House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: Gu

J. M. Guffey Petroleum Co.

  image by Joe McMillan

J. M. Guffey Petroleum Co.
Gulf Oil originated in the J. M. Guffey Petroleum Company, which was organized in 1901 to buy out the developers of the first high-volume oil well in Texas, the Spindletop. J. M. Guffey owned 7/15 of the company bearing his name and the Mellon family and their associates the remainder. The house flag of Guffey's tankers was a white block-style G on a red field.
Source: 1909 supplement to 1909 update to Flaggenbuch 1905.

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

Gulf and South American SS Co.

  image by Joe McMillan

Gulf and South American SS Co., New Orleans (1947-1971)
A joint venture of Grace Line and Lykes Brothers connecting Grace's home turf (west coast of South America) and Lykes's home turn (Gulf of Mexico). Company split up when W. R. Grace & Co abandoned the shipping business in 1969. Flag green with a white lozenge bordered in black and inscribed with green letters "GSA."
Sources: Stewart (1953)], US Navy's 1961 H.O., Stewart & Styring (1963) (Note: US Navy's 1961 H.O. shows this company twice, once with blue in place of green on the flag.)

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

Gulfcoast Trading Co.

image by Jarig Bakker, 5 February 2006

Source: Loughran (1995)
Gulfcoast Trading Co., Tampa, Fl. - quartered yellow and blue; on yellow white "GT".

Gulf Fleet Marine

  image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.

From the website of the National Maritime Museum, "the house flag of Gulf Fleet Marine. A rectangular white flag with a red compass rose in the centre inscribed 'GULF FLEET' in white. The flag is made of a double thickness of nylon fabric, machine sewn, with a printed design. There are two brass eyelets in the cotton hoist." Loughran (1979) lists this as Gulf Mississippi Marine Corporation, New Orleans; he shows a logo for the funnel with inscription "THE GULF FLEET".
Jarig Bakker, 14 August 2004

Gulf Oil Corporation

  image by Joe McMillan

Gulf Oil Corporation, New York (homeport of ships; corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh) (1901-1984)
Gulf Oil originated in the J. M. Guffey Petroleum Company, which was organized in 1901 to buy out the developers of the first high-volume oil well in Texas, the Spindletop. J. M. Guffey owned 7/15 of the company bearing his name and the Mellon family and their associates the remainder. The house flag of Guffey's tankers was a white block-style G on a red field.
Source: 1909 supplement to 1909 update to Flaggenbuch 1905.

Later in 1901, the Gulf Refining Company was organized to refine and market the crude oil produced by Guffey Petroleum. In 1907, Andrew Mellon bought out Guffey's stake in the entire enterprise and reorganized it as the Gulf Oil Company. It was already operating a substantial tanker fleet before World War I. Until after World War II, these ships continued to fly a modified version of the Guffey flag, still red but with a Roman-style white G instead of the earlier block style. Sources: National Geographic (1934), Stewart (1953).

  image by Joe McMillan

By the end of the 1960s, Gulf was one of the largest oil companies in the world, thanks in large part to its 55% stake in the Kuwait Petroleum Company. Since the early days of the company, the principal trademark used in marketing was the word "Gulf" in blue on an orange disk. At some point in the 1950s, the red and white flag was replaced by a blue one with this logo on it. (Source: [usn61]).

  image by Joe McMillan


Later in the 1960s the logo was redesigned and the flag changed again, this time to a white LOB with the new logo. (Source: Photo in a US Merchant Marine Academy yearbook from the 1970s).

A series of corporate missteps put Gulf in financial trouble before the end of the 1970s and an attempt by corporate raider T. Boone Pickens to mount a hostile takeover in 1983 led instead to the purchase of Gulf by Chevron Corporation in 1984. At $13.2 billion, it was the largest corporate merger in history to that time. (Various components were spun off and still retain the Gulf name and trademark, but I do not know of any that are in the shipping business.)

Joe McMillan, 18 October 2001

US shipping lines house flags - 'H' continued