Lamport and Holt

Lamport and Holt was a shipping line based in Liverpool, England. It was founded in 1845 by William James Lamport and George Holt. Lamport was from Workington in Cumberland, while Holt, whose brother Alfred founded the Blue Funnel Line, was a Liverpool man.[1][lower-alpha 1]

Lamport and Holt (L&H) traded with the Americas, India and South Africa. They used wooden sailing ships at first but in 1861 invested in two 1300-ton tramp steamers. The business expanded with the formation of a company called The Liverpool, Brazil and River Plate Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., which provided cargo, mail and passenger services from Liverpool, London, Glasgow in the UK and also from Antwerp in Belgium. According to National Museums Liverpool, "In 1869 it pioneered the Brazil — New York coffee trade."[1] Despite a relaxation of Brazilian laws, foreign shipping companies were reluctant to work the coast of that country but L&H saw an opportunity from the 1860s and exploited it using their subsidiary company, initially providing a service between Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul. By 1869, a triangular trading route had been established that carried British manufactured goods to Brazil, re-loaded there with coffee for New York, and collected wheat and raw materials from that port for the return voyage to Britain.[3]

L&H became a limited company in 1874, by which time 12 new ships had been delivered or were being built. A subsidiary in Belgium was set up in the same year. During the 1880s, frozen meat was being imported from Argentina and the sailing destinations were extended to include Valparaiso.[1]

Lamport died in 1874, while Holt lived on until 1896. Although the Valparasio destination was dropped in the year of Holt's death, L&H ordered five 5555-ton ships two years later. It entered a new market in 1902 when a passenger service using two second-hand ships began to operate between New York and South America. That was successful enough that some luxury liners were commissioned, and in 1910 a further three ships displacing over 10,000 tons were ordered for routes running to and from Liverpool.[1]

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC) took over L&H in 1911 but it continued to operate as a separate business. It had 36 ships totalling 200,000 tons in 1914 but eleven of these were sunk during the First World War. After that, the company mostly concentrated on the frozen meat trade and on its New York passenger services.[1]

Bad reaction to the sinking of the L&H-owned SS Vestris in 1928 and the Wall Street Crash in 1929 made the corporate financial situation very dire. RMSPC, and thus L&H, collapsed and were liquidated[1] following the successful prosecution of Lord Kylsant, a director, in the Royal Mail Case of 1931. The government supported the rebirth of RMSPC as The Royal Mail Lines Ltd[4] in 1934, which was sold to the Blue Star Line in 1944.[1]

The reconstitution of 1934 allowed L&H to continue. It survived as a separate company until 1974, with a container ship called Churchill being the last to operate under L&H colours.[1]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Alfred Holt worked for the business in a clerical capacity for a short time around 1851, and another brother, Philip Holt, was a partner in the firm.[2]

Citation

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Information Sheet 23: Lamport and Holt". National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  2. ↑ Read, J. Gordon. "Holt, Alfred (1829–1911), engineer and shipowner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2017-02-08. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  3. ↑ Tomán, René De La Pedraja (1998). Oil and Coffee: Latin American Merchant Shipping from the Imperial Era to the 1950s. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 6–9. ISBN 978-0-31330-839-0.
  4. ↑ "Shipping Lines: Royal Mail Steam Packet Company".

Further reading

  • Heaton, Paul M (1986). Lamport & Holt. Newport: Starling Press. ISBN 0-950771-46-5.
  • Heaton, Paul M (2004). Lamport & Holt Line. Abergavenny: P. M. Heaton Publishing. ISBN 1-872006-16-7.
  • "Lamport and Holt". The Ships List. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
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