Leith Shipping

Leith Shipping The Commissioners for the Harbour and Docks of Leith, the title by which they were officially designated, although more commonly styled the Leith Dock Commission, came into existence in 1826. For a very long time before that the City of Edinburgh had, by right of royal grants and otherwise, enjoyed the position of proprietor of the harbour, and latterly also of the two docks, the construction of which was completed in 1817. To meet the cost of these docks, Edinburgh had borrowed large sums of money from time to time. Her administration was not successful so both her own finances and those of the Port of Leith became problematic. The management of the harbour and docks was put into the hands of a new composite body of twenty-one Commissioners, although Edinburgh continued for about a dozen years to enjoy a controlling position. These changes took effect in 1826, and the settlement then made continued in operation till 1838. In the month of July of that year an Act of Parliament, commonly styled the "City Agreement Act," terminated the control by Edinburgh of the management of the docks and harbour of Leith. By the Act of 1838 the composition of the Commission was entirely changed, and the number of its members reduced to eleven. Of these five were appointed by the Treasury, three by the Town Council of Edinburgh, and three by that of Leith. But to ensure that the affairs of the Commission would be free of the control of either of these councils, it was enacted that no member of either of them was eligible for election as a Commissioner, although councillors were later permitted to serve on the Dock Commission. Imperial Dry Dock and Harbour Entrance The high-water mark of Leith’s shipping trade was reached in 1913. According to the statistics compiled by the Leith Dock Commission, the imports amounted during the twelve months to Whitsunday in that year to 1,564,991 tons, while the exports reached 3,081,046 tons, a total inward and outward of 4,646,037 tons. The quantities of the more important commodities were:- Many of these goods constituted the raw materials or the finished products of many of Leith's local industries. Of the ship-owning companies and firms whose headquarters were at Leith the oldest was undoubtedly Messrs George Gibson and Company Ltd, which was founded in 1797, indeed it is recorded that as far back as 1758 a Mr Mungo Campbell Gibson was connected with the shipping trade of the Port, and it is believed that this connection has continued unbroken from then. They merged with Messrs James Rankine and Son, whose head office was in Glasgow, although their principal shipping port was Grangemouth. The combined fleet numbered seventeen steamers, by which an extensive business was conducted, principally with the Dutch, Belgian, and northern French ports. As these trades were directly within the scope of the naval operations in the North Sea during the war, quite a number of their steamers crossed between 100 and 200 times the zone most frequented by enemy submarines. It was no surprise that ten of their vessels were sunk. The Isabella one of clippers owned by the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company Ltd, brought into Leith the first cargo of tea which had ever been shipped to any British port except London. The cargo, whose arrival excited the greatest interest in the Port, was for Messrs Andrew Melrose and Company, the well-known tea merchants, who owned extensive warehouses in Leith. A few years later, however, the general introduction of steam navigation entirely put an end to the service carried on by these very fine and splendidly commanded vessels, and the introduction of a fleet of steamers for the trade between the Thames and the Forth took place. During the war the company lost four of its vessels. West and East Piers The Leith, Hull, and Hamburg Steam Packet Company, Ltd., had the largest local fleet. The plan was to run steamers from Leith to Dundee and to Hull, and it is said that for a time their starting point was the Chain Pier at Trinity. One of the leading partners was Mr Thomas Barclay, a brother of the head of the great shipbuilding concern known latterly as Messrs Barclay, Curle and Company Ltd, Glasgow. The venture prospered, the fleet increased, and various new trades were in turn inaugurated. In 1862 the late Mr James Currie joined the company as manager, his brother, the late Sir Donald Currie, having become a partner some time before. Mr Currie died in 1900, and his elder son, Mr James Currie, MA, LLD, JP, was appointed to the vacant post. The management continued to be conducted under the style of "James Currie and Company," Mr Currie’s brother, Mr Alastair Currie, CA, was also associated in the conduct of the company’s business. When the war with Germany broke out in 1914 its fleet numbered 36 steamers, besides about a score of small vessels for local services. Among the ports with which it carried on regular services were Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, Hamburg, Bremen, Christiansand, Copenhagen, Stettin, Danzig, Pillau, Königsberg, and Libau, besides less frequent sailings to other Baltic ports, and to those in the Mediterranean and North Africa. As the direct outcome of the years of war the company lost 18 steamers - sunk by submarines or mines or seized by the enemy - besides two detained in German ports on its outbreak, but returned after its conclusion; and three other losses of which two were indirectly occasioned by the war. Messrs William Thomson and Company owned a fleet of 20 steamers - the well- known "Ben" line - which by reason of their large size gave a greater total tonnage than that of any other Leith concern. These were mostly engaged in the Far Eastern trade, their principal port for loading and discharging in this country being London. They were, however, frequent visitors to Leith, their home port. The principal managing owners were Mr William Thomson and Sir James Wishart Thomson. The public services of the latter, both at home and in the East in the course of the war, during which his company lost five large vessels, earned for him the KBE. The firm of Messrs Christian Salvesen and Company carried on an extensive general trade, largely with Mediterranean ports. It had also a fleet of other vessels engaged in whale fishing at South Georgia, in the far south of the Atlantic Ocean. Eight of their steamers were lost during the war. The three partners in the firm were Messrs J T Salvesen, F G Salvesen, JP, and T E Salvesen, JP, the first-named being Norwegian Consul and the last French Consular Agent and Vice-consul for Finland. Undoubtedly the largest proportionate loss of tonnage arising out of the war was sustained by Messrs James Cormack and Company. Their pre-war fleet numbered eleven, and the war deprived them of ten. Their trade was mainly conducted with the Russian ports of Riga and Archangel. The other local shipping companies and firms included Messrs Thomas C Steven and Company; the New Line, Ltd, managed by Sir Richard Mackie’s firm of Messrs Richard Mackie and Company; and Messrs A F Henry and Macgregor Ltd., all of whose vessels were employed in the general European and coasting business. Besides those already named, a number of others carried on very extensive shipping trades with Leith, although their headquarters were located elsewhere. Among the more important of these were the North of Scotland and Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Company Ltd, whose designation amply indicates the sphere of its operations; Messrs Furness, Withy, and Company Ltd, by which a very extensive American trade was conducted, as well as others with Danish ports and with Iceland; the Coast Lines Ltd, whose steamers called at the various ports between Leith and Liverpool, and one or two on the north-east coast of England; the General Steam Navigation Company Ltd, conducted a regular service with London; the Antrim Iron Ore Company Ltd, whose vessels traded regularly between Belfast and the north of England, calling at Leith and the Shipping and Coal Company, Ltd., which carried on a link with Amsterdam. From what has been already said, it may be gathered that the services rendered to the nation by the shipping community of Leith during the Great War were, in proportion to its resources, surpassed by none, if equalled by any other. The ship- owners and their men vied with each other in their willingness, even their anxiety, to respond to their country’s call. However heavy the toll taken by the enemy submarines upon his own or his neighbours’ vessels, no ship-owner hesitated for a moment to place his ships at the disposal of the Government. However serious the risk to life and limb, no vessel was ever detained for one hour by hesitation on the part of the crew to embark on the most perilous of voyages. In two or three cases the owners of fine steamers and of handsome yachts placed these for lengthened periods at the disposal of the authorities free of all charge. Great Crane, Imperial Dock Men who had undergone shipwreck by mine or torpedo, sometimes more than once or twice, and whose shipmates in many instances had perished before their eyes, were found as ready to "sign on" again for further service as before their first experience of this nature. SS Coblenz The 55 vessels of the eight shipping concerns already referred to as having been sunk or otherwise lost through the war by no means exhaust the list of those belonging to Leith whose end came about in this way.

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