The Turnbull family of Whitby owned thirty sailing ships and 150 steam and motor tramps in three fleets based at Whitby, Cardiff and London and employed more than six thousand seafarers over a long period of 180 years until the last ship was sold in 1991. Thomas Turnbull (1819-1892) was a prominent citizen of Whitby and owner of the Whitehall shipyard on a bend of the River Esk in the town. He built his first wooden sailing ship in 1852, and on 20th June 1871 the first steam powered iron tramp was launched for his trading fleet by his wife Emma Alice Turnbull. In early 1869, he had recognised the importance of the Baltic Exchange in London for the chartering of his fleet, and had despatched his third son Reginald March Turnbull of 21 years of age and his cousin of the same age, Robert Turnbull Scott, to London to establish a branch office. They worked as clerks for three years in a shipbrokers office before entering business in January 1872 as Turnbull, Scott & Company at 85, Gracechurch Street as ship and insurance brokers with the main aim of finding charters for the Whitby tramp fleet.

The two partners were financed by a loan from Thomas Turnbull, and in March 1872 both partners were elected members of the Baltic Exchange. The first charter party had been concluded on 3rd February 1872 for the barque Watersprite operated by the Whitby fleet to take a cargo of Tyne coal to Alexandria. Their first year of trading as charterers of ships on the ‘Eternal Triangle’ route of coal out to the Mediterranean, ballast to the Black Sea, and grain homewards made a modest profit of £608, which was shared between them.

The commissions from the charters that the three Turnbull offices in Whitby, Cardiff and London charged each other were put on a firm commercial basis by Thomas Turnbull from New Year’s Day, 1889. Although market conditions were poor in the 1880s, the decision was taken that two iron hulled steam tramps would be built at the Whitby yard for launch in March/April 1882. Highgate of 1,950 dwt was launched first on 4th March 1882 named after the London suburb in which both partners were living and also the old name for the eastern end of Church Street in Whitby. The two partners held equally 46 of her 64 shares, with the Turnbull family and friends in Whitby holding most of the remainder. Highgate was towed from Whitby to Hartlepool for the installation of her steam engines costing $5,525 out of her contract price of £20,250. After returning to Whitby for fitting out, trials were held off Hartlepool, and she then ballasted to Swansea to load a maiden cargo of patent fuel for Alexandria, followed by ballasting to Taganrog in the Black Sea to load wheat for Rotterdam.

The iron hulled tramp Southgate was launched at Whitby on 23rd April 1883 with slightly increased dimensions than Highgate, and her major shareholders were trades people from the Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby areas who had a business relationship with the Whitby shipyard.

Highgate and Southgate continued on black sea trading together with the first steel tramp fitted with triple expansion engines, which was launched at Whitby on 26th May 1888 as Northgate by Frances, wife of Reginald Turnbull, and was taken on her maiden voyage to the Black Sea by Capt. Ramsdale, previously in command of the Southgate. However she gave only nine years service, going ashore on a sandbank at Sharpness on 22nd December 1897 and subsequently breaking her back. Six more steel tramps were built at Whitby for Turnbull, Scott & Co. with the last being named Southgate (2) of 5,900 dwt on 4th November 1899 by one of the daughters of Robert Turnbull Scott. The first Southgate had been sold four months earlier to Swedish owners, and the pioneer Highgate had sunk off Lundy Island on 19th February 1890 after a collision with a Canadian sailing ship while on passage from Mostyn to Cardiff.

The London tramp fleet was thus operating six tramps at the turn of the century.

Southgate (2) had the bunker capacity to participate in the growing Plate grain trade, and her voyages in 1901/2 are now given after her arrival at Sharpness from Eastern Canada in October 1901:- 25.10.1901 Cardiff (coal), Rio de Janeiro (ballast), Buenos Aires (horses), Cape Town, East London, Port E1izabeth, Lourenco Marques (ballast), Cuddalore, Pondicherry (groundnuts), Marseilles, St. Raphael (bauxite ), Boston, Philadelphia, Galveston (cotton), Antwerp. Arrived 26.9.1902.

Westgate participated in the Cuban sugar trade and gulf of Mexico cotton trades in 1903:- 5.6.1903 Cardiff (coal), Port Limon, Manzanillo (sugar ),Cienfuegos (sugar), New York (coal), Havana (ballast), Galveston (cotton), Antwerp. arrived 19.10.1903.

Robert Turnbull Scott died on 6th august 1903 aged 55 years and as he had no son to succeed him, his share in Turnbull, Scott & Co. was purchased from him under the deeds of partnership by Reginald Turnbull and his son, March. Reginald died on 12th Ju1y 1912 aged 64 years and his son received many letters of condolence from clients and fellow members of the Baltic Exchange. March Turnbull became head of the company, and his brothers Noel and Thomas were admitted as partners in 1913.

Turnbull, Scott & Co. continued to act as London chartering agents for the Turnbull fleet at Whitby until the end of WWI, and also for other Whitby owners notably Capt. Thomas Smailes, whose early sea-going career had been with Turnbull. His Ellerdale and Darnholme, Fairhaven, Eskdale, Bagdale and others were regularly fixed until the Smailes family ceased as shipowners at the end of WWI. The London office followed the experiment of the Whitby office into limited liability companies in 1906, when their Parkgate of 1906 completed by R. Craggs & Son on the Tees was registered in 1908 under the Parkgate S.S. Co. Ltd. Nethergate of 1890 grounded on the English Bank in the Plate on 11th Ju1y 1909, and was refloated in 1910 and declared a constructive total loss and sold locally there for further service after repairs.

The Turnbull, Scott Shipping Co. Ltd. was formed in May 1911 with a capital of £50,000 and took over Southgate (2) of 1899, Trongate of 1897, Westgate of 1893 and Eastgate of 1889. Westgate loaded coal in Cardiff in November, 1912 for villa Constitucion on the Parana and then took wheat from Rosario to Lisbon. Southgate took coal out to Montevideo in February 1913 then loaded a full cargo of maize at La Plata for Belfast. Eastgate of 1889 was sold in 1913 to Swedish owners leaving four tramps in the fleet at the outbreak of WWI, Westgate of 1893, Trongate of 1897, Southgate(2) of 1899 and Parkgate of 1906, two being lost to enemy action:-

4.4.1917 Parkgate – captured/sunk by U35 80 miles NE of Cap de Fer.

22.9.1917 Trongate – torpedoed/sunk by UC71 5 miles N of Flamborough Head o.v. Tyne to France with coal.

This left Westgate of 1893, Southgate (2) of 1899, the new Eastgate (2) of 1915, completed by William gray & Co. Ltd. at West Hartlepool and Helredale of 1906, transferred from the Whitby fleet in 1918. Westgate was reported missing on 8th January 1919 off the Wolf rock whilst on a voyage from Barry to Malta with coal, cause unknown. The Redgate S.S. Co. Ltd. was formed in 1919 and purchased the steamer Gordonia of 6,720 dwt, built by John Readhead & Sons Ltd. in 1908 and capable of a top speed of 7.5 knots on 20 tons of coal/day, from the Gordon S.S. Co. Ltd. of London and renamed her Redgate.

A system of competitive tender for ex-German prizes taken over by the British government as war reparations resulted in five such vessels joining the Redgate and Turnbull, Scott Shipping companies for a total of £227,000 between 1920 and 1923. They were renamed Sandgate, Whitegate, Saltersgate, Nethergate and Baxtergate, and all had previously belonged to the Hansa Company of Bremen and were thus cargo-liners with excellent accommodation for the crew. However when loading coal it was found with their tween decks and relatively small hatches, trimming costs were higher, and although suitable for the Plate trade they were always forced to top up with grain downriver from the Martin Garcia Bar due to their deep draft. A good loaded speed of 11 knots incurred a coal consumption of around 34 tons of coal/day, a figure which could not be tolerated when freight rates became much worse during the Depression.

Southgate (2) of 1899 was sold to Italian breakers for £8,000 in October 1924. The ex-Cardiff tramp Chalister was purchased in 1924 and renamed Haggersgate, and Arabistan of F. C. Strick & Co. Ltd. (the first of the long Readhead/Strick association) was purchased on the stocks at the Readhead shipyard at South Shields and completed as Southgate (3) in November 1926. The death of Charles Radcliffe of Cardiff in July 1926 whose elder brother Henry had founded the famous Cardiff tramp company of Evan Thomas Radcliffe, resulted in the sale of his fleet, of which three were purchased by Court Line Ltd. and two by Turnbull, Scott & Co. Ltd. The latter pair were Overstone and Snowdon, renamed Saltersgate and Trongate (2). Both tramps met with unfortunate accidents on their maiden voyages for the company. Trongate (2) under Capt. J.H. Swindell left Cardiff on 9th April 1927 bound for Buenos Aires with coal but shortly after sailing was in collision with the tramp Euterpe and had to put into Barry to discharge before moving back to Cardiff for repairs. Saltersgate under Capt. John Storm loaded coal at Cardiff for Ibicuy on a tributary of the Parana, but went aground on a mud bank just above the Martin Garcia Bar when taking action to avoid collision on 14th May 1927. On falling tides she remained there for a week until barges were brought from Buenos Aires to lighten her, and on arrival at Ibicuy the pilot was arrested and marched off to prison! Saltersgate loaded grain there for Hamburg where she arrived on 2nd august 1927.

The 9,120 dwt Stonegate was completed by William Doxford & Sons Ltd. in January 1928, and her maiden voyage under Capt. H. L. Brown, son of Capt. H. M. Brown, was down to Rio with coal and on to the Plate to load grain for the Continent. The former Whitby tramp Helredale was sold to Greek owners in 1929, and three sister tramps of 7,950 dwt ordered from the Burntisland yard just before the Depression set in late 1929 and were completed in 1930/31 as Skeldergate, Eskdalegate, and Waynegate. These were ‘Economy’ type tramps with an average speed of around 9 knots on a consumption of 19 tons of coal/day. However the accommodation as regards crew comfort left much to be desired and they were also noted for excessive ‘stern-slide’ in heavy weather. With the completion of this trio the two Turnbull, Scott companies owned a medium- sized fleet of 15 tramps. However five were laid-up for long periods – Saltersgate, Whitegate, Nethergate and Sandgate on the Tyne for six years, seven years, three years and five years respectively, and Baxtergate at Falmouth for over three years.

Prior to her lay-up on the Tyne Nethergate had loaded a cargo of asphalt at Tampico for the Anglo-Mexican Petroleum Co. Ltd. for South African ports, after which she took a cargo of coal from Lourenco Marques to Singapore. On completion of discharge at Singapore she was taken on time charter by Lambert Brothers for a homeward voyage, redelivery to Northern Europe. She was then taken on time-charter at Cardiff at the end of 1928 to Strick Line for a Persian gulf round voyage. Among the ports she called at were Marseilles, Port Said, Port Sudan, and the Persian Gulf ports of Bandar Abbas, Bahrein, Abadan, Basra etc returning via Suez to Avonmouth and Barry, where she redelivered on 13th June 1929. She was again time-chartered to Strick Line for a repeat voyage arriving back at London on 17th October 1929 for discharge before laying-up on the Tyne.

The remainder of the fleet were kept going with only short waits at the end of each voyage before the next charter. Saltersgate was laid-up from May to July 1933 after which she was engaged in Plate trading. Haggersgate was laid-up at Avonmouth from June 1932 moving round to Milford Haven in august and then to Fowey in November to continue lay-up. on her return to service in December 1933 she met with a series of accidents, starting with heavy weather in the Channel on sailing from Fowey for Cardiff to bunker resulting in her being towed into Brest, where she dry-docked. A further dry-docking at Cardiff and then she loaded coal at Barry, sailing on 11th January 1934. When approximately 70 miles NW of Cape Finistere she lost all propeller blades together with a broken stern frame and rudder unshipped, and was towed into Ferrol by Eastgate (2). She was towed back to Cardiff by tugs and eventually sailed with coal to Buenos Aires and Rosario on 29th March 1934. On her return home in December 1934 she became disabled while moving from Birkenhead to Barry and was towed in by the Eskdalegate.

The fleet position on New Year’s Day, 1934 was as follows:-

Eastgate – on passage Buenos Aires for Manchester with grain.

Eskdalegate – at Rosario 20th December.

Saltersgate – laid-up Tyne.

Haggersgate – dry-docking Cardiff, due to load coal at Barry for Buenos Aires.

Sandgate – laid-up Tyne.

Saltersgate – sailed Las Palmas for Plate 27th December.

Skeldergate – at Rosario 22nd December.

Southgate – sailed Para for New York 23rd December.

Stonegate– at Basra 18th December.

Trongate – at Buenos Aires 28th December.

Waynegate – passed Madeira for Rotterdam.

Whitegate – laid-up Tyne.

The predominant trade was thus coal out to the Plate from the Bristol Channel and grain homewards. Occasionally outward coal cargoes were taken from Tyne and Blyth to the Mediterranean, Canaries or Cape Verde islands, and sometimes homeward vessels were placed on the Houlder Line berth at Buenos Aires. As a break in the monotony, cargoes of coal were sometimes taken down from the East Coast U.S.A. ports of Newport News and Norfolk to Rio de Janeiro and the Plate; plus timber cargoes from U.S. gulf ports such as Port Arthur to the same destinations. A real change was the Pacific and Australian trading offered by two-year charters to Andrew Weir & Co. Ltd. taking phosphates from Nauru Island to Australia, particularly Melbourne. The company ships that participated in these charters throughout the 1920s and 1930s were, Baxtergate (2), Eastgate (2), Redgate (2), Saltersgate and Waynegate. Nitrate charters from Antofagasta and Iquique and other ports in Chile for the Nitrate Corporation were usually discharged at Continental ports.

Redgate (2) was purchased from Stephens, Sutton Ltd. of Newcastle in 1935 as Ridley of 1929, this owner also purchasing the laid-up Sandgate in 1936 and Whitegate in January 1937 for their Scrap and Build programme. all of the fleet were trading back at sea from this latter date, and the fleet was supplemented later in 1937 by the big Anglo-Indian of 10,020 dwt purchased from the Nitrate Producers S.S. Co. Ltd. (Lawther, Latta) for £50,000 and renamed Baxtergate (2). She was kept on the Pacific phosphate and nitrate trading of her previous owner. Eastgate (2) of 1915 was sold to Greek owners in November 1937 and renamed Adamantios, and the fleet voyage position in January 1938 was:-

Baxtergate – passed Niton 16th January for New Orleans.

Eskdalegate – leaving Cristobal 2nd February for Azores.

Saltersgate – leaving Malta 6th February for Spain.

Redgate – sailed Shanghai 10th January for Colombo.

Saltersgate – left Partington 20th January for U.S. gulf.

Skeldergate – passed Azores 3rd February for U.S. gulf.

Southgate – passed Ushant 8th February for U.S. gulf.

Stonegate – due at Cardiff 3rd February.

Trongate – left Lisbon 28th January for New York.

Waynegate – due at Rosario 4th February.

Redgate under Capt. W. S. Russell was discharging cargo at Shanghai in august 1937 when the Sino-Japanese War broke out. The Chinese authorities threw a boom across the Whangpo River to prevent penetration of the harbour by Japanese submarines and Redgate remained incarcerated at Dollar Wharf, Pootung for 20 weeks until she finally made a break for freedom through a gap pierced by the Japanese Navy during their attack on Nantao. Capt. Russell had several tense moments on the bridge as she came through, swinging slightly, with feet to spare from a wreck on one side of the gap. After dry-docking at Shanghai she finally sailed on 10th January for Colombo, where she loaded for North Africa, La Pallice and Nantes.

Baxtergate (2) under Capt. E. Longster was at sea in the Indian Ocean on 28th august 1939, eight days out from Aden with salt for Japan when she received a radio message from the tramp Stanhall that she had lost her propeller and needed a tow. Stanhall was owned by Jack Billmeir and was bound for Australia from Italy with 8,000 tons of sulphur and her position was approximately 840 miles W of Colombo. Baxtergate was only a few hours steaming away and she came up on the casualty shortly before dusk and lay 100 yards off while preparing to connect for towing. However both masters agreed to postpone this until daybreak when a rocket followed by a 4 inch Manilla rope were passed. At noon towing got underway for Colombo, the connection now being two heavy sisal tow-ropes, and by the following day, 30th august, the two tramps were making 7.5 knots. At daybreak on 3rd September the harbour entrance to Colombo was in sight and Capt. Longster refused assistance from three tugs with only 10 miles to go and brought Stanhall in at dead slow speed. At a pre-arranged signal Stanhall let go her anchor in the right position in the anchorage at 1430 hours. A magnificent tow had ended successfully for both masters and owners, however peace-time had just ended as Britain had declared war on Germany. The Turnbull, Scott fleets owned ten tramps, the same fleet as in January 1938.

Two company tramps were lost to enemy action and a third was lost after a fire:-

5.10.1939 – Stonegate sunk by Deutschland in position 31-10 N, 54 W o. v. Antofagasta to Alexandria with nitrate.

24.2.1941 – Waynegate torpedoed/sunk by U73 in N. Atlantic o.v. Newport & Gourock to Freetown with coal.

11.4.1942 – Trongate sunk by allied warships off Halifax (NS) after fire had broken out in her cargo which included explosives.

Stonegate had sailed under Capt. F. G. Randall with First Mate Isaac Mills, son of the company superintendent at this time, Capt. J. W. Mills, with nitrates from Tocopilla and Antofagasta before the outbreak of war for Hamburg but at the Panama Canal was ordered for further instructions to St. Thomas. Here their destination was changed to Alexandria and after briefly sailing in convoy they were sailing in waters to E of Bermuda far away from normal shipping lanes when they came up with the pocket battleship Deutschland, which had sailed from Wilhelmshaven on 25th august, shortly after Graf Spee. The end came suddenly for Stonegate for no distress signals were sent and it was another two weeks before it was realised that a second raider was loose on the high seas. Her crew were taken prisoner and then transferred to the American City of Flint which landed them at Tromso. Waynegate was one of eight British ships sunk in the outward bound convoy oB288 from Loch Ewe, which sailed on 20th February, losing most ships when it dispersed in mid-Atlantic four days later. She was torpedoed at 0220 hours by the Italian submarine Bianchi and although her crew was rescued her fellow victims including stag Line’s Linaria and Lawther, Latta’s Anglo Peruvian lost 35 and 29 crew respectively. Nine Dutch vessels came under the management of the company in the summer of 1940 after the fall of Holland as well as the British Widestone, which was lost together with six of the Dutchmen. Empire Summer was managed from 1942 and purchased in 1945, and the long-serving Capt. H. L. Brown took the new ocean gallant away from the Portland (Me) yard in September 1942.

March Turnbull, Chairman of the company, was appointed Director of the Ship Management Division at the Ministry of Shipping on the outbreak of war. This took control of all British and allied merchant ships, later becoming the Ministry of War Transport. March Turnbull was in overall charge with many other Baltic Exchange men under him to manage ships of each nationality e.g. one for Greek, Estonian, Latvian, Egyptian etc. and he was knighted for his services in 1941, when he became foreign shipping adviser. Basil Mavroleon sent March Turnbull two Thompson sub-machine guns from New York in the early part of the war for his own personal use! Sir March Turnbull died on 11th October 1943 aged 65 years having served on all the Tramp Shipping advisory and river Plate Committees during his long career.

The company fleet survivors were the new motorship Eastgate (3) of 1940, the first in the fleet, Southgate (3) of 1926 and sold in 1946, Eskdalegate and her sister Skeldergate of 1930, Redgate (2) of 1929 and Baxtergate (2) of 1925, the former Anglo Indian. Empire Summer was renamed Stonegate (2) for the Turnbull Scott Shipping Co. Ltd. The Redgate S.S. Co. Ltd. was left with only one tramp in 1947 after the sale of Redgate (2) and Baxtergate (2). Skeldergate was then lost on the East coast of India in November 1950 on a voyage from Madras to Calcutta with wheat. She ran on to a sandbank near False Bay in heavy weather and Capt. Isaac Mills and his crew eventually abandoned ship and the tramp became a total loss. Her surviving sister Eskdalegate was also sold in 1950, both having been on charter at times to the golden Cross Line Mediterranean liner service, half-owned by the company between 1946 and 1953. The whole of the issued share capital of the Redgate S.S. Co. Ltd. was purchased in 1951 by France, Fenwick & Co. Ltd.

In 1951 the Turnbull Shipping Co. Ltd. owned 5 tramps, four of these being ‘Empire’ types together with the motortramp Eastgate (3) of 1940. A second motortramp was on order from the Burntisland yard and was delivered in Ju1y 1952 as Saltersgate (2) of 9,450 dwt on a six-year charter to Shaw, Savill & Albion Co. Ltd. The third motortramp in the fleet was purchased in October 1953 as Inverness from B. J. Sutherland & Co. Ltd. following the death of Sir Arthur Sutherland on 29th March 1953. Renamed Redgate (3) she had originally been built at Burntisland in 1945 as Empire Freetown, and was a replacement for the first motortramp Eastgate (3), sold in 1952 to Buries Markes Ltd.

The former grain carrying merchant aircraft carrier Empire Magendrick which had been converted back into a cargo ship at Hamburg in 1951 was purchased in 1955 and renamed Saltersgate. Two other ‘Empire’ types were purchased in 1955 and like their sisters in the fleet were taken on long-term charter by BiSCO to carry iron ore to the U.K. throughout the 1950s with the charterer also purchasing most of them for scrap around 1960.

The tanker trades were entered for the first time in November 1957 with the completion of the 18,100 dwt turbine-powered Eastgate (5) by J. L. Thompson & Sons Ltd, Sunderland. She was bareboat chartered to Shell for 20 years but did not complete this for she was heavily damaged amidships by collision and fire off Hong Kong on 30th March 1973 and scrapped at Kaohsiung three months later. a sister, Stonegate( 3), was completed by Smiths Dock Co. Ltd. on the Tees in March 1961 for a similar bareboat-charter to Shell, and when the charter was completed she was sold to Greek owners in 1981 and broken up at Chittagong in 1987.

Sungate of 10,800 dwt was completed by Burntisland SB Co. Ltd. in January 1958 for a long-term charter to Saguenay Terminals Ltd., the company then responsible for the shipping requirements of Alcan. Her first two maiden voyages under Capt. Arthur Gibson were from St John (NB) to the Continent with aluminium ingots and grain. She then settled into her intended service carrying bauxite from British and Dutch Guiana to Port Alfred on the Saguenay River, and after loading at Georgetown, Mackenzie and Smalkalden to the depth of the harbour bar she topped up at Chaguaramas in Trinidad. Ingots of aluminium were then loaded at Port Alfred for the U.K., and she ballasted back to the Guianas. As a relief from this triangular service, she occasionally took processed bauxite (alumina) from the St. Lawrence to Kittimat, 400 miles N of Vancouver, returning with ingots and timber and grain to Eastern seaboard U.S.A./Canada.

Baxtergate (4) of 12,250 dwt was completed at Burntisland in March 1962 to a remarkably similar design to the cargoliners that were then being built for Clan Line, to whom she was chartered for her maiden voyage from Glasgow, Birkenhead and Newport to Indian ports. Shortly before arrival at Madras a fire was discovered in No. 1 ‘tween deck but was extinguished before much damage was done to the cargo or ship. On her return to the U.K. she was chartered to China carrying general cargo from China to Cuba, where she loaded sugar for U.K./Continent/ Mediterranean ports and returned to China with general cargo. She remained on this charter until 1971, when she was renamed Mediator for another charter and was sold in 1972. Arlington Court of 14,100 dwt completed by Bartram & Sons Ltd. in April 1962 was purchased in January 1964 and renamed Southgate while still on charter to the Chinese and continued on this until sold in 1969, her maiden voyage being from Casablanca (phosphates) and Lattakia (cotton) to Shanghai.

Naess Parkgate was a large 72,000 dwt bulker completed on the Tees by Furness SB Co. Ltd. in November 1966 for a bareboat charter to Anglo-Norness Shipping Co. Ltd. Her maiden voyage was from Tubarao in Brazil with iron ore for Emden, ballast to Pascagoula in the U.S. gulf to load grain for the Continent. She remained in these trades until taken on charter by Broken Hill Proprietary (Australia) for Australian coastal iron ore shipments in 1974 and was renamed iron Parkgate.

She was sold in 1978 as Nordic Trader while on charter to Anglo-Norness Shipping. Flowergate (3) was an OBO of 106,700 dwt when completed in late 1968 by Gotaverken of Gothenburg for a bareboat charter to Grangesberg of Sweden carrying iron ore from West Africa to Japan then ballast back to the Persian Gulf to load crude oil for the U.K./Continent. Shortly after delivery, she was found to have serious engine defects and required four months of at the Wilton Fijenoord yard at Rotterdam before finally sailing for Brazil to load iron ore in April 1969 under Capt. N.C. Richardson. She was purchased by her charterer in 1974 and renamed Porjus.

Post-War Managed Vessels

The coastal dry-cargo trades were entered in April 1968 by the completion of a dozen engines aft owned or managed motorships in the 2,500 to 3,000 dwt range. The coastal chemical and oil trades were also entered in 1968 with the formation of Whitehall Shipping Co. Ltd., half owned by the company and A.H. Basse Rederi A/S of Copenhagen. The ships were to have stainless steel cargo tanks, a fact signified by their ‘Stainless’ names. Three of around 3,000 dwt were built between 1970 and 1974 as Stainless Duke, Stainless Warrior and Stainless Patriot, with the larger Stainless Spray of 10,400 dwt completed in 1985 and sold in 1989. All these tankers were managed by Turnbull, Scott Management Ltd.

Park Steamships Ltd. was formed on 1st February 1968 by H. Clarkson & Co. Ltd., with management by Turnbull, Scott Management Ltd. and chartering by Otto Danielsen of Copenhagen. Holland Park of 2,579 dwt began trading in April 1969 in the European dry cargo trades, and was joined by her sister Hyde Park in early 1969. The vessels of this company had a dark green funnel with a central white ‘PS’. The first pair of vessels were sold off in 1972/73 and replaced by two of 2,950 dwt as regent’s Park and Syon Park, with the latter renamed as Hyde Park (2) in 1974, and they had a sister named Norrstal registered under Park Steamships Ltd. Two similar vessels dating from 1969/70, Monica and Tere, were long term chartered to T.M.M. of Mexico for a liner service through the Panama Canal from Caribbean, N. and S. American ports to Pacific Coast ports of Mexico.

Coronet Shipping Co. Ltd. was formed on 1st March 1971 by H. Clarkson & Co. Ltd. with Turnbull, Scott Management Ltd. as managers. Three coasters of 2,800 dwt were completed at Vigo as Narya, Nenya and Vilya, with Narya on charter for nine months to Joaquin Davila y Cia of Madrid and her two sisters to Otto Danielsen of Copenhagen.

Three ships were launched in Holland on the same day of 18th October 1968 when Saltersgate (3), Hyde Park and Redgate (4) were put into the water sideways. The larger dry cargo Eskdalegate (4) of 4,179 dwt was purchased from Hull gates Shipping Co. Ltd. in 1974. Three new sisters of 5,662 dwt joined the owned and managed fleets in 1976 from the Devon yard of Appledore shipbuilders as Southgate (6), Sandgate (2) and green Park, the latter for Park Steamships Ltd.

The company position trading sheet in October 1978 was as follows:-

Owned Vessels

Baxtergate – on passage Bremen to Annaba (Algeria)

Flowergate – on passage Szczecin to Antwerp

Highgate – on passage Bandholm (Denmark) to Vaasa (Finland)

Saltersgate – on passage Los Angeles to Yokohama

Sandgate – on passage Basra to Cape Town

Skeldergate – on passage St. Anna Bay (Jamaica) to Rotterdam

Southgate – on passage New York to Bangkok via Suez Canal

Trongate – on passage Rosario to Japan with grain

Whitegate – on passage Tyne to Bilbao

Managed Vessels

Hyde Park – on passage Dunkirk to Leixoes

Regent’s Park – on passage Gdansk to Avonmouth

Stainless Patriot – on passage Guayaquil to Panama Canal

The coastal tanker Skeldergate of 3,500 dwt was completed in April 1976 at Lowestoft, and underwent modification at the Wear Dockyard in early 1984 to a water conversion and storage vessel in the Falklands. The coastal tanker fleet was expanded on 8th December 1981 by the purchase of the fleet of the Hull gates Shipping Co. Ltd. and the holding company of Fred Parkes Holdings. Soon after the purchase, Hullgate became a constructive total loss at Milford Haven, leaving the six coastal tankers of Skeldergate, Eastgate, Westgate, Humbergate, Northgate and Irishgate, all on charter to Rowbotham Tankships. However, on 29th November 1982 four of these tankers were sold to the charterer with Turnbull, Scott & Co. Ltd. retaining only two tankers, Skeldergate and Irishgate, with long demise charters to Rowbotham.

A return to traditional trades had been made in September 1977 with the delivery of the geared dry bulker Trongate (4) of 29,600 dwt by the Hiroshima yard of Mitsubishi Heavy industries Ltd. She traded worldwide including grain from the Plate to Japan, manganese ore from India to Europe, and coal from Australia to Italy. However, her earnings did not match her interest repayments and she was sold at the end of 1979 to the Nile Steamship Co. Ltd. (Finance for Shipping) for £5.24 million with a bareboat charter back of £850,000 per year, and was finally sold to Greek owners in 1983. In 1986, coastal tanker Skeldergate was bareboat chartered to Turkish owners and purchased two years later. Only Irishgate was left in 1990, and with her sale the family owned Turnbull, Scott Shipping Co. Ltd. was sold to British buyers for £2.45 million in May 1991 after 119 years in business.