CAIRNS, NOBLE & CO.

The FOTW account gives a red flag with a white delta triangle bearing intertwined black CY, the triangle symbolising a cairn. C791 does not appear in Wallace’s company history.

Wallace’s history gives C140 for the original partnership in 1883–89, followed by C316 from 1889. Another account links the latter to the 1892 company change. The later flag retained the cairn but omitted the letters. Lloyds 1912 identifies C316 with cargo steamers.

Also known as Cairn-Thomson Line, the business has conflicting early chronologies. British Ocean Tramps traces it to Stark[s] & Cairns, shipbrokers in 1876 and shipowners in 1883, with Cairns & Young formed in 1885 and the firms combined as Cairns, Young & Noble in 1889. Another account dates Cairns & Young to 1883 and the later name to 1892, which Rosanoski questions; his 2004 FOTW text instead gives 1833. Young retired in 1904. William Thomson & Sons was acquired in 1907, though another source describes absorption around 1891. Listed subsidiaries include Cairn Line of Steamships, Cairnglen Steamship and Gaelic Steamship.

U.K., Newcastle.