WILLIAM FRANCE, FENWICK & CO. LTD.

The 1901 livery combined William France’s funnel with the Fenwick flag. H.C. Pelly, principally involved in chartering, probably had no separate markings. Sources vary the panel size and the length of the lower arms of the Fs; a photograph of Gwynwood supports shorter lower arms. Merchant Ships calls the funnel deep buff. The flag was identical to William Crosby’s, with whom close ties existed, and was last flown by a sailing vessel when Ethel was sold in 1904. This funnel lasted from 1901 to 1956.

The revised funnel, used from 1956 to 1975, followed entry into deep-sea trading, where the old markings were thought to have little significance for customers. Brown 1958 notes the changed lettering; LJC 1966 adds dots after the letters.

The lighter-blue cross variant was used in the Goole–Yorkshire coal trade.

Reed 1912 shows red WF on the panel. Rosanoski finds no supporting source and relates the lettering to the William France constituent company.

Harnack’s white cross is considered probably a printing error.

This funnel is recorded for tugs on the London River.

R. Fenwick & Co. was trading by 1834. Ralph Fenwick was an investor in Wearmouth colliery and its London sales agent, and owned the coal-carrying brig Fume in 1835. The business became Fenwick, Laroche & Co. in 1850, then Fenwick & Co. after Laroche’s death in 1861. It bought William France & Co. in 1890. Following C.R. Fenwick’s death in February 1888, Fenwick & Co. was liquidated in 1893 and the business passed to Fenwick, Stobart & Co.; another source dates that change to 1894.

On 10 July 1901 the concern became William France, Fenwick & Co. after taking over H.C. Pelly & Co. and its subsidiaries East London Steamship Co. and Steam Colliers. William France was already a Fenwick subsidiary, although other accounts describe the transaction as a merger of Fenwick, France and Pelley.

The towage business became Sunderland Towage Co. in 1900. In 1918 France, Fenwick bought out some shareholders, while the others transferred their holdings to the new subsidiary France, Fenwick Tyne & Wear, formed on 1 March. That company handled coal-agency work and supplied tugs to berth the colliers. William France, Fenwick (London/Goole) was another associated company.

Washington Coal Co. was taken over in June 1923, followed in November by a controlling interest in Denaby & Cadeby Main Collieries and its Denaby Shipping & Commercial fleet. Wearmouth Coal Co., linked through the Fenwick and Stobart families, was nationalised after the Second World War. The concern also participated in Coastwise Colliers, wound up in 1949, and the 1930s Fenwick, Fisher joint venture with James Fisher, dissolved at the end of the war. It operated for Shoreham Shipping & Coal, which Rosanoski considers a possible subsidiary because its vessel shared the fleet’s wood name suffix.

Jessel Securities bought the concern and its Tyne & Wear subsidiary in April 1968. Attempts to sell them in 1969 and 1975 were unsuccessful; Jessel entered voluntary liquidation in January 1976. Loughran dates the shipping company’s winding-up to 1975 after its final three vessels were sold. Lawson-Batey bought the tug assets in May 1977.

UK, London.