British Tanker Company
British Tanker Company flag 1915-1926
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| Industry | Ship transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1915 |
| Headquarters | London, England |
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Key people
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Charles Greenway |
| Products | Oil |
| Owner |
Anglo-Persian Oil Company Anglo Iranian Oil Company |
British Tanker Company Limited was the maritime transport arm of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the forerunner of BP. The British Tanker Company was formed in 1915 with an initial fleet of seven oil tankers. The Company became the BP Tanker Company in 1955.
From the moment oil was discovered in Persia (now Iran) in May 1908, the issue arose of how best to ship it back to Britain. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) initially employed independent contractors; principally the Asiatic Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, to carry the oil by sea. In 1912 the company acquired its first ocean going ship, the SS Ferrara, a conventional freighter that carried oil products in metal cases. Tankers couldn't berth in Abadan owing to a natural sand bar off the coast known as the Shatt-al-Arab Bar, and often had to anchor up to 40 miles from the port. This meant oil had to be lightered out to the ships. Accordingly, APOC made two further shipping purchases, a barge Friesland and a tug Sirdar-i-Naphte. This situation remained until the mid 1920s when the bar was eventually dredged to allow ships direct access to the port.
However, the directors of APOC soon decided it would be better for the company to possess its own fleet of tankers. It set up the British Tanker Company Limited (BTC) in April 1915, with an initial capital of £100,000. The BTC placed orders with two Tyne based shipbuilders, Armstrong Whitworth and Swan Hunter, for a total of 7 steam-powered oil tankers. The names of the first ships bore the prefix British, and most future additions to the fleet followed the same naming convention. This acknowledged the fact that the British Government had invested heavily in the fledgling company to ensure a supply of fuel oil for the Royal Navy.
BTC's first tanker was the 3,663 grt British Emperor, launched in 1916. She was employed to take oil from Abadan to the ports of Bombay, Karachi, Madras and Calcutta. She was the only BTC vessel not to be chartered by the Admiralty in World War I. Her career eventually ended in 1941, when she was sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin, after evading all the Pinguin's attempts to capture her intact.
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Wikipedia