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House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: B

Black Ball Line
Black Diamond SS Corp.
Black Star Line
Bloomfield SS Co.
Boland and Cornelius
Boston & Philadelphia SS Co.
Boyd & Hincken
Brander & Mabry
Bremen Line (Ocean Steam Navigation Co)
S. Broom
J. H. Brown & Co.
Brunswick Steamship Co.
Bucklin & Crane
Bull Line (A.H. Bull Line)
L. G. Burnham & Co.

Black Ball Line

image by Joe McMillan

Black Ball Line (1818-1878), New York

The Black Ball Line, later also called the Old Line, was one of the historic endeavors in all of shipping history, the first "line" of vessels crossing the the Atlantic (from New York to Liverpool) on a regular schedule--initially monthly departures in each direction using a fleet of four ships. I believe it is also of special vexillological interest as the name of the company came from the design of the house flag--a red swallowtailed flag with a black disk in the center. A black ball also appeared on the fore topsail (the second sail up from the deck on the foremast). The custom of naming or nicknaming the line after the flag was picked up by many others: the Red Cross, the Blue Swallow Tail, the White Diamond, the Black Star, etc.

Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 30 August 2001

I think the black ball line lasted until at least 1881 as the Isaac Webb was the last ship that My great great uncle W.W.Urquhart sailed and she sank that year. I have a picture of the Isaac Webb clearly showing the black ball on the sail. Uncle Urquhart sailed for the Black Ball line.
Ruth Major, 24 April 2007

There is a ferry from Washington State to Victoria BC, CA which wears a flag 'gules a pellet fimbriated argent' (a red flag with a white edged black ball). This line is sometimes referred to as the Black Ball Line (Puget Sound Navigation Co.). A little digging turns up that "Black Ball" is the nickname (flag-derived of course) for the WA state ferries, originally the Puget Sound Navigation System. Some of Seattle's maritime history is at: www.historylink.org/output.CFM?file_ID=2474. They use the name "Black Ball Line" for the PSNS, although not the State-owned system (from 1951).

Dean McGee, 1 September 2001

Black Diamond SS Corp.

image by Joe McMillan

Black Diamond SS Corp. (1918-ca. 1955), New York
Originally called the American Diamond Line, this company carried cargo between New York and Rotterdam and Antwerp. It was hit very hard by the restriction imposed by US neutrality in the early stages of World War II. During the war, the company sold off all its ships--which were under government control for the time being anyhow--then tried unsuccessfully to get back into business after the war, ceasing operations in the mid-1950s. The flag was a black horizontally arranged diamond on a yellow field.
Source: Stewart & Styring (1963)

Black Star Line

image by Joe McMillan

Black Star Line (Manning 1874)
I believe from verbal descriptions I have seen that this is the Black Star Line that was a major force in Irish immigration via Liverpool to the United States in the mid-19th century. As best I can figure, a variety of New York lines operated from New York to Liverpool under their own names, but on the return trip flew the red pennant with black star of the Black Star Line. It was, in effect, a consortium, or at least that's what I make of the characterization of various companies' ships as "clearing from Liverpool in the Black Star Line." On the other hand, Williams & Guion Black Star Line were one of the companies so characterized, and their own flag featured a black star on a blue and white flag (also reported as a blue-white-blue horizontal triband). Maybe others know more about this history.
Source: Manning (1874)
Joe McMillan, 15 September 2001

I found several on-line sources that make it clear to me that the Liverpool "Black Star Line" was the Williams & Guion company (US flagged) before 1866 and the Guion Line (British flagged) after 1866. The flag for this company under both names was blue with a white lozenge and a black star on it. Most pictures have a five-pointed star but I've seen some with six points. In any case, I now don't know what "Black Star Line" would have flown a red swallowtail with a black star, but I did find it in the source I mentioned, without explanation as to its use.
Joe McMillan, 20 September 2001

According to Chandler in Liverpool Shipping (1960) Williams & Guion had prior to 1866 owned the Black Star Line of sailing packets ceasing the emigrant trade by this means in 1863 when they moved into steam, initially by chartering, and then with their own vessels in 1866 as the Guion Steamhip Line based Liverpool, U.K.. It would seem then that this Black Star Line was American whilst Liverpool also had its Black Star Line formed by James Dowie & Co. Ltd. in 1855 with their last sailing vessel being sold in 1904 and sources show their flag as that given here. According to Chandler the Dowie company mainly operated with chartered ships which would explain the use of the flag on the return voyage to USA. The only problem with this theory is that Chandler only mentions the Dowie company as operating to Australia but that is not to say that they also did not operate across the Atlantic.
Neale Rosanoski, 26 January 2004

image by Rob Raeside, 6 May 2006

I have 3 original documents which have the flag of the New York based "Black Star Line" of the mid 1800's printed on them. Reasonably good histories of the various New York packet companies can be found in the books:

"Square-riggers on schedule: the New York sailing packets to England, France, and the cottonports." - Robert Greenhalgh Albion.
"Queens of the western ocean; the story of America's mail and passenger sailing lines." - Carl C Cutler.

Andrew Pettit, 6 May 2006

Bloomfield SS Co.

image by Joe McMillan

Bloomfield SS Co., Houston (1946-1968)

Founded to take advantage of the supply of cheap surplus vessels after World War II with the intention of operating between the Gulf of Mexico ports and Europe and the Mediterranean. It faced bruising opposition from Lykes Brothers SS Co, which had ruthlessly suppressed competition in that market for decades. Korean War business kept Bloomfield afloat, but it was soon taken over by the much larger States Marine Corporation, which stopped using the Bloomfield trade name in 1968. The flag was a blue swallowtail with a white star superimposed on a red "B."

Sources: US Navy's 1961 H.O., Stewart & Styring (1963)

Joe McMillan, 30 August 2001

Boland and Cornelius

image by Joe McMillan

Boland and Cornelius, New York
Messrs Boland and Cornelius founded what is now the American Steamship Co in 1907. American SS Co, now a subsidiary of GATX Corporation, operates one of the largest fleets on the Great Lakes.
Stewart (1953)

Joe McMillan, 12 October 2001

image by Joe McMillan

Boland and Cornelius
A white flag with a large red "A" and a blue border--I take it that the "A" is for American and that what Stewart (1953) calls Boland and Cornelius is in fact American Steamship.
Stewart (1953)

Joe McMillan, 15 September 2001

I speculated above that this was actually the flag of the American Steamship Co, then a Boland and Cornelius subsidiary and now the shipping arm of GATX Corporation. I have since found this additional source from the same general period that shows a different Boland and Cornelius flag: a white burgee with red upper and lower edges and the initials B&C in blue. Clearly this was the flag of the parent company and the A flag probably, as I had suggested, that of the subsidiary.
Source: Talbot-Booth (1937)

Joe McMillan, 12 October 2001

Boston & Philadelphia SS Co.

image by Joe McMillan

Boston & Philadelphia SS Co., Boston

Oddly enough, the house flag of this coastwise line was, for all practical purposes, the same as the modern Japanese national flag, a red disk on a white field.

Source: www.steamship.net (no longer available)

Joe McMillan, 1 September 2001

Boyd & Hincken

image by Joe McMillan

Boyd & Hincken, New York (by 1823 to at least 1851)

Boyd & Hincken was one of the major firms of sail packet operators in New York in the mid-19th century. Its ships displayed an unusual triple tailed flag consisting of a red hoist with a white ring (or letter "O") and three tails of yellow, white, and yellow. The ship's of the firms New York & Havre Line (also known as the Second Line of Havre Packets) had the same flag but with the letter "B."

Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 1 September 2001

Brander & Mabry

image by Joe McMillan

Brander & Mabry, New York

Nothing on this 19th century sailing company except the flag, red with a white disk bearing a black "B."

Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 1 September 2001

Bremen Line (Ocean Steam Navigation Co)

image by Joe McMillan

Bremen Line (Ocean Steam Navigation Co), New York (1847-1857)

The Ocean Steam Navigation Company, or Bremen Line, was the first U.S.-flag steamship company to offer regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic service. It was founded in response to a U.S. government decision to subsidize a steamship operation by means of mail contracts in an attempt to compete with British government subsidies to British lines. Edward Mills, a novice in the shipping business, led the syndicate that received the contract for mail delivery to Le Havre and Bremen but was unable to attract sufficient capital to carry out his original business plan and began operations with only one ship, the Washington, in June 1847. It was a poorly designed ship, slow and with insufficient cargo space, and the government soon revoked the Le Havre portion of the mail contract because of the line’s poor performance. Nevertheless, the Bremen Line survived until it was driven out of business in 1857 by Cornelius Vanderbilt’s more modern fleet in 1857. The house flag of the Bremen Line was the red and white striped Bremen ensign, defaced by a white panel bearing a profile of the ship. The flag shows the line’s first ship, the steamer Washington.

Source: description in North Atlantic Seaway I:186

Joe McMillan, 1 September 2001

S. Broom

image by Joe McMillan

S. Broom, New York (Source: PSMNY)
A New York firm operating to California in the Gold Rush period of the 1850s.

Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 7 September 2001

Brunswick Steamship Co.

image by Joe McMillan

Brunswick Steamship Co., New York
Simple and effective, a red cross on blue.
Source: Lloyds 1912

Joe McMillan, 24 September 2001

Bucklin & Crane

image by Joe McMillan

Bucklin & Crane, New York
In the China and California clipper trade in the mid-19th century. The flag was white with the initials B over C in red.

Source: chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 4 September 2001

A. H. Bull & Co.

image by Joe McMillan

A. H. Bull & Co., New York (1902-1963)
An early version of the flag, with the border all the way around instead of just on the upper and lower edges and fly.
Source: Lloyds (1912)

image by Joe McMillan

Archibald H. Bull was the founder of the British-flagged New York and Porto [sic] Rico Steamship Co in 1885, which succeeded an earlier line of sailing packets on the same route that he had established in 1873. In 1900, his stake in the company was bought out by his partners in a hostile takeover, and Bull was forced to give up running steamers to Puerto Rico for 10 years. So in 1902 he set up the Bull Line to serve the US Atlantic coastwise trade and operate sail vessels to Puerto Rico. Bull's heirs eventually failed to see wave of containerization coming, sold out to American Coal Shipping in 1956. Sea-Land, the pioneer container firm wanted to buy the line in 1961, but instead it was sold to Greece's Manuel K. Kulukundis, whose companies all went bankrupt in 1963, bringing the Bull Line's history to an end. The flag was a white swallowtailed pennant bordered in red, with a blue initial B.

Sources: Stewart (1953), US Navy's 1961 H.O.

image by Joe McMillan

In 1914, A. H. Bull bought the Insular Line, which had been established in 1904 as a successor to his old company, and renamed it the Bull Insular Line. It flew a flag similar to that of the Bull Line itself, but with a red letter I interlaced with the blue B. (Wedge, 1926)
Joe McMillan, 4 September 2001

image provided by Ed Marcuse, 17 January 2008

I am told this is a replica of the Bull Line flag was copied from the china pattern and old photos.
Ed Marcuse, 17 January 2008

Lloyds (1912) actually shows a normal swallow-tailed flag, as does the 1904 version though these are probably incorrect renditions. The tapered version, being the first shown here, does not appear until Brown 1934 but I get the impression that none of the regular sources were exactly sure what flag applied with the main problem being the Baltimore Insular Line Inc. [not Bull Insular Line according to Talbot-Booth and Lloyds] with the version shown being that of number 3 here but with a red border at hoist and those sources showing this as being for A.H. Bull & Co. Inc. though Talbot-Booth in 1938 does comment that the "I" no longer applied on the flag but for all that he continued to show it included through to 1949. Of the main originating sources, Wedge (Brown series) shows the 3rd version here in 1926 and 1929 but with a red border also at hoist, thereafter showing the 1st version. Talbot-Booth shows the 2nd version and Stewart & Styring (1963) (I understand Styring had a lot of input into the US Navy publication) show the 2nd version. All very confusing and I for one remain completely unsure of what is a legitimate answer.
Neale Rosanoski, 26 January 2004

L. G. Burnham & Co.

image by Joe McMillan

L. G. Burnham & Co., Boston
No information on this--and a boring flag with a white B on a red field.
Source: Reed (1896)

Joe McMillan, 15 September 2001

US shipping lines house flags - 'C' continued