Holt and Blue Star. Each company had a different naming tradition, so ship transfers generally involved a change of name to accord with the house style of each company. In 1975 Vestey's absorbed the two fleets into Blue Star Line.
In 1964 after a Booth family split the leather business was separated as Booth and Company (International) Ltd. It was made a public company in 1974 and bought by Garnar-Scotblair in 1981. In that period the managing director was John Sebastian Macaulay Booth, a grandson of co-founder Charles Booth.
Alfred Booth & Co was sold in 1986 to the construction company ]Mowlem
Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006.
History
The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generat ...
.; the chairman at the time of its sale was Richard Amis CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, a grandson of Alfred Allen Booth.
Booth baronets
Alfred Allen Booth
Sir Alfred Allen Booth, 1st Baronet (17 September 1872 – 13 March 1948) was a British businessman and shipowner. A scion of the Booths of Dunham Massey, Cheshire, his great-grandfather moved to Liverpool in the mid-18th century.
Booth was cr ...
was a director of Cunard Steamship Co, was made a baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
in 1916 and died in 1948. The baronetcy passed to his eldest son, the television director and producer Sir Philip Booth, 2nd Baronet
Sir Philip Booth, 2nd Baronet (8 February 1907 – 5 January 1960) was an aristoctratic British television director and producer who emigrated to California.
Biography
Early life
Born on 8 February 1907, the son of Sir Alfred Allen Booth, 1st B ...
. He died in 1960 and was succeeded by his son Sir Douglas Allen Booth, 3rd Baronet, a television producer and writer living in New York City. His heir presumptive
An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question.
...
is Derek Booth, a hydrogeologist
Hydrogeology (''hydro-'' meaning water, and ''-geology'' meaning the study of the Earth) is the area of geology that deals with the distribution and movement of groundwater in the soil and rocks of the Earth's crust (commonly in aqui ...
.
References
Sources and further reading
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External links
Burke's Peerage
Cracroft's Peerage
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Alfred
Companies based in Liverpool
Transport companies established in 1863
Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom
History of Liverpool
British companies established in 1863