Towards the end of 1950
Shaw Savill & Albion Ltd, a company acquired by the Furness
Withy Group in 1933, inaugurated a new service from Mombasa,
Durban and Cape Town to Australian ports. To operate the service
Shaw Savill initially chartered the newly built Scottish Prince
which was renamed Afric for the duration of the charter which
eventually lasted for five years. Over the subsequent years
Shaw Savill & Albion chartered several Prince Line ships.
In 1954 the Rio-Cape Line was
wound up and the company's fleet transferred to Prince Line.
Six years later the Round the World service was discontinued
and the company's long haul routes were reduced to those operating
from the UK and USA to the River Plate and the service from
New York to South and East Africa.
During the late fifties early
sixties flag discrimination and subsidised foreign tonnage
forced a contraction of services and the company stopped operating
the long haul services in favour of concentrating on the Mediterranean
routes. Furthermore, in order to rationalise, joint operations
were negotiated and the Mediterranean routes were operated
in conjunction with Westcott Laurance Line as the Prince-Westcott
service. The joint operation used the loading berths on the
north quay at the West India Export Dock.
Prince Line withdrew from Manchester
in 1968 and their agents Gough & Crossthwaite were taken
over by Manchester Liners, another subsidiary of Furness Withy.
In the late sixties the company was forced to charter ships
either on a voyage by voyage basis or time charters while
it awaited the completion of purpose built vessels for the
Mediterranean service. Over a period of some fifteen years
the company chartered a number of vessels from a variety of
shipowners. However, in 1970 the need to charter was reduced
when four purpose built ships were delivered.
The seventies saw the beginning of change within the worldwide
shipping industry and in July 1972 the management of the company
was transferred to Shaw Savill & Albion Ltd. Prince Line,
together with the majority of conventional liner companies,
could not escape the massive contraction caused by containerisation
and redundancies and the switching of staff between companies
became common place.
The company, however, continued
to operate to the Mediterranean throughout the seventies and
in 1979 ventured into containerisation when two cellular container
ships were delivered by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd on the
Tyne. The Crown Prince and the Royal Prince were capable of
carrying 288 TEU containers, of which 50 were refrigerated,
in stacks of three high. The Furness Withy management then
amalgamated Prince Line with Manchester Liners in order to
combine sailings from Ellesmere Port and Felixtowe.
In 1980 Furness Withy &
Co. Ltd was taken over by C. Y. Tung who owned the Orient
Overseas Container Line of Hong Kong and was also instrumental
in the ill-fated floating university, Seawise University,
which foundered when the Queen Elizabeth caught fire and sank
in Hong Kong harbour. The acquisition by C. Y. Tung signalled
the start of a dramatic rationlisation programme. Although
he was educated at Liverpool University many of the group's
ships were transferred to flag of convenience registries and
very few retained the Red Ensign.
On 11th July 1984 the company celebrated its centenary. However,
by this time the company only had the two container ships,
the Crown Prince which had been renamed Manchester Crown on
the Manchester Prince service and the Royal Prince which was
on charter to Ellerman Lines as the City of Oporto. In 1985
the Crown Prince recovered her name before being sold to Far
East owners together with the Manchester Crown. Prince Line
no longer had any vessels.
Prince Line still exists, albeit, in name only. In 1990 the
bulk of the Furness Withy Group was sold to to the German
based company Hamburg-Sud for $130,000,000. The name chosen
for the UK Holding company was Shaw Savill Holdings Ltd. Consequently,
the bulk of the paid-up share capital of Prince Line is currently
held by Shaw Savill Holdings Ltd.
The Sir James Knott Trust still
flourishes and in 1984 granted an endowment to enable the
building of an extension to the Hatton Gallery in the department
of Fine art at Newcastle University.
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