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The
Adelaide Steamship Company.
(Est. 1875) |
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 The Adelaide Steamship Company Limited was incorporated in South Australia in 1875. Its purpose was to provide steamship services from Adelaide to Melbourne, and subsequently further afield. For the first 100 years of its life, the main activities of the company were conventional shipping operations on the Australian coast, primary products, consumer cargoes and extensive passenger services. These circled the coast from northern Western Australia to northern Queensland. Shipping operations were supported by a large network of agency offices in almost every Australian port of any significance. The Adelaide Steamship Company together with the Australasian Steam Navigation Co, Huddart Parker, Howard Smith and McIlwraith McEarcharn were regarded as significant pioneers of coastal shipping in Australia. Although the company saw a number of notable milestones, its activities were confined to the Australian coast. As a result, little was known in the international shipping community. Among these milestones however, two stand out. In the 1930s, the company joined
with other shipping companies to merge their fledgling airline
subsidiaries (Holyman Airways, Adelaide Airways and West Australian
Airways). The shipping companies included Holyman, Orient Steam
Navigation Company and Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, forming
Australian National Airlines (ANA). This later merged with Reg Ansett's
operation to become Ansett ANA, which was eventually renamed Ansett
Airlines. Perhaps even more significant was the design and development, with McIlwraiths, of the world's first purpose built container ships. Kooringa entered the Melbourne-Fremantle trade in 1964. She served as something of a model for Overseas Container Line and Associated Container Transportation, with both companies sending teams to examine the new concept. A relatively minor sideline, started in the 1890s, was the company's tug operations. Gradually, tug operations extended over a number of ports, but until the middle of the 20th century they remained the poor relation of the much more significant coastal shipping operations. With the decline of coastal shipping however, towage assumed more importance. By the 1960s, towage and associated operations represented a very significant part of the company's activities.On the 1st January 1964 its interstate fleet was merged with that of McIlwraith McEacharn Ltd in a new company, Associated Steamships Ltd in which Adelaide Steamship Co held a 40%. Bulkships Ltd in which Adelaide Steamship held a 40% interest in 1965, acquired all the shares in Associated Steamship Ltd in 1968. In 1977 the company’s interest in Bulkships was disposed of, and Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd ceased its connection with ship owning and operating. It has diversified into investment and property ownership, vineyard and wine production, optical goods manufacturing and distribution, engineering, share investment, and, until 1973, shipbuilding. Thus towage and associated operations continued to have prominence, even during the 1970s and 1980s when The Adelaide Steamship Company became the foundation for one the country's major conglomerate organisations. At one stage, the company was Australia's fourth highest capitalised company. With the stock market crash and its aftermath, the company went into free fall, halted only by the systematic disposal of assets. As this activity was happening, towage began to reassert itself as an important element of the company. Strengthened by a series of industry rationalisations - Brambles' Port Kembla, Sydney and Newcastle operations and P&O's towage operations in Western Australia, the towage division became a valuable candidate for asset disposal in 1997. In July 1997 the company changed its name to Residual Assco Group Ltd and floated its marine division which was registered on the Stock Exchange as Adsteam Marine Ltd. In 1991 Associated Steamships Ltd, now owned by Cyprus Coal Ltd was merged with the ship management arm of Australian National Line (ANL) Ltd to create ASP Ship Management, with ANL holding the major shareholding of 60%. In 1997, ASP Ship Management was acquired by the Pan Gulf Group as part of a global expansion of its ship management business and that business was subsequently spun off as an independent entity. The new group adopted the ASP acronym from its Australian subsidiary to become the ASP Ship Management Group. Since becoming a publicly listed company in its own right, Adsteam Marine has established a strong investor following. In addition to towage, the company has developed shipping agency and tug barging activities. Adsteam Marine Limited doubled its size in May 2001 when it acquired the towage interests of Howard Smith, its partner in many towage ventures. In 2006 Adsteam was taken over by Switzer which was part of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group. Thus the Adelaide Steamship Company, which had started off back in 1875, and was one of the British Empire's great shipping lines, disappeared due to mergers and consolidation in the shipping industry and globalisation. It is truly the end of a glorious era. ASP Ship Management Group (formerly Associated Steamships Ltd) www.aspships.com Switzer www.switzer.com |
(c)
The AJN Transport Britain Collection 2008
A
Edward Elliott