# When and why did Shell change their funnel colours?



## clydesiderman (Nov 28, 2004)

Shell tankers in the 1950s had buff funnels with the red shell sign. Then, sometime, the colours were reversed to red funnels with a yellow shell sign. When and why did the change take place?
Douglas.


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## tunatownshipwreck (Nov 9, 2005)

I've noticed that too and I don't know why, but I can tell you the Shell emblem in use in the US has always been a yellow shell on a red background.


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## zelo1954 (Apr 5, 2005)

All I can say is that the red shell on yellow looked considerably better than the later version


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## Jim MacIntyre (Mar 11, 2006)

I recall the colours were changed when I was on the 'Axina' and according to my discharge book that was between April and July of 1964. No idea why the change was made...


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## John Gurton (Apr 10, 2006)

Following the Exxon Valdez grounding all the major oil companies removed obvious corporate branding from their ships. Shell reverted to the yellow funnel and black top without the "corporate" shell. Texaco, Amoco, Chevron, Mobil, BP etc all followed suit and the identifying logos disappeared. The last thing the oil majors wanted to see was their logo emblazoned across the press on a ship wallowing in an oily sea !


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## Pat Thompson (Jan 25, 2006)

Greetings,

I have no idea why Shell would change their funnel colours but I suspect a "Management Initiative"....nuff sed

Aye

Pat Thompson

You can't get enough photos of "O'Boats"


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## clydesiderman (Nov 28, 2004)

*Shell colour changes*

Thanks for your replies lads. Douglas


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## mclean (Jul 30, 2005)

It was in 1963, that Shell started to change the colours of the fleet,s flags and funnels. Also in January of 1964, The name Shell Tankers Ltd. was seperated into two The operating company became Shell Tankers (UK) Ltd. and Shell International Marine Ltd. (SIM) was formed to carry out the day to day chartering activities and other interests not related to the actual running of the vessels. Colin


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## oldbosun (Jul 8, 2004)

I might be digressing a bit here, but this does apply to Shell funnels. 
When I was on the "Patella" carrying asphalt from Curacao to Perth Amboy,New Jersey, the funnel paint we had was weird stuff. You could only dip your brush in the pot and do one down stroke only. If you did an up stroke with the same brush load the paint would roll up in flakes. So you had to paint the whole stack with repetitious dip in, down stroke, dip in, down stroke. It was annoying because the natural tendency is to stroke the paint on up and down two or 3 times until you have to dip in for more paint.

There was some experimental white paint too that we had to do a section of a bulkhead and the mate would put a sticker on with a certain number.Then do another section from a different pot of paint and so on. I don't know who checked up on it for performance.

Also, just one more thing then I'll be outa here.
That asphalt cargo's fumes turned the white paint black when we were loading or discharging, but when we got out to sea in the fresh air, the paint would turn back to it's white color.


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## Alistair Macnab (May 13, 2008)

*White to Black*

Bos'n....

We had the same problem of new white paint turning streaky blackish-purple in the Houston Ship Channel in the 60s. You are right, it all went away when we went out into the Gulf and the fresh air.

Nowadays, the Houston Ship Channel is much cleaner.

Also, when one of the Apprentices was painting the midships load line at a Turning Basin berth in Houston, he allowed the bosun's chair to be lowered to the waterline where he sat with his legs and lower torso in the water to finish the job. When we hauled him back on deck, he had a tide line where the polluted water had been and within half an hour, his skin turned purple and started to supurate. He was rushed to the hospital as his skin started peeling off in layers!

Strong stuff. The pollution of the old days was not something to ignore!

Alistair Macnab,
Houston


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## Dave Edge (May 18, 2005)

If I remember rightly when Shell changed to red funnels with a yellow shell the reason given was that the colour scheme of the ships would match the service stations.


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