The Silver Line was a shipping company formed in 1908, part of the

British Merchant Navy The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom and comprises the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguar ...

. By the 1930s they were offering round the world passenger/cargo services, with the passenger fare on a freighter £100. Entirely on foreign service, the ships did not include UK ports of call. Managing owners were the S & J Thompson family. Most of their merchant ships bore the name Silver followed by the name of a tree. 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 ...

claimed 11 of their ships. One of them, the ''Silverfir'', was sunk by the German battleship on a voyage from Manchester to New York in 1941. Silver Line switched to

tramping Tramping may refer to: Travel *Hiking *Trekking *Tramping in New Zealand, a style of backpacking or hiking * Czech tramping, a Czech outdoors pastime Places * Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380, Saskatchewan, Canada ** Tramping Lake, Sas ...

around the world in the 1950s, then went through several ownership changes, and by 1985, with the sale of their last ship, was no more. The ''Silverplane'', a sleek twin funnel vessel of 7,226

gross tons Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...

built in 1948, was sold to the

Cunard Line Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...

in 1951 and renamed ''Alsatia II'', and so was her sister ship ''Silverbriar'', to become ''Andria I''. Their forward funnels were false, containing the chart room and the captain's cabin, looked like miniature s, and carried just 12 passengers, the maximum allowed without a regulation onboard doctor. They were sold to the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

and renamed ''Union Freedom'' and ''Union Faith'' respectively. The latter ship was demolished in a fiery collision with an oil barge outside New Orleans in 1969, with considerable loss of life.SS Andria and Alsatia ''
/ref> An associated company, Joseph L. Thompson & Sons of Sunderland, was involved in the design of the first

Liberty ships Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

that saw service in

World War II 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 ...

and beyond. During the 1970s, Silver Line had a fleet of chemical tankers carrying many types of (often hazardous) cargoes; from sulphuric acid to

tetraethyllead Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb( C2H5)4. It is a fuel additive, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 1920s as a patented octane rating booster that al ...

. These ships often traded in the Baltic region. They were usually called ''Silver''- plus the name of a bird of prey (e.g. ''Silvermerlin'', ''Silverosprey'', etc.). Promotion on these ships could be very rapid for those officers prepared to serve regularly on them. Captains of 25 years of age were not uncommon. The company also had bulk carriers, tankers, OBOs and general cargo ships. The ''Silvermain'' and ''Silverfjord'' were on a regular run between Japan and the US, carrying grain one way and Toyota cars the other.

Ships

References

External links

NTSB Report of Union Faith (ex Silverbriar) collision in Mississippi River, 6 April 1969

Oil recovery from wreck after 32 years

Seafarers International Union, Liberty Ships, and the Sunderland connection

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Line Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom

Ships

See also

References

External links