The Palm Line was a UK-owned shipping line that was engaged in the West African trade from 1949, primarily servicing the ports along 5,000 miles of coastline from Morocco in the north to Angola in the far south. It ceased trading in 1986. Palm Line was a member of both UK/West Africa Lines Joint Service (UKWAL) and Continent/West Africa Conference (COWAC) together with

Elder Dempster Elder Dempster Lines was a UK shipping company that traded from 1932 to 2000, but had its origins in the mid-19th century. Founders Alexander Elder Alexander Elder was born in Glasgow in 1834. He was the son of David Elder, who for many y ...

, Black Star Line,

Nigerian National Shipping Line The Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) was established by the Nigerian government in 1959. Despite heavy investment and subsidies, the state-owned company was unable to compete with European lines. Much of the investment went to enriching the ...

, Guinea Gulf Line and Norwegian Hoegh Line.

Background

In the post-war period of the late 1940s, UAC decided to divest its shipping fleet to become an independent company in its own right. On 16 February 1949, an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders was held to set up the new company. This was done by reviving the dormant articles of association of the old Southern Whaling and Sealing Company, which Lever Bros. had bought in 1919 then sold to Christian Salvesen Ltd in 1941, and changing the name to Palm Line. The name of the new company had not been decided upon without considerable discussion. At one stage the name Sun Line had been put forward. It was Mr

Frank Samuel Frank Samuel (1889–1954) was a British businessman, inventor and philanthropist who was a managing director and later chairman of the United Africa Company (UAC). Life Samuel was born into a family that ran a music business, the business manufa ...

, later to become the new company's first chairman who thought of the name 'Palm'.

The Creeks

It is notable that all Palm Line ships, with the exception of ''Kano Palm'' and ''Katsina Palm'', built before 1970 had to be less than long in order to navigate the creeks of Nigeria. Draught is another important feature. The coast of West Africa is extremely flat, and the slow-moving rivers and tidal currents have combined to build up long sand bars a mile or two off the coast. To enter most of the rivers, ships must pass over these bars; being the maximum draught to serve all ports. Even so, to enter many rivers, - for example the

Escravos River The Escravos River is a river in southern Nigeria. "Escravos" is a Portuguese word meaning "slaves" and the area was one of the main conduits for slave trade between Nigeria and the United States in the 18th century. The Escravos is a distributa ...

which leads to Sapele - ships cannot carry more than 4,000 tons since the maximum draught to successfully make it over the Escravos Bar is limited to , so vessels would often cross over the bar at the entrance to the adjacent Forcados River, then take the connecting creek to the Escravos River.

Krooboys

It was common practice for all vessels to call in at

Freetown Freetown is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educ ...

both south- and northbound to take on both fuel bunkers and 'Krooboys' - additional local West African crew members; their duties being mainly chipping, painting and hold cleaning. They had their own separate accommodation on deck between hatches 1 & 2, with the headman having his own cabin in the

fo'c'sle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

The End

The early 1980s spelled the beginning of the end for Palm Line. From 1982 until 1986 the dramatic drop in Europe / West Africa trade meant the increasing need to charter the vessels out to third parties. Palm Line was sold to Ocean Fleets in 1986. The last Chairman of Palm Lines was Gordon Williams of Pontypool.

Emblem

The palm tree emblem had already been used on a

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

Ltd house flag designed in 1939.

Merseyside Maritime Museum

From Jun-Dec 2018 the

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

had a temporary exhibition entitled 'Palm Line - A new company for a new era', with a scale-model of MV ''Matadi Palm'' (1970) as its centrepiece.

The Fleet

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

*{{cite web , url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/palm.htm , title=Palm Line / United Africa Co. , last1=Swiggum , first1=Susan , last2=Kohli , first2=Marjorie , work=The Ships List , publisher=Susan Swiggum & Stephen Morse , date=24 October 2005 , access-date=18 October 2011 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010193018/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/palm.htm , archive-date=10 October 2009 , url-status=dead 1911 establishments in England 1986 disestablishments in England Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom Palm oil Former Unilever companies British companies established in 1969 British companies disestablished in 1986 Transport companies established in 1969 Transport companies disestablished in 1986