# federal commerce montreal



## stores (Apr 8, 2007)

does anyone know of a connection between the above company and watts watts ( britains steamship co ) also did watts watts manage 2 ships eastwave and eas****er for eastboard nav co, would be grateful for a photo of ss fort augustus a canadian fort type and ss samoland an american liberty ship. stores.


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## Capt. Bruno (Jul 13, 2008)

Here is a list of the ships I have that were managed by Watts, Watts.

EASTWAVE from 1948-1952
ERNEST G. PATHY from 1952-1955
FEDERAL COMMERCE from 1957-1959
FEDERAL VOYAGER from 1955 to 1960
FEDERAL PIONEER from 1958 to 1960
SEAWAY STAR from 1960 to 1963
ARCTIC from 1060 to 1963

At one time Watts Watts had a Montreal officie located at the same address as Federal Commerce & Navigation at 410 ST-Nicholas Street.


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## stores (Apr 8, 2007)

thanks for that information, it fills a lot of gaps, and answers a few questions, STORES


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## gdynia (Nov 3, 2005)

Stores here is Watt Watts history
The Northumbrian Watts family are believed to have first become shipowners in 1715. In the mid 1850s W H Watts owned a number of small sailing ships carrying coal from Blyth along the coast in winter and as far as Spain and the Baltic in summer. With two neighbours he formed Watts, Milburn & Co in 1885, initially operating with sailing ships before acquiring the small steamer “Gosforth” of 1856. A London office was opened in 1861 and the steamer “Surbiton” was built, starting the company’s policy of naming its ships after London suburbs.

Watts resorted to the somewhat radical action of taking control of a number of North-East collieries to solve the difficulty of obtaining full cargoes for his ships. In 1872 Watts, Milburn & Co was dissolved and replaced by Watts, Ward & Co. Although the company’s steamers still normally operated in the Home and intermediate trades longer voyages began to be undertaken. By the early 1880s its coastal trade was controlled from Newcastle and deep-sea trading from London. In 1884 the Britain S S Co Ltd (BSSC) was formed to own most of Watts’ ships and the name of the management company was changed to Watts, Watts & Co in 1896.

At the outbreak of WW1 Watts owned 22 steamers, of which 13 were lost to enemy action, one sank after a collision, two were posted missing and one wrecked. The Shipping Controller place two ships under Watts’ management and three reparations steamers were allocated to the company. Second hand vessels were bought after the war and the fleet was up to 19 ships by 1920.

The company thrived, despite the economic turbulence of the 1920s, but it suffered severely in early 1930s. A number of the photos in the collection show some of its vessels laid-up in the River Dart. Many were sold and the fleet was down to 9 steamers at the start of WW2, of which 5 were lost, although the MOWT allocated at least 10 ships to Watts’ management.

A number of war-standard motor ships were obtained and the last steamers were sold in 1958. A construction programme of high quality motorships was undertaken, to operate a service from London to the east coast of Canada and with the aim of obtaining charters from liner companies. The collection contains photos of many of these ships, including the first, which was “Wanstead” of 1949. “Wanstead” was chartered to Port Line as “Port Wanstead” from 1957 to 1960; to Lamport & Holt as “Raeburn” from 1963 to 1964; to John Swire & Sons as “Wanliu” from 1964 to 1969 when she was sold to Swire’s China Navigation Co, together with her two sisters.

In 1959 Watts owned 9 motorships, through BSSC. During the 1960s it became clear that the market for break-bulk ships was coming to an end. A number of smaller British shipowners decided to band together in 1966 to form Seabridge Shipping Ltd. The initial members were Bibby Line, BSSC, Clarkson, Silver Line, Bowring and Furness Withy. Each member agreed to build bulk carriers that would be chartered to Seabridge, who would operate and market them. BSSC built a 42,000 grt Panamax ship, “Westminster Bridge”, but by the time it was delivered in 1968, Watts decided that the potential rewards from shipowning were insufficient to justify the capital investment risk. All of BSSC’s other ships had been sold or where on the point of being sold, so Watts were able to make an immediate clean sale of BSSC, its Seabridge interests and the new bulk-carrier to Bibby. Watts continued in business for a while, managing its old ships whilst they remained in service.


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## stores (Apr 8, 2007)

thanks for all the information, did not realise they went back that far, earliest photo i have is around 1870 one of watts millburns, WW2 managed ships are hard to aquire photos of, still trying to get SS FORT AUGUSTUS , A special one as my father sailed on her, also SS SAMOLAND as built, have a few photos of her under different names, EMPIRE FUSILIER and EMPIRE HARTEBEESTE dont think they lasted long enough to be photographed befor they were torpedoed, but its amazing what keeps emerging from the past, especially fron SN members, found the site by chance , dont watch tv anymore, STORES.


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## stores (Apr 8, 2007)

hi, after re reading the history of watts watts, and studying it , you mention about ships laid up in river dart, then you said about photos in the collection, to what collection are you referring to ? and is it available to be viewed or photographs purchased from it, if so would be very interested to know more, once again , thanks for all your assistance, STORES.


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## ogdenm (Aug 27, 2008)

I sailed with my late father (Captain Michael Ogden) on the London Bridge (Antwerp to Vitoria Brazil and back 1968) and Forth Bridge (Amsterdam to Vitoria to Kure to Sydney to Amsterdam in 1969. They also owned the Sydney Bridge


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