House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: C

Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co.

by Joe McMillan

Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., Cleveland
A Great Lakes Line. Flag blue with the inscription in white shaded letters C&B Line.
Source: 1909 update to Flaggenbuch 1905

Joe McMillan, 2 October 2001

Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company

by Joe McMillan

Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, Cleveland (1891-1984)
Quarterly red and blue, overall on a white lozenge a red "C." I have also seen the blue quarters shown in black.) I believe but am not sure that I once sent this flag to the list before, but include it here for completeness.
Source: www.steamship.net

Joe McMillan, 14 September 2001

Cleveland Tankers

by Joe McMillan

Cleveland Tankers, Wilmington, DE
Despite the homeport, a company specializing in oil tanking on the Great Lakes. Many US companies are incorporated in Delaware because of lenient incorporation and tax policies (if any lawyers in the crowd understand this better than I, please pitch in), so you'll sometimes find shipping companies giving Wilmington as the port of registration rather than the port where the ships really operate from. The flag is a quasi-monogram of the letters C T in wihte on a blue swallowtail.
Source: US Navy's 1961 H.O.

Joe McMillan, 15 September 2001

Clover Leaf Steamboat Line

by Joe McMillan

Clover Leaf Steamboat Line, Buffalo
A Great Lakes line formerly serving Buffalo and Toledo. Flag was a red burgee-shaped pennant with a white disk bearing a green four-leaf clover.
Source: www.steamship.net

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

Clyde Steamship Co.

by Joe McMillan

Clyde Steamship Co., Philadelphia (later New York) (1844-1932)
The Clyde Line was established in 1844 by Thomas Clyde, connecting Philadelphia with other
east coast ports. The headquarters moved to New York in 1872. Besides connecting the northeast and southeast, the line also served the West Indies, especially Dominican Republic, after 1870s.
The company was purchased in 1907 by Charles W. Morse's Consolidated Steamship Lines, which collapsed in 1908. Clyde Line was then taken over in 1911 by the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines, a combine of a number of lines, but the Clyde Line name and flag continued in use until 1932, when Clyde was combined with the Mallory Line name to form the Clyde-Mallory Line. Flag: white with blue upper and lower ed! ge! s and a red "C" in the center. Sometimes shown with serifs.
Sources: Manning (1874) (as NY & Havana Direct Mail Line and NY & South Carolina SS Co.), Lloyds 1912, Wedge (1926)

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001
 

Clyde-Mallory Line

by Joe McMillan

Clyde-Mallory Line, New York (1932-1949)
A combination by the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies SS Lines parent company of the old Clyde Line and the old Mallory Line. Clyde-Mallory existed for only 17 years; it was sold to the Bull Line in 1949 and the Clyde-Mallory name and flag went out of use. The flag combined the white with blue edges of the Clyde flag with the red star that appeared on the Mallory flag. Note: [gsh34] shows this flag trapezoidal, but company memorabilia depicted on steamship.net indicates it was rectangular. A trapezoidal version of this flag is currently on FOTW at gb~hf02.html, but this was an American, not a British, company.
Sources: Talbot-Booth (1937), www.steamship.net

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

Coastwise Line

by Joe McMillan

Coastwise Line, San Francisco
Flag divided from lower hoist to upper fly, white over blue, with the letters "C" and "L" counterchanged.
Source: US Navy's 1961 H.O.

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

Coleman's California Line

by Joe McMillan

Coleman's California Line
the originals are in the archives at the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts
Coleman's was one of the clipper ship lines that sprung up in the 1850s to meet the demand for transportation from the east coast to the gold fields of California.
Source: clipper cards reported in the Time-Life book The Clipper Ships and at www.tenpound.com

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

E. K. Collins New Orleans Line

by Joe McMillan

E. K. Collins New Orleans Line, New York (1832-1850)
Edward K. Collins joined his father's shipping business in 1821 and struck out on his own with this line of sail packets between New York and New Orleans in 1837. The flag was a red swallowtail with a black "L" on a white disk.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

E. K. Collins Liverpool Line

by Joe McMillan

E. K. Collins Liverpool Line, New York (1836-1850)
Known as the "Dramatic Line" because the ships were named after Shakespeare and other dramatists and actors. By the early 1840s, his shippng ventures had made Collins won of the wealthiest men in New York and the most successful shipowner in America. All the ships were sold in about 1850 to shift service to steam with the new Collins Line. The flag was divided blue over white with two counterchanged Ls.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

Collins Line (New York & Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Co.)

          by Joe McMillan

Collins Line (New York & Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Co.), New York (1850-1858)
The Collins Line operated from 1850-1858 and may have been the most famous American steamship line of the 19th century, but it was afflicted by a series of disasters, high operating costs, cancellation of government subsidies, and failure to keep up with British technical advances. The line's first flag was a blue swallowtail with five rows of six white stars each, very similar to a pre-Civil War US Navy commodore's broad pennant. The second flag, reconstructed here from a description in North Atlantic Seaway I:201 was blue with the US shield outlined in white, tilted toward the upper hoist.
Sources: www.greatoceanliners.net/arctic.html and North Atlantic Seaway I:201

Joe McMillan, 18 September 2001

Colombian Line (Colombian Steamship Co.)

by Joe McMillan

Colombian Line (Colombian Steamship Co.), New York (1923-1938)
A subsidiary of the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies combine, serving ports on the US east coast, Colombia, and the Caribbean. Combined into AGWI's other operations in 1938. Flag a blue swallowtail with a red C on a yellow lozenge.
Sources: National Geographic (1934), Talbot-Booth (1937)

Joe McMillan, 20 September 2001

Commercial Pacific Cable Co.

by Joe McMillan

Commercial Pacific Cable Co., New York
In 1949 it had one cable repair ship of 3,000 gross tons. Flag diagonally red over blue, with the company initials in blue on a white band from lower hoist to upper fly.
Source: Lloyds Flags and Funnels 1912

Joe McMillan, 20 September 2001

Comstock & Co.

by Joe McMillan

Comstock & Co. (1850s)
Another California clipper company. Blue over white burgee with a red hoist, and thereon a white C.
Source: clipper cards reported in Time Life's The Clipper Ships and at www.tenpound.com; originals at Peabody Essex Museum, Salem

Joe McMillan, 20 September 2001

Consolidated Coal Co.

by Joe McMillan

Consolidated Coal Co., Baltimore
The ports of Baltimore and Norfolk were (and are) the principal shipping points for bituminous coal mined in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and western Virginia. This company's flag was a red-white-blue vertical tricolor with the initials CCC on the three stripes in black letters.
Source: Flaggenbuch 1905

Joe McMillan, 4 October 2001

Thomas Coppack & Co.

by Joe McMillan

Thomas Coppack & Co.
Flag: Company initials in white on blue.
Source: Lloyds 1912

Joe McMillan, 20 September 2001

Cosmopolitan Shipping Co.

by Joe McMillan

Cosmopolitan Shipping Co. (1916-1980s), New York
Apparently an earlier flag of the Cosmopolitan Line. This flag has the initials CL in red on a white disk on a red swallow-tailed field.
Source: 1909 update to Flaggenbuch 1905

Joe McMillan, 30 September 2001

by Joe McMillan

Cosmopolitan Shipping Co. (1916-1980s), New York
Cargo service from New York to French ports; operated the America-France Line with US government-owned ships from 1919-1939. Later operated the Southern Cross Line down east coast of South America. Abandoned US flag market and switched to Norwegian flag vessels in the 1950s. A pretty effective flag: red with a white bordered blue lozenge.
Source: US Navy's 1961 H.O.

Joe McMillan, 20 September 2001

Cromwell Line

by Joe McMillan

Cromwell Line, New York (1858-1902)
The Cromwell Line was established by H.B. Cromwell and a group of Georgia investors to serve Savannah and New York. It was seized by Federal forces during the Civil War and began New York-New Orleans service after the Union capture of New Orleans in 1862. Taken over by the Southern Pacific Railroad Co in the late 1880s but continued to operate under the Cromwell Line name and flag until 1902, when all Southern Pacific properties were consolidated under the flag of the former Morgan Line. The flag was simply a white C on a red swallowtail.
Sources: www.steamship.net, Manning (1874), Flaggenbuch 1905

Joe McMillan, 30 September 2001

Cuyamel Fruit Co.

by Joe McMillan

Cuyamel Fruit Co., New Orleans
Blue burgee with a white lozenge bearing a red C. The flag is pre-1929 when this company was bought out by United Fruit.
Source: www.steamship.net

Joe McMillan, 30 September 2001