Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK's larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significant role in the country's overseas trade and in the First and Second World Wars.
SS Antenor was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1924. She was the third of five ships to bear the name.
SS Antenor was the first of five ships to bear the name. She was built in 1872 by Hawthorn Leslie and Company at Hebburn-on-Tyne. She was built for Alfred Holt and Company, who owned various shipping lines including the Ocean Steam Ship Company (OSSC), Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij Oceaan (NSMO), The China Mutual Steam Navigation Company (CMSNC) and Blue Funnel Line. SS Antenor had a gross registered tonnage (GRT) of 2,074, was 322 feet (98 m) long, had a beam of 33 feet 7 inches (10.24 m) and a service speed of 10 knots. She was powered by a single screw, two cylinder compound tandem steam engines; 214 NHP, 700 IHP. Her sister ships were SS Deucalion (1872), SS Glaucus (1871) and SS Patroclus (1872).
SS Antenor was the second of five ships to bear the name. She was built in 1896 by Workman, Clark and Company at Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was built for Alfred Holt and Company, who owned various shipping lines including the Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij Oceaan (NSMO) and Blue Funnel Line. SS Antenor had a gross registered tonnage (GRT) of 5,570, was 422 feet long, had a beam of 49 feet 4 inches and a service speed of 10 knots. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine, 4000 IHP. Her sister ships were SS Glaucus (1896), SS Patroclus (1896) and SS Prometheus (1896). She was the last of the class and cost £62,796, £5 cheaper than her sister ship SS Patroclus.
MS Antenor was a British bulk carrier, and the fifth of five ships to bear the name. She was built in 1972 at the Fujinagata Shipyards of the Mitsui Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Osaka, Japan, for Alfred Holt and Company, who owned various shipping lines including the Ocean Steam Ship Company (OSSC) and Blue Funnel Line.
MS Cunard Princess was a cruise ship, previously owned an operated by the Israel-based Mano Maritime. She was built 1975 by the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen, Denmark for Cunard Line as MS Cunard Conquest, but her interior fittings were subsequently installed at the Navali Mechaniche Affini in La Spezia, Italy. Following re-delivery from Navali Mechaniche Affini in 1977 the ship was renamed MS Cunard Princess. In 1995, the ship entered service with StarLauro Cruises, briefly retaining her previous name before being renamed MS Rhapsody. In 2009 she was sold to Mano Maritime and sailed as Golden Iris until 2018. After being laid up for four years at Chalkis Shipyard, Greece. In 2021 was she renamed Gold Club. She was beached at Aliağa, Turkey, for recycling.
SS Patroclus was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1923. She was the third of five ships to bear the name.
SS Sarpedon was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1923. She was the fourth of six ships to bear the name.
HMS Hector was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1924. She was the fourth of six civilian ships to bear the name.
MS Astor was a cruise ship that most recently sailed for Cruise & Maritime Voyages' Transocean Tours subsidiary, under which she operated voyages to Europe, South Africa, and Australia.
Benalbanach was a 7,803 ton heavy lift cargo ship which was built in 1946 as Empire Athelstan. In 1947 she was sold and renamed Benalbanach. Further name changes were Camelot in 1965 and Dragon Castle in 1969. She was scrapped in 1975.
Ocean Group plc was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Alfred Holt was a British engineer, ship owner and merchant. He lived at Crofton, Sudley Road, Aigburth in Liverpool, England. Holt is credited with establishing the long distance steamship by developing a type that replaced sailing clippers on the route from Britain to China.
Robert Durning Holt was an English cotton-broker and local politician. He was Mayor of Liverpool and the first Lord Mayor of Liverpool (1892–1893).
SS Cyclops was a British cargo steamship of Alfred Holt and Company. She was built in Glasgow in 1906, served in both the First and Second World Wars and survived two German submarine attacks in 1917. A German submarine sank her in January 1942 off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing 87 of the men aboard her. This was the first attack of the Kriegsmarine's Unternehmen Paukenschlag to destroy Allied merchant shipping in the Western Atlantic.
RMS Strathmore was an ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), the third of five sister ships built for P&O in the "Strath" class. Launched in 1935, she served on the company's route from London to India until 1940, when she was requisitioned for war service as a troop ship, and redesignated as SSStrathmore, until being returned to her owners in 1948. After a long re-fit, she resumed service with P&O from 1949 until 1963, when she was sold to Latsis Lines and renamed Marianna Latsi, then Henrietta Latsi, before being laid up in 1967 and finally scrapped in 1969.
SS Tyndareus was a British steamship that was built in 1914–15 as a cargo liner for the Blue Funnel Line of the Ocean Steamship Company. Completed during the First World War, she served as a troop ship and was nearly sunk by a German naval mine, but without loss of life. Between the wars she operated commercially in the Pacific Ocean, before returning to military service in the Second World War. Her final civil role was to carry Islamic pilgrims from Indonesia to Mecca, before being scrapped in 1960.
Furness Bermuda Line was a UK shipping line that operated in the 20th century. It was part of Furness, Withy and ran passenger liners between New York and the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda from 1919 to 1966.
SS New Australia was a UK-built turbo-electric passenger steamship that had a varied career from 1931 to 1966. She was built as the ocean liner Monarch of Bermuda, was a troop ship in the Second World War and was damaged by fire in 1947.
Sir Herbert Gladstone "Mac" McDavid CBE MSM was from Liverpool, UK. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in the First World War. He ultimately became chairman, managing director and partner of shipping companies, deputy director of sea transport in the UK Ministry of War Transport during the Second World War and was knighted for organising shipping during the Suez crisis in 1956.
