BHP.

The pale-blue and black funnel colours are dated to 1919 and reputedly derived from Essington Lewis’s St. Peter’s school colours. Funnel-band widths differ between references; photographs support the illustrated form. Flag diagonal-band widths range from Stewart’s broad band to narrow versions. Some references give blue letters, but the museum specimen confirms black; punctuation also varies. The specimen is dated about 1955–67 and measures 1219.2 × 1828.8 mm.

A steel-ladle emblem was added in 1975, perhaps to distinguish the colours from Wilhelmsen’s. Loughran places it wholly over the bands, The Log only partly. It was soon removed.

Iron Whyalla introduced the corporate-logo livery in April 1985, although Mitchell gives 1987. The flag has the logo on white. It combines “b”, “h” and “p”, loosely recalling Australia’s outline, in charcoal and turquoise blue. Charcoal was common to the group, whose other divisions varied the second colour. Brown calls the darker shade charcoal blue, while the FOTW rendering uses brighter blues. Rosanoski records charcoal blue as R000 G000 B075.

The in-port stem jack is blue with a red oval crossed by a white diagonal band bearing black “BHP”. It was seen on Iron Arnhem at Lyttelton on 22 September 1978.

BHP was registered in Melbourne on 13 August 1885. Shipping beginnings are dated variously to 1917, 1919 or 1927, with its own Newcastle shipping organisation established in 1921. The company announced withdrawal from trans-Tasman shipping in February 1999, officially became BHP Ltd. in 2000 and merged with Billiton in 2001.

Australia, Melbourne; later Perth.