THE LAMBTON, HETTON & JOICEY COLLIERIES LTD.

The livery appears in Lloyds 1882 for the Lambton Line, spelt Lampton beside the illustration, operated by Thomas J. Reay, the Earl’s coal-trade agent. The Maltese Cross history assigns it to the successive Lambton companies before 1911, in 1911–24 and in 1924–45, describing the red as dark. Lloyds and British Steam Tugs show very narrow funnel bands with much wider gaps; photographs in the Maltese Cross history instead show gaps equal to the bands’ width.

Loughran relates the red bands to the coils of the Lambton Worm and attributes the colours to the Earls of Durham, rather than Joicey. In the legend, an ancestor caught the young worm in the Wear, threw it into a well, and returned from the Crusades to kill the monster it had become. The markings continued under Lambton & Hetton and Tanfield; Merchant Ships notes their earlier use on the Earl’s registered ships.