A Major Scottish Tramp Ship and Liner Company: Andrew Weir’s Bank Line – 1875-2016. Part 2, 1970-2016

Authors

  • Roy Fenton
  • Hugh Murphy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2561-5467.1340

Keywords:

United Kingdom, merchant ships, shipbuilding, ship financing, shipping policy, containerization, Andrew Alexander Morton Weir, 2nd Baron Inverforth, Andrew Charles Roy Weir, 3rd Baron Inverforth, John Vincent Weir

Abstract

Following on from Part 1, (The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord 34, no. 3 (2024)), Part 2 considers the later history of Andrew Weir’s  Bank Line and its subsidiary shipping companies from 1970 through changes in name of its shipping operation to dissolved company status in 2016. As in Part 1, in tandem we also trace the history of Bank Line’s holding company, Andrew Weir and Co. Ltd.

Author Biographies

Roy Fenton

Roy Fenton is an independent researcher, author and publisher, who specialises in cargo ships of the  steam and diesel era and those who built and operated them. In 2005 Roy was awarded a PhD for a thesis on the transition from sail to steam in the bulk trades. He is a trustee of the British Commission for Maritime History, and a director and trustee of the World Ship Society. His latest monograph is Evolution and Significance of the Powered Bulk Carrier: The Black Freighters, Research in Maritime History No. 56, (Liverpool University Press, 2023).

Hugh Murphy

Hugh Murphy is an Hon. Professor of Business History, University of Glasgow, and Visiting Reader in Maritime History, National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums, Greenwich, London.

References

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Appleyard, H. Bank Line, 1885-1985. Kendal: World Ship Society, 1985.

Davis, M.L. Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in Life of Edward L. Doheny. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Goss, R.O. “Strategies in British Shipping, 1945-1970.” The Mariner’s Mirror, Centenary Issue, 97:1 (2011): 243-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2011.10709043. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2011.10709043

Green, E. and M. Moss. A Business of National Importance: The Royal Mail Shipping Group, 1902-1937. London: Methuen, 1982.

Murphy, H. “The Bridge or someplace later! The demise of two Scottish deep-sea tramp-ship firms, Hogarth Shipping Co. Ltd. and Lyle Shipping PLC, 1960-1987.” International Journal of Maritime History 34:4 (2022): 438-466. https://doi.org/10.1177/08438714221110335. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08438714221110335

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Murphy, H. and I. Buxton. “A Liverpool Shipping Line: Ocean Steam Ship Company Limited’s shipbuilding experience, 1962-1978.” The Mariner’s Mirror 107:2 (2021): 324-338. https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2021.1940522. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2021.1940522

Murphy, H. and S. Tenold. “The effects of the Oil Price Shocks on Shipbuilders in the 1970s.” In Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Workers around the World: Case Studies, 1950-2010, edited by R. Varela, H. Murphy and M. van der Linden. Amsterdam and Chicago: Amsterdam University Press, 2017. 665-674. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048530724-027

Sturmey, S.G. British Shipping and World Competition. London: University of London the Athlone Press, 1962.

River-class ship Cedarbank underway

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Published

2025-06-30

How to Cite

Fenton, R., & Murphy, H. (2025). A Major Scottish Tramp Ship and Liner Company: Andrew Weir’s Bank Line – 1875-2016. Part 2, 1970-2016. The Northern Mariner Le Marin Du Nord, 34(4), 535–570. https://doi.org/10.25071/2561-5467.1340

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 4 (2024): The Northern Mariner

Section

Articles

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.