Five generations of British Shipowners

Stag Line was owned and managed from North Shields by five generations of the Robinson family. The Robinson family history was closely linked to Whitby, Capt. Joseph Robinson being born in Whitby in 1768, his brothers being Capt. John Robinson and Thomas Robinson. The son of Capt. Joseph Robinson of the same name, ordered a wooden snow in 1846 from a shipbuilder in South Shields and named her as Stag, using the insurance money from a previous sailing ship, Blessing, lost that year to purchase 28 shares in the new ship on the 64ths principle. His brother Thomas took 22 shares and James Miller, shipowner, took the remaining fourteen shares.

A trippant stag was adopted as the houseflag of the ship, and she was to be managed from 1850 by the newly formed management company of Joseph Robinson & Company. The stag device was in continuous use from 1846 to 1983, and a large stencil outline of a stag was kept in the office basement at North Shields and was brought out to mark up the stag on the funnels of new acquisitions. The white stag also adorned the gable end of the old Maritime Chambers office building, built in 1806/07 as the Subscription Library of the Tynemouth Literary and Philosophical Society and now the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for North Tyneside. When the Stag Line tramps passed the office, which has a grandstand view over the river Tyne, either inbound or outbound, they sounded their sirens as a mark of respect. A red stag adorns the gable end of the building today.

Victorian Fleet Expansion

A further fifteen small wooden three masted barques were owned over the next 25 years, the last being Wellington purchased in October 1871 but lost two months later off Madeira while on a voyage from the Tyne to Guadeloupe with coal. In that year the first steamer Stephanotis of 1,530 dwt was completed at Sunderland, and she carried sails as insurance if her compound steam engine failed. Names of flowers were now commonly used, with Camellia completed in 1858 for Capt. Joseph Robinson being the first such name.

The first steam tramp to sail completely without the steadying effect of sails was Amy Dora built in 1875 of 2,500 dwt, and by 1879 there were no sailing ships left in the fleet of eleven steamers. In October, 1880, two tramps were lost while at anchor at Punta Delgada in the Azores in a storm. Stag and Robinia were both on voyages from New Orleans to French ports, and their anchors dragged and they collided and also hit a third steamer, all three vessels being total losses. Capt. Joseph Robinson died in 1889 when the fleet comprised sixteen tramps, and the office was moved six years later to the building with a grandstand view of the Tyne mentioned above.

Stag Line Ltd. was registered on 20th August 1895 with a paid-up capital of £148,032 divided into 16,448 shares of £9 each, and all tramps were transferred from the 64ths principle to the new company by the issuing of shares to holders of the 64ths. This move was prompted by the high cost of insuring each ship individually on the market. A new steamer Gloxinia was completed in early 1897 and was their first new ship for thirteen years and formed part of a replacement programme for the older tramps. She was launched by Mrs. Eleanor Robinson, daughter of Capt. Joseph Robinson Jnr., and grandmother of Nicolas J. Robinson, the last Chairman of Stag Line. Gloxinia had great longevity, not being scrapped until 1966 at Santander as Candina when 69 years old. She was followed by three more steamers, Clematis, Begonia and Zinnia, from the same yard of Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. on the north bank of the Tyne at Willington Quay.

The third generation of the Robinson family were five sons of Capt. Joseph Robinson in Joseph Robinson, Nicolas Johnson Robinson, James Hedley Robinson, Walter Robinson and John Thomas Robinson. Joseph Robinson and Nicolas Johnson Robinson lived at a large mansion called Preston Towers and rode to their office overlooking the Tyne each morning in a large Victorian open horse drawn carriage in the grand manner. The distance was only a little over a quarter of a mile, and this mansion still exists and is in current use as a Care Home. Nicolas Johnson Robinson retired in 1899 due to ill-health, and Joseph Robinson died on 18th September 1904, and the partners then became the brothers Alfred Robinson and Charles Robinson of the fourth generation of the family, and their nephew Johnson Robinson.

Indian Ocean Trading

The Tyne Iron yard also completed the new tramps Amaryllis (2) and Stephanotis (2) of 6,309 dwt in 1904. Stephanotis (2) loaded coal on the Tyne for her maiden voyage to Bombay with a crew of 24 plus two apprentices. The crew were made up of the Master, Chief Engineer, two Mates and two Engineers keeping watch and about, six Lascar seamen, and a dozen firemen and trimmers. She traded in the hard grind of coal and salt cargoes in the Indian Ocean, between Aden, Mombasa, Karachi, Bombay, Calicut, Colombo, Calcutta, Rangoon, Moulmein, Penang and Singapore. During the year before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she carried five cargoes of coal from Calcutta to Bombay, three to Penang and one cargo to Calicut. In May 1915, she loaded 6,475 tonnes of wheat at Karachi, and sailed for the U.K., bunkering at Aden, Port Said and Gibraltar. She arrived off the Humber on 15th June 1915 and discharge of her wheat cargo was completed three days later. Her sister Amaryllis (2) also loaded coal on the Tyne for her maiden voyage to the Indian Ocean, returning to the Mediterranean coast of Spain in March 1906 to load a cargo of salt at Torrevieja for the U.K.

Ten tramps were owned in 1904 in Ixia, Nymphaea, Stag, Robinia, Gloxinia, Begonia, Zinnia, and the new Stephanotis and Amaryllis. The tramping trades in the Baltic and Mediterranean were of less importance after this date as the size of tramps increased. Loaded coal voyages from the Tyne to the West Indies, and Indian Ocean trading became more common. Iron ore was often loaded in the Mediterranean for discharge in North America. Clintonia (2) was lost by fire while loading coal at Newport News on 26th April 1897, the fire had started on the wharf and spread to the ship. Begonia (2) lost a propeller in the Indian Ocean in 1906 during a voyage from Reunion to Calcutta when 250 miles south of Colombo. Two blades were then added to the spare propeller on the poop deck, and when fitted it was able to propel the tramp into Galle, where a Lloyd’s Register surveyor came down from Colombo to supervise a more permanent job and without going into dry-dock. The whole time period from first losing the propeller to resuming service at Galle was only one week.

Amaryllis (2) of 1904 was wrecked on 7th February 1908 at Kalkudah in Ceylon while on a voyage from Calcutta to Bombay with coal, she was a total loss. Zinnia of 1900 was destroyed by fire off Cape Comorin in India on 27th March 1912 while on a voyage from Calcutta to Karachi with coal, she became a constructive total loss. Two useful ‘Turret’ decked steamers from the Doxford yard at Sunderland had been completed in 1907 as Euphorbia and Clintonia. Particularly strong hulled ships were needed for the carriage of molasses, and in 1908 Stag of 1884 was converted to carry molasses, and was followed by Nymphaea (2) of 1882 and Ixia of 1881. Nymphaea (2) was wrecked in fog on 14th July 1914 and abandoned 1.5 miles south of Whinnyfold on the south side of Cruden Bay near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire while on a voyage from Tyne to Cienfuegos in Cuba to load molasses for the Continent.

World War I

At the beginning of the Great War, Stag Line owned a fleet of a dozen tramps of 65,460 dwt, and half of this fleet was to be sunk by the enemy, with another wrecked:-

Linaria was mined and sunk on 26.12.1914 near Filey while on a voyage from London to the Tyne

Clintonia was torpedoed and sunk on 1.8.1915 30 miles WSW of Ushant while on a voyage from Marseille to the Tyne in ballast, ten lost.

Euphorbia was torpedoed and sunk on 16.7.1916 56 miles NE of Algiers while on a voyage from Calcutta to London with general, 11 lost.

Cydonia was wrecked on Holy Island on 27.9.1916 while on a voyage from Burntisland to Brest.

Camellia sailed from Dakar on 27.11.1917 for the U.K. and disappeared.

Euphorbia (2) was torpedoed and sunk on 1.12.1917 14 miles SE of the Royal Sovereign Light Vessel while on a voyage from Bassein to London with rice, 14 lost.

Begonia was torpedoed and sunk on 21.3.1918 44 miles SW of the Wolf Rock while on a voyage from the Tyne and Plymouth to Salonica with Admiralty cargo.

Seven pre-war tramps were sold during the war, with Photinia of 1913 sold in 1917 to the National Steamship Co. Ltd (J. & C. Harrison Ltd., managers) and renamed Fotinia and sailed until torpedoed and sunk as Eizan Maru on 18th January 1942 by the American submarine Plunger. Gardenia of 1914 and 5,350 dwt was the only survivor of the pre-war fleet, and Clintonia of 1917 was the only survivor of three sisters built by William Dobson & Co. Ltd. on the Tyne for the company during the war. In 1919, Gardenia of 1914 was time chartered for one year and Clintonia of 1917 was time chartered for 18 months, trading to the Mediterranean, the Indian coasts and to the Plate. At the end of her charter, Gardenia loaded three timber cargoes in the Baltic for Hartlepool.

Inter War Years

The temptation to purchase second-hand tramps was resisted in the post-war boom, with only a new ‘War C’ type purchased and renamed Gloxinia of 5,540 dwt in September 1920 from the Tyne Iron yard. However, she did not trade immediately and instead went straight into dry-dock at Smith’s Dock Co. Ltd. at North Shields for conversion into a tanker. She emerged in April 1921 at a cost of £236,234, and at the Annual General Meeting of Stag Line on 16th December 1920 there were two possible very remunerative charters for her, but it was decided to postpone a decision on which one to accept until the meeting had finished, by which time the market had slipped and both charters disappeared! However, she finally sailed on charter to the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. Ltd .(later BP) to Abadan at the end of April 1921 to load oil for the U.K. The Master, officers and engineers lived ‘midships and the crew lived aft, and after her return from the Persian Gulf they were to be employed for the next seven years carrying 35 cargoes of oil either from Batum on the Black Sea or American Eastern seaboard and Gulf ports to the U.K. Gloxinia then sailed on 2nd January 1929 to the snow and ice of Grytviken on South Georgia to load whale oil for Liverpool.

By 1922/23, coal exports from the Tyne hit record levels that were never surpassed again at 55.5 million tonnes, with one staith at Dunston shipping 7.34 million tonnes during these two years. The trading pattern of the Stag Line tramps had now returned to their pre-war trades of coal from the Tyne or Cardiff to the Mediterranean, or to Montreal or New York. They then traded down to the Caribbean before loading grain or tobacco in New Orleans or Gulf ports for the U.K./Continent. Coal was carried to the Mediterranean, and then ballast through the Suez Canal to Aden to load salt, followed by multiple voyages with coal from Calcutta around the Indian coast, before loading iron ore homewards.

Ixia (2) of 5,010 dwt was delivered in 1922 from the John Blumer yard at Sunderland and loaded a cargo of coal on the Tyne and sailed on 4th August 1922 for Piraeus, and then ballasted to Algiers to load iron ore for Rotterdam. She then loaded coal at Cardiff in October 1922 for Aden and then ballasted to Beira to load dates, wheat and barley for London. She sailed from the Thames on 2nd January 1923 to load coal at Barry for Piraeus then ballasted to Suez and arrived in the Seychelles to load guano and copra for one month inside the coral reef at Port Victoria on Mahe Island. This was unloaded at London and Birkenhead, and she then loaded coal at Barry in April 1923 for Aden, then ballasted to Karachi to load wheat for Avonmouth, arriving on 5th August 1923. Ixia was wrecked on the Brisons in St. Ives Bay on 30th June 1929 while on a voyage from Swansea to Constantinople after deviating from course to land two engineers.

Laid-Up During The Depression

The tanker Gloxinia was laid up at Liverpool from 12th July 1930 for three months to 10th October before being brought around to the Tyne to be laid up for over six years during the length of the Depression until 26th January 1937. As a tanker, she received compensation money from other shipowners in the Tanker Pool, a form of ‘unemployment benefit’ paid by the owners of tankers in employment. The dry-cargo fleet in 1930 consisted of Linaria and Euphorbia of 5,700 dwt completed on the Wear in 1924, Clintonia of 1917, Gardenia of 1928, and Cydonia of 1927. All five tramps spent time laid up at Cardiff or the Tyne for periods of up to two years. A loss of £7,100 was made in 1934 by Stag Line Ltd., but miraculously the bank overdraft never exceeded £4,750 during the whole of the Depression.

The tanker Gloxinia was re-activated by the strong demand created by the Spanish Civil war and carried eight cargoes of oil from Batum to Spain. On one voyage she called at Marseille and was quickly cleared for her destination of Valencia. She was seen approaching there by German bombers, who then heavily attacked that harbour during the night, but Gloxinia escaped after a quick discharge and moved along the coast to Barcelona during the night. In 1938, Hopedene of 6,750 dwt was purchased from the Hopemount Shipping Co. Ltd. of Newcastle and renamed Photinia to give a fleet of seven tramps at the beginning of World War II.

World War II

These desperate times saw four of the fleet of seven tramps being mined or torpedoed by enemy action :-

Gardenia was mined and sunk on 12th March 1940 to NE of Cromer while on a voyage from Casablanca to Billingham and Leith with phosphates.

Clintonia was torpedoed and sunk on 19th October 1940 west of the Hebrides while on a voyage from St. Francis to Manchester with pulp wood, 1 lost.

Euphorbia was torpedoed and sunk on 14th December 1940 in the North Atlantic while on a voyage from Swansea and Milford Haven to Lynn (Mass.), 34 crew lost.

Linaria was torpedoed and sunk on 24th February 1941 by an Italian submarine in the North Atlantic while on a voyage from the Tyne and Loch Ewe to Halifax (NS) in ballast, all 35 crew lost.

Clintonia under the command of Capt. Hector Irvin sailed from West Hartlepool at the end of August 1940 for Sydney (CB), and went north about to pick up a convoy in Loch Ewe. She experienced engine trouble soon after sailing and fell behind the convoy, but on the second day an unusual scraping noise was heard on the hull and a U-boat surfaced astern and a hit was scored on her conning tower by the tramp’s gun crew, who were having target practice at the time. The U-boat was disabled and did not follow Clintonia, which reached Sydney (CB) safely. Directions were then obtained for the port of loading, Francis Harbour. This was not a port but an open beach on the Labrador coast where the cargo was floated out and hoisted aboard with the ship’s own gear.

Clintonia returned to Sydney (CB) and awaited convoy SC7 to Manchester. SC7 was to receive one of the severest maulings ever handed out by the U-boats, losing twenty out of 35 ships with Clintonia the last to go. Capt. Irvin had decided to make a run for it away from the rout and at 0300 hours on 19th October he was beginning to think they might reach home when U-99 surfaced on the port side within grenade throwing distance. The aft gun could not depress far enough and did not fire due to the erratic changes of course by Capt. Irvin. However, a torpedo exploded in the engine room bringing the mainmast down with a crash on the top of the radio room, denying SOS messages. Capt. Irvin gave orders to abandon ship just before a second torpedo slammed in under the bridge exploding in the boiler room. Her cargo kept her afloat and U-99 surfaced to pump shells into her, and she sank by the stern in a cloud of steam. The crew got away in two lifeboats and only one man lost his life. Capt. Hector Irvin was a neighbour of our family home in North Shields, and I knew him well as he retired early from Stag Line due to his horrific wartime experiences.

Empire Standard was one of nine standard tramps managed by Stag Line during the war, and made only two voyages in her short career, both to Algiers with munitions. She sailed from the Tyne, her birthplace, and loaded her deadly cargo plus heavy locomotives and trucks on deck at Leith. Her steering gear packed up en route, necessitating manual steering from the aft exposed position with the helmsman almost continuously under water! The fault was located in the bunker ‘tween spaces necessitating the removal of the bunkers, and then further repairs were made to the rudder casing. Her final voyage was from Greenock on 26th February 1943 in company with 35 other ships. Perfect weather was encountered in the Mediterranean, and her crew were just beginning to relax when she was torpedoed halfway between Oran and Algiers. A neat twenty feet square hole was blown in both sides of no. 3 hold and ammunition, trucks and jeeps were floating away behind the ship. The hatch had been blown sky high as had one of the lifeboats, which landed back again jammed down the inside of the funnel!

Fire broke out on Empire Standard and Capt. Harvey, who had been taking a bath, supervised the fire-fighting in the nude, after unsticking the continuously blowing whistle lanyard. However, she still responded to the helm, and was headed for the beach seven miles away, and progress was so good she made for Algiers under escort. Her valuable cargo was discharged, but she was singled out by aircraft and hit by three aerial torpedoes and broke her back. She was a constructive total loss and her wreck was towed out to sea and scuttled.

Post-War Years

The former Stephens, Sutton tramp Reaveley, built in 1929 for Norwegian owners, had been purchased in 1943 for £80,495 and renamed Begonia (3) and survived the war. The Joseph Constantine owned tramp Briarwood was purchased in 1945 for £70,468 and renamed Gardenia (4), and took refined sugar a year later from London to Basra, bunkering on the way out at Gibraltar, Port Said and Aden, and returned with generals from Basra to Avonmouth with calls at Abadan, Aden, Suez, Port Said and Gibraltar. This need to frequently stop for bunkers was eliminated in 1947 with her conversion to oil firing. The managed Empire Baffin, which had been converted into the pipelayer HMS Sancroft in 1943, was purchased after the war and renamed Clintonia, as well as the managed Empire Kumasi, which became Ixia (3). The maintenance ship HMS Moray Firth was purchased in 1947 for £80,000, but it cost another £98,597 to convert back into a tramp at South Shields and she was renamed Linaria (3).

A big change in trading patterns occurred in post-war years, as there was only a limited amount of coal available for export in the U.K. to Mediterranean ports, and only some small amounts of anthracite from South Wales for export to the St. Lawrence area. Homeward cargoes from the St. Lawrence were sawn wood and pitprops, and esparto grass, iron ore, phosphates and bauxite from the Mediterranean. The bigger Stag Line tramps loaded lumber at Vancouver, either for Far Eastern ports or South American ports, or homewards to the U.K. The fleet at the beginning of 1949 was eight tramps, but Cydonia’s luck finally ran out on 21st October 1949 when she detonated another mine 32 miles north of Strumble Head on a voyage from Workington to Cardiff. Unfortunately, a greaser lost his life in the flooded engine room, and after a tow into Milford Haven the old tramp was declared beyond economical repair. She had set off another mine on 28th February 1945 in the North Sea and arrived at Hull in a badly damaged condition but was repaired.

The tanker Gloxinia had survived the war, and sailed from the Tyne in May 1945 under Capt. Mortimore to carry urgently needed oil supplies around the Eastern Mediterranean from Haifa. She carried 76 cargoes of oil to war ravaged Piraeus and Alexandria, and then loaded for home in May 1948. She then sailed from the Tyne for only her second ever visit to Abadan, but on 24th July 1948 she stranded on the east side of Jezirat Farur Island off the coast of what is now Iran. Her forepeak was damaged, and after lightening the ship by the transfer of 1,200 tonnes of oil to barges she was refloated five days later. Repairs consisted of filling the forepeak with cement at Suez during August and September of 1948. During the next year, she carried thirteen cargoes of oil to Egypt from either Abadan or Haifa, including one month as a bunkering craft in the red heat of Aden. She then spent most of her last voyages for Stag Line on charter to Shell, sailing from the Tyne on 21st July 1949 at the start of the first of two 12 month charters taking bunker grade ‘C’ fuel around the West Indies and to Dakar and the U.S.A. from Curacao. She was then sold to Italy for £115,000 (half her original cost) in July 1952 following strong demand due to the Abadan oil crisis, and was converted back to dry cargo in 1945.

A further maintenance ship HMS Portland Bill was purchased in January 1951 for £61,700 and was converted back to a tramp by Mercantile Dry Dock Co. Ltd. at a cost of £109,171 and was ready for service in June of that year as Zinnia (2). The first steps were now taken to modernise the fleet with a raised quarterdeck tramp of 7,800 dwt ordered from the yard of John Readhead & Sons Ltd. at South Shields. She was especially strengthened aft and designed for the carriage of grain and sugar and had self-trimming holds with hopper sides. Named Camellia (4), she was ready in February, 1953 as the first motortramp in the fleet, her four cylinder Doxford oil engine of 3,000 bhp coming from North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. at Wallsend giving her a service speed of twelve knots. She had a quarterdeck of length 278 feet with space for three of her five holds and hatches, which were served by ten derricks in all. The triple expansion and low pressure steam turbine powered sister Cydonia (4) followed in October 1955 from the Readhead yard.

During the Canadian ice free season of 1956, Begonia (3), Camellia (4), Gardenia (4) and Clintonia (5) each made two voyages to Churchill in Hudson Bay and lifted out a total of 59,112 tonnes of grain, beating local competitors R. S. Dalgleish Ltd. of Newcastle who had pioneered the trade. Begonia (3) was sold at the end of 1956, Linaria (3) having been sold in 1954, and Clintonia (5) was sold in 1959, leaving the last two old style tramps Gardenia (4) and Zinnia (2) to sail on until 1964 when replaced by bulk carriers.

The new 10,350 dwt raised quarterdeck tramp Gloxinia (3) was launched at the Readhead yard on 20th February 1958 by Miss Dorothy Ann Robinson, daughter of Nicholas J. Robinson, and watched by millions on children’s TV. His cousin David Robinson and their cousin Robin Pender of the fifth generation of the family made up the post-war management of Stag Line. My father, who was a coal staith manager for the Tyne Improvement Commissioners (becoming the Port of Tyne on 28th June 1968) knew David Robinson through business. My father retired on the last day of 1974, and I later knew Nicholas J. Robinson and his wife Dorothy when they lived in the Gosforth suburb of Newcastle. Nicholas had served six years in the Royal Corps of Signals during the war and joined the company as a partner in 1946. Their cousin Reginald Robinson Pender, known as Robin, was the grandson of Walter Robinson and joined as a trainee manager and became a junior partner on 1st January 1957 and a director in 1963. Walter Robinson of the third generation of the family lived at Rothbury in Northumberland from 1903 until his death in 1941, and his home was lit by electricity from the same generator at Cragside House as that of Sir William Armstrong, whose home was the first in the world to be lit by electricity. Walter Robinson had served 41 years at sea before coming ashore as a partner with H. S. Edwards in their dry-docks at South Shields known as Edwards & Robinson. The early Stag Line tramps were repaired in these docks at South Shields, and Walter Robinson received a Silver Rose Bowl as a retirement present on 30th June 1893 to mark his fourteen years as a partner in the dry-dock business.

Camellia (4) and Gardenia (4) had the distinction of being the first ships chartered to load in the Great Lakes before the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in Spring, 1959 when they were fixed on 12th November 1958. The tramps were fitted with the Seaway equipment on the Tyne in April 1959 and both entered the Seaway on 3rd May 1959 some eight days after the opening to commercial traffic. A sister to Gloxinia was delivered from the Readhead yard in March 1961 as Photinia (3). After a few months satisfactory trading, she returned to the yard of her builders to load cable laying equipment on her fo’c’stle for a charter to lay three 5 inch diameter power cables across Cook Strait, New Zealand. She conducted cable laying trials in Loch Fyne, and then the equipment was removed and she resumed trading until the cable was ready in 1964. She sailed from Manchester in August 1964 with 75 miles of cable onboard and completed the operation in New Zealand waters in November. She then returned to the U.K. and loaded a further 25 miles of cable, which she laid between Trinidad and Tobago in September 1965.

In 1964, Stag Line took delivery of their first large bulk carrier Ixia (4) from the Sunderland yard of Austin & Pickersgill Ltd. She was designed with dimensions to allow her to trade up the St. Lawrence Seaway, and in 1965 arrived in the Mersey with 23,192 tonnes of Canadian grain, the largest cargo discharged at Liverpool at that time. The fiftieth voyage to the Seaway by a Stag Line tramp was made by Cydonia (4) in October 1965 when she arrived with a cargo of ferro manganese from Boulogne and loaded grain homewards. She was the last Stag Line steamer when sold in August 1969, having been replaced by the large new bulk carrier Zinnia (3) of 26,600 dwt from the Readhead yard in the previous October. Zinnia (3) often wore the logo below her central funnel band of the Central Soyas Corporation of New York while she was on charter for soya cargoes. Camellia (4) was sold in 1972, and the two bulk carriers Ixia (4) and Zinnia (3) then operated worldwide charters while the raised quarterdeckers Gloxinia (3) and Photinia (3) usually traded to the Great Lakes.

Photinia (3) reloaded her cable laying equipment in 1976 as a fault had developed in the Cook Strait cable, which was repaired by 20th August 1977 and she returned to the Tyne to resume normal trading. Gloxinia (3) was sold at the beginning of 1977, and Photinia (3) only traded to the Great Lakes for another seventeen months, for on 12th May 1978 she was driven ashore near Milwaukee in Lake Michigan in sixty knot winds with both anchors down while awaiting a berth. Her crew of 33 were air-lifted to safety and three days later she was abandoned as a total loss.

David Robinson retired as Chairman of Stag Line Ltd. on the last day of 1975 after a magnificent 64 years of service with the company, 31 years as Senior Partner. David had agreed in the war years with his uncle Johnson Robinson that Nicholas J. Robinson and Hedley Robinson, sons of Johnson Robinson, would later become partners in Stag Line. Hedley Robinson served as a partner between 1944 and 1949, and his brother Nicholas J. Robinson succeeded David Robinson as Executive Chairman in 1976, and Robin Pender became Managing Director. Due to long time charters in the years 1976 to 1978, Stag Line made very good trading profits.

Stag Line Finale

The new large bulk carrier Begonia (4) of 26,741 dwt was completed on the Tyne in May 1978 at the former Walker Naval Yard. Stag Line had been offered an attractive price as the steel had already been purchased for a failed tanker contract. When the bulker was in service, the company weathered a cash flow crisis by being granted a three year moratorium on the Government load repayments plus the insurance money from Photinia and sale money from Gloxinia. The failure of the Russian grain harvest, however, created a strong demand for the three Stag Line bulkers to lift American grain to Russia. Begonia (4) also carried grain to Emden and Mostghanem in Algeria from Duluth in the Great Lakes, and Stag Line moved back into profitability in 1980.

Ropner Holdings Ltd., which had purchased a 27.94% stake in 1974, increased their holding to 29.9% in early 1981. They then sold this holding to Hunting Gibson Ltd. of Newcastle, who then made a £5.3 million bid for Stag Line. This was accepted by the directors and shareholders and a joint management company, Hunting Stag Management Ltd., was set up for the Hunting and Stag Line fleets. In October 1981, the Stag Line offices overlooking the Tyne at North Shields were sold and the staff moved to Newcastle after the building had been occupied by Stag Line for eighty five years.

By the beginning of 1982, the low freight rates offering for the three bulkers Ixia (4), Zinnia (3) and Begonia (4), meant that they were operating at a loss. Ixia (4) was sold for £1.4 million just over her building cost seventeen years earlier. A small coaster, Silloth Stag, and the joint management company were then sold to James Fisher & Sons Ltd. of Barrow in July 1982. The bulkers Zinnia (3) and Begonia (4) were not included in the deal, but were sold off within six months for a total of £4.325 million. The famous white stag on the red and black funnel was painted out for the last time in April 1983. The last deep-sea bulker Begonia was broken up at Aliaga at the end of 2001 after she had suffered an engine room fire on 15th June 2001 under the name of Eli when 60 miles NE of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. She was towed to the coast of Fuerteventura and then to Las Palmas and subsequently arrived at Aliaga for scrapping on 1st November 2001.