What British owned shipping companies are left?

[runningbowline]

At one time a few decades ago there were many British shipping companies, but now it is a fraction of what it once was.

Want to see if we can make a list of all British owned shipping companies that around now a days, also to be included the companies must still hire British officers.

Ones that were once British owned that aren't anymore like P&O (Dubai owned), BP (Multinational corporation - Probably more american than British now), Boston Putfords (American owned) shouldn't be suggested.

The ones I can think of are the following:

Private British Shipping Companies:

Fletchers Shipping
Bibbly Line Group
Craig Group - ( North Star )
Foreland Shipping
Andrew Weir Shipping
Pritchard-Gordon Tankers LTD
James Fisher and Sons PLC

Government Owned British Shipping Companies:

Caledonian Macbrayne
Serco Northlink Ferries
Serco Denholm
Marine Scotland
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
Natural Environment Research Council
British Antarctic Survey
Northern Lighthouse Board
Trinity House

Not confirmed if they are British owned and hire British officers:

The Graig Group (Beginning with a G... Not Craig as listed above...) (Do they hire British officers?)
Scotline (Do they hire British officers?)
Union Transport Group PLC (Do they hire British officers?)
Global Marine Systems ???

Feel free to add more, or correct if there are any included by mistake...

[Steve]

Caledonian Macbrayne

Government owned. There's a lot more can be included if you go down that line.

What is your criteria for being "British owned"? Private ownership by a British national/resident and company being registered in UK?

[Clanky]

Foreland Shipping
Andrew Weir Shipping
Graig (not certain about them having British officers though?)

[Steve]

Foreland Shipping
Andrew Weir Shipping

Which leads me to two more questions for the OP. What is a 'shipping company'? A shipowner? A ship manager? Something else?

Andrew Weir are a shipmanager, but they own 25% of Foreland Shipping. Does that make them a shipowner? Foreland own six ships, but crew management is contracted out to Bibby (who own 25% of Foreland Shipping...) and technical management is contracted out to Andrew Weir.

[runningbowline]

Government owned. There's a lot more can be included if you go down that line.

What is your criteria for being "British owned"? Private ownership by a British national/resident and company being registered in UK?

British owned, as in being owned by the British.

Which leads me to two more questions for the OP. What is a 'shipping company'? A shipowner? A ship manager? Something else?

Andrew Weir are a shipmanager, but they own 25% of Foreland Shipping. Does that make them a shipowner? Foreland own six ships, but crew management is contracted out to Bibby (who own 25% of Foreland Shipping...) and technical management is contracted out to Andrew Weir.

Shipping company - a company that owns and operates ships

As for Caledonian Macbrayne last time I checked our government was British?

[Steve]

British owned, as in being owned by the British.

"The" British? That implies public ownership, i.e. only state entities. I don't think that's what you meant.

Shares in public companies can be owned by pretty much anyone and the potential diversity of shareholdings make it difficult or impossible to attribute ownership to the nationals of a particular state. You've already excluded the likes of BP. Is the majority ownership of James Fisher and Sons plc British? Does that determine their 'Britishness' for your purpose?

As for Caledonian Macbrayne last time I checked our government was British?

Then you get to include stuff like Serco Denholm (well, maybe, Serco is a public company, see above...) and what about other government entities like BAS, NERC, CEFAS, Marine Scotland, etc?

[gadget123]

Scotline are british

[noworries182]

fisher tankers?

[noworries182]

Just recalled, my mate works for Pritchard-Gordon tankers who I believe are a family owned British company. What about them little bulkers or tankers that all begin with 'Union' like the union moon, union saturn etc, are they British? . . . . . . i'v just answerd my own question, i just checked there site and it says this:

"Union Transport Group plc has grown from humble and modest beginnings in 1946 to become the market-leading UK-based owner and operator of coastal dry cargo vessels"

[Lewis]

who are Graig never heard of them?

[thady]

who are Graig never heard of them?

Craig or Northstar are a offshore support and ERRV company based in Aberdeen.. all their vessel names are preceded with Grampian.

[Ducki52]

Graig is a Welsh company, and their head office is in Cardiff.

[Clanky]

Shipping is by it's very nature an international business. There are very few companies left which are completely British.

I sailed on one ship, registered in the Isle of Man, owned by Germans, managed by a British company, chartered by a Finnish company, manned by a Channel Islands company with an office in some Carribean Island were the crew agreement was based.

The introduction of the tonnage tax has seen companies with an office in the UK operating UK flagged ship's but no real increase in 'British' companies.

Even 'British' companies like BP with a head office in London are owned by p[eople from all over the World.

[runningbowline]

Shipping is by it's very nature an international business. There are very few companies left which are completely British.

I sailed on one ship, registered in the Isle of Man, owned by Germans, managed by a British company, chartered by a Finnish company, manned by a Channel Islands company with an office in some Carribean Island were the crew agreement was based.

The introduction of the tonnage tax has seen companies with an office in the UK operating UK flagged ship's but no real increase in 'British' companies.

Even 'British' companies like BP with a head office in London are owned by p[eople from all over the World.

I'm looking to make a list of the companies that still are fairly British.

Although there are still plenty British officers being produced, the British Merchant Navy really died along with the Empire. What were left with now is just a small remnant. It's good when you see companies like Fletchers shipping starting up and bringing a bit of pride back.

Most of the big British shipping companies seem to have gone out of businesses in the 1970's and 80's.

The following table is from Wikipedia documents just how much of a change has taken place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Navy_(United_Kingdom)

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[Steve]

The following table is from Wikipedia documents just how much of a change has taken place.

What that shows is that people fly rather than travel on passenger liners, general cargo ships are far less prevalent (how many container or RORO ships were there in 1957?) and tankers have a got a lot bigger (VLCCs in 1957?).

According to 2010 figures the UK had the 22nd largest number of ships registered, and if you include British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies it goes up to 8th largest.