StateLibQld 1 88168 Oswestry Grange (ship)

Houlder Line was a number of related British shipping companies originally established by the Houlder brothers.

History

StateLibQld 1 67919 Drayton Grange (ship)

Houlder Brothers & Co was formed in London 1856 and operated in the market for chartered tonnage. In 1861 the company acquired the ''Golden Horn'', which they used on the North Atlantic routes to the United States. The company later expanded to service routes to New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. From 1875 to 1880 the company worked with John T. Arundel & Co. in a

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

mining business on

Flint Island Flint Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Southern Line Islands under the jurisdiction of Kiribati. In 2014 the Kiribati government established a exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Is ...

in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. In 1881 the company entered the passenger and cargo trade to the River Plate. In 1911 Furness, Withy & Co Ltd bought a 50 percent share in Houlder Brothers. By that date Houlder Brothers controlled a fleet of 19 ships via three subsidiaries: nine ships in Houlder Line Ltd, nine in the Empire Transport Company and one in the Oswestry Grange Steamchip Company. In 1914 Houlder Brothers Ltd and Furness, Withy established a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

, the Furness-Houlder Argentine Line.

Ship names

Barco Urmston Grange en Puerto Cuatreros

From the 1890s onwards Houlder ships gave many of its ships names ending in ''Grange''. The group re-used some of these names three or more times on successive ships: ''Beacon Grange'', ''Elstree Grange'', ''Langton Grange'', ''Oswestry Grange'', ''Ovingdean Grange'' and ''Royston Grange''. The first word in the ships name was usually an English village or town having an initial making up part of the company name: e.g. '' Hornby Grange'', '' Oswestry Grange'', '' Upwey Grange'', '' Langton Grange'', '' Dunster Grange'', '' Elstree Grange''. Until the 1972 disaster '' Royston'' was traditionally used to supply the 'R' but after this '' Ripon'' was used.

Losses

Houlder Line lost 12 ships in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and 11 in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Furness-Houlder Argentine Lines lost three ships in the Second World War: , ''Duquesa'' and . In 1917 , from Houlder's Empire Transport Company subsidiary, became the first merchant ship to sink a

u-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

. In 1972 collided with a tanker in the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

. Both ships caught fire, killing all 74 people aboard ''Royston Grange'' and eight crew members on the tanker. ''Royston Grange'' was the

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

of STV ''Hardwick Grange'', which was transferred to

Shaw, Savill & Albion Line Shaw, Savill & Albion Line was the trading name of Shaw, Savill and Albion Steamship Company, a British shipping company that operated ships between Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. History The company was created in 1882 by the ama ...

in 1975.

End of shipping operations

Houlder Line ceased shipping operations in 1987, when ''Lord Kelvin'' was sold to Norwegian buyers. The company continues as the independent engineering consultancy Houlder Ltd.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{shipping-company-stub 1856 establishments in England Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom Transport companies established in 1856