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P Henderson & Company facts for kids
P Henderson & Company, also known as Paddy Henderson, was a shipping company from Glasgow, Scotland. They owned and managed ships that sailed mainly to Burma. Patrick Henderson started his business in Glasgow in 1834 when he was 25. He was a merchant, which means he bought and sold goods.
Patrick had three brothers. Two of them worked as merchants in Italy. His third brother, George, was a sea captain and owned his own ship. The brothers worked together and bought their first ship, the Peter Senn. Their business grew from there. Patrick died in 1841, and his brother, Captain George Henderson, took over the company. In 1848, George brought in a very talented young man named James Galbraith as a partner. James helped the business grow even more, turning it from just merchants into ship owners and managers.
The company began trading with New Zealand in 1854. Their sailing ships carried Scottish people who were moving to New Zealand, and they also delivered the Royal Mail.
Contents
Albion Shipping Company: Growing the Business
In 1860, there wasn't much cargo to bring back from New Zealand to Scotland. So, P Henderson & Co started a regular shipping service to Burma. This trade became very popular, very quickly. To get more money to grow, several new partners joined to create the Albion Shipping Company Ltd. This new company owned ships, but P. Henderson & Co still managed them.
The Albion Shipping Company became the most important British company trading with New Zealand. They also held the contract for carrying the mail.
In 1869, the Suez Canal opened. This made it much cheaper for steamships to travel between Glasgow and Burma. So, in 1870, P. Henderson & Co started using steamships for their service between Glasgow, Liverpool, and Burma. They didn't get a mail contract for this route because all mail went through India.
In 1874, the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company Ltd (BBSN) was formed. This was done to get more money and share the risks as the Burma business grew. Ships were becoming more expensive and much larger steamships. BBSN took over the steamships on the Burma route, and P Henderson and Co became their managing agents. Most of the shares in this new company were bought by P Henderson partners and their friends. Even the ship captains were encouraged to buy shares.
In 1882, P. Henderson and Co made history by sending the first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand to London. They used refrigerated sailing ships for this. At that time, there weren't enough places to refuel steamships along the way. Steamships would need huge coal storage areas, which would take up too much space for valuable cargo.
Shaw, Savill & Albion Line: A Big Partnership
Steamships made trading much easier, but they also needed a lot more money. P. Henderson and the Albion Shipping Company couldn't afford all the changes on their own. So, in 1882, the Albion Shipping Company joined with Shaw Savill and Company. They formed a new, bigger company called the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company Ltd. After this big partnership, P. Henderson & Co continued to manage ships and handle cargo bookings for the new company in Glasgow. The British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company Ltd also continued to own ships, along with another company called the Burmah Steam Ship Company Ltd.
James Galbraith, who was a very important leader for P. Henderson & Co, died in 1884. His death marked the end of an important time for the company. It was the end of an era where private money helped explore new countries and new technologies.
P Henderson Ships Lost at Sea
The ship Amarapoora was built in 1920 for P Henderson. During World War II, she became a hospital ship. This picture shows her at Scapa Flow.
P Henderson & Co lost several ships over the years, especially during the World Wars.
In 1905, a P Henderson cargo ship called the Ava got stuck and was wrecked near Maulmain in Burma. Henderson's quickly replaced her with a new Ava the next year. However, this new ship was lost during the First World War in January 1917. She disappeared with all 92 people on board. No one knows exactly what happened, but it's thought she was sunk off the coast of Ireland.
That same year, P Henderson lost another ship due to enemy action. On July 8, 1917, a German U-boat (a submarine) called U-57 torpedoed the passenger and cargo ship Pegu off the south coast of Ireland. Luckily, almost everyone on board survived. Just after World War I ended, P Henderson lost another ship. On December 19, 1918, the passenger and cargo ship Tenasserim was destroyed by fire in Rangoon. In the 1920s and 1930s, P Henderson built several new ships, including a new Pegu in 1921.
P Henderson suffered even greater losses during the Second World War. On November 24, 1939, the Pegu ran aground near Liverpool. She broke apart and was wrecked. On July 13, 1940, a German warship called the Atlantis sank the passenger and cargo ship Kemmendine in the middle of the Indian Ocean using its guns.
On April 9, 1942, the passenger ship Sagaing was in Trincomalee in Ceylon when Japanese aircraft attacked her and set her on fire. Her crew left the ship, and then she was sunk. The Sagaing was later brought up from the sea in 2018. On August 1, 1942, the cargo ship Kalewa crashed into a Dutch ship called Boringia off the coast of South Africa. The Kalewa sank, but the Boringia survived and rescued everyone from the Kalewa.
P Henderson's worst year for losses was 1943. On April 2, a German submarine U-124 sank the cargo ship Katha with a torpedo off Portugal, killing six crew members. On May 9, U-123 sank the cargo and passenger ship Kanbe with a torpedo off West Africa, killing all 66 people on board. On June 17, U-81 sank the passenger ship Yoma in the Mediterranean Sea. The Yoma had been changed into a troopship (a ship carrying soldiers), and 484 people died when she sank. On July 24, U-199 sank the cargo ship Henzada with a torpedo off Brazil, killing two crew members.
Elder, Dempster Lines: The End of an Era
Elder, Dempster Lines started renting P Henderson's ships in 1947. Then, in 1952, they took over the company completely. Under Elder, Dempster, the P Henderson fleet continued to get new, modern motor ships until at least 1961.
In 1965, another large company called Ocean Steamship Co took control of the Elder, Dempster group. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Egypt closed the Suez Canal. Because of this, Ocean Steamship Co stopped the Burma shipping route. They transferred Henderson's last three ships to Elder, Dempster. By 1970, all of P Henderson's ships and business had been moved to Elder, Dempster, and the Henderson name disappeared from the shipping world.
See also
- Irrawaddy Flotilla Company
- SR Merchant Navy Class 35009 Shaw Savill – a steam train named after the shipping company