Category: Merchant Shipping Company Histories

A ship by ship account of the wartime career of the Holland–America Line fleet in exile. A second edition appeared in 1950.

A well-illustrated and written coffee table book with 30 pages on WWII. Names such as Africa Shell, Ohio,and San Demetrio are well known but the book ranges much wider than these often told tales.

Includes a short chapter on the fate of their ships in WWII. Depending on their location in April 1940 they worked for either the Allies or the Axis and over 60 per cent of them were lost.

An anecdotal history with various factual and tabular appendices. The P & O Fleet was savaged during the war but won permanent fame in the last action of Rawalpindi.

An episodic account of the chequered history of this New Zealand Shipping Company, which includes the story of the sinking of the Holmwood by the raider Komet in 1940.

The company owned or managed 26 ships and the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company during the war. The service of each ship is recorded in two chapters on WWII.

A company history celebrating the first 50 years. Most of the 40 pages devoted to WWII concentrate on the company's Persian operations, but brief mention is made of the tanker fleet and of the development of PLUTO, the Pipe Line Under The Ocean which supplied the Normandy beachhead.

The story of Eagle Oil from 1912–1954. It concentrates on major events and especially both world wars. Ships of the fleet figured in many dramatic actions, none more so than the famous San Demetrio and Ohio.

A history of the shipping firm. Five of their ships were converted to AMCs; six of the fleet were lost. The war is covered in 15 pages.

An illustrated history of the ships of the Clan Line.

Includes a 48-page account of the war. Some ships were taken over as AMCs and Pretoria Castle was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier.

A history of the Southampton, Isle of Wight, and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. Several of its ships were requisitioned and served honourably from Dunkirk to Normandy.

The story of the Holt Fleet fully told by a leading naval historian. The fleet included the Glen Line ships used as Infantry Assault ships.

Fifty-one of just over 100 ships which started the war were lost.

Recounts some of the more dramatic events which befell their tankers during the war.

Although not stated in the book, this record of a shipping line at war is a reprint of a book published in 1948 as Blue Star Line: Record of Service.

A solid record of a major shipping line.

The history of the small ships of the Straits Steamship Company during the war from the eastern peace of 1939–41, to the devastation of the Japanese assault.

Over 60 pages are devoted to WWII. The company's ships were heavily involved as auxiliary naval vessels and suffered terribly during the Japanese onslaught. But some survived the war and the proud record of all the company's ships is ably described.

Of 36 ships which began the war, 19 were sunk. The fleet saw action from the Far East to the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Possibly the best known of the company's ships was Jervis Bay, but many others served gallantly.

A chapter of 20 pages covers the company's war history, especially the activities of the AMCs Awatea and Monowai.

HEATON, P. M. Welsh Shipping Forgotten Fleets. 91p., illus. Abergavenny: author, 1989. ISBN: 1872006000.

A reference guide to the ships of five Welsh shipping companies which gives details of their war service and fates.

MALCOLM, Ian M. Shipping Company Losses of the Second World War. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Stroud: History Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780752493428.

An excellent reference work covering the British Merchant Navy. Gives shipping losses from all causes arranged by shipping company and then alphabetically by ship name. Has a paragraph on cause of loss and fate of the crew.

BARTY-KING, Hugh. Girdle Round the Earth: The Story of Cable & Wireless and Its Predecessors to Mark the Group's Jubilee, 1929–1979. xvi, 413p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Heinemann, 1979. ISBN: 0434049026.

A very detailed history from the laying of the first cross-Channel cable in 1851. Two chapters are devoted to the company and its cable-laying ships in WWII.

CARVER, Ben. The Merchant Navy: Ships and Trains in World War II. x, 102p.,bibliog., illus., index. Reading: Finial, 2008. ISBN: 9781900467407.

The book arises from an interest in the eleven ‘Merchant Navy’ Class locomotives rescued at the end of BR steam in the 1960’s. He gives brief well illustrated war histories of the ships of the eleven companies represented by the surviving locomotives.

RICHARDSON, Matthew. Isle of Man Steam Packet in the Second World War. 216p., bibliog., illus, index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2024. ISBN: 9781399051576.

As well as maintaining links to the mainland in the face of U-boats and mines, the company’s ships served from Dunkirk to D-Day.

A fleet list with a short biography of each vessel. Packed with detail of their operations.

Tankers were prime targets for U–boats as is shown by this brief account of a fleet which lost two–thirds of its ships.

A chronological account in which each chapter recounts the involvement of a company ship with the enemy.

The volume marks 70 years of growth and prosperity for the firm. It largely avoids the Bank Line Fleet's war history.

The war story of each of the company's and associated companies' ships. The most notable and best covered of these is the AMC (later LSI) Westralia.

Almost half of the 30 Port Line ships which started the war were lost in action. Commodore W. G. Higgs appears to have undertaken most of the research for this small pamphlet.

WWII is covered in 30 pages which inevitably rely heavily on the company's earlier war history.

A brief account of the war service of the ships and men of the Shaw Savill line. Several of their ships were taken over as Armed Merchant Cruisers, the most famous being Jervis Bay.

Describes how they operate and includes material on their war service.

Royal Mail Lines entered the war with a fleet of 31 ships which served all over the world. Some were commissioned into the RN.

150 years of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. Ltd. The book describes all the company's vessels and there is a chapter on their extensive war service. Ten of the company's 16 vessels were commissioned.

A full history of the company, which also includes Captain Chubb's wartime memoirs.

The ferry service continued although some of the ships were converted to minesweepers. They were also used at Dunkirk. All is lovingly described.

Individual accounts of the 33 Elder Dempster ships sunk in the war and of the hospital ship Aba.

A record of the major wartime incidents which involved the Ben Line's ships. Inevitably most of these were sinkings.

Only 20 pages cover the P & O ships splendid war service, possibly the most famous of them being the Rawalpindi.

The Blue Star Line lost 29 of its 38 ships in the course of the war, to submarine, raider, and shipwreck. This is a chronological account not only of those losses, and the fate of the survivors, but also of the many incidents from Malta convoys to the evacuation of Singapore in which the Blue Star ships were involved.

The wartime story of the Donaldson fleet is covered in less than ten pages, although a full account is given of Salacia's part in the TORCH landings. Published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies.

Twenty tales of the merchant seamen of South Wales at war.

A detailed, scholarly account with limited but useful material on WWII.

Almost half of the second volume is devoted to the wartime activities of this shipping line, which lost 16 ships during the war to bomb, mine, and torpedo.

A pamphlet containing pictures of all the passenger vessels of the Southern Railway's Fleet. Many are also pictured in their wartime role and this is briefly commented on.

The story of Cable and Wireless Ltd. at war. Their undersea cables were an essential link in communications and their cable-laying and repair ships did vital work.

The two authors treat the 19th and 20th centuries respectively. The war service of requisitioned ships of the Canadian Princess Coastal Fleet is briefly chronicled. A second edition was published in 1976.

An account of 25 years in the life of the General Steam Navigation Company. Although their ships were mainly involved in coastal trade, some saw war service as far away as Australia and the Falklands. Eight vessels were at Dunkirk.

The war history of the Clan Line.

WWII is covered in some 60 pages which recount how the company's ships faced all the hazards of war.