Palm Line

The Company

Incorporated 30th August 1911

A UK based shipping company, a subsidiary of UACI, which in turn was a subsidiary of Unilever.

William Lever was a well known soap manufacturer and became involved in the West Africa trade to supply his company primarily with palm oil.

In 1920 he acquired the Royal Niger Company which entered shipowning in 1928. In 1929 the African & Eastern Trade Corporation which also owned ships was amalgamated with the Royal Niger Company becoming the United Africa Company The company became Palm Line in 1949.

Disposed of to Ocean Transport and Trading PLC in 1985.In 1989 Palm Line was sold to French owners Delmas (shipping company) of Le Havre.

Palm Line mainly traded from Northern Europe to the west coast of Africa, ranging from Morocco in the north, down to as far as the Angolan port of Lobito. Although the lucrative copper trade with Angola ceased with the start of the 1975 war.

The bulk of the trade, however, was between NE Europe and Nigeria, and this is reflected in the naming of the vessels, after the major towns and cities in Nigeria.

The Fleet

Africa Palm 1953, 1971;
Akassa Palm 1958;
Andoni Palm, 1958;
Apapa Palm, 1973, 1974, 1977;
Ars 1897;
Ashanti Palm;
Ashantian 1916, 1935, 1947;
Badagry Palm, 1956, 1979; (See Badagry)
Bamenda Palm, 1956, 1979;
Benin Palm 1936;
Burutu Palm 1952;
Dahomey Palm 1937;
Elmina Palm, 1957;
Enugu Palm, 1958;
Gambia Palm 1937;
Ibadan Palm, 1959;
Ikeja Palm, 1961;
Ilesha Palm, 1961;
Ilorin Palm, 1960;
Kano Palm, 1958;
Katsina Palm, 1957;
Kumasian 1905, 1935, 1943;
Lafian 1929, 1937, 1943;
Lagos Palm 1947, 1961, 1982 (See Lagosian);
Leonian 1936 (See Mendi Palm);
Liberian 1936;
Lobito Palm, 1960;
Lokoja Palm, 1947, 1982 (See Zarian);
Makeni Palm 1951;
Makurdi Palm 1953 (See Tema Palm);
Matadi Palm 1948, 1970;
Mendi Palm 1936 (See Leonian);
Sapele Palm 1953;

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MV Apapa Palm

Built as the Schauenburg in Gdansk, Poland in at the H.Cegielski shipyard in 1973

Purchased by Palm line in 1977 from H.Schuldt Hamburg and renamed Apapa Palm.

In 1985 she was taken over by United Africa Co. International, London, and then later that year sold to Venezuela and renamed General Salom.

She was one of a batch of 6 ships, two sister ships were the Shonga & Sherbro belonging to Elder Dempster part of Ocean Transport & Trading.

Both Shonga & Sherbro were requisitioned by the MoD for duty during the Falklands War. At the time Apapa Palm was laid up in Antwerp; just a few hours sailing from Chatham Docks.

She was a conventional motor vessel of 9,417 tonnes with a Sulzer two-stroke diesel engine.

MV Badagry Palm

Built in Sunderland in 1979.She carried the very last Doxford ship engine ever built; the J-type.

In 1985 she was taken over by United Africa Co. International, London renamed Badagry.In 1986 she was sold to Panama renamed Cordigliera.

12,279 tonnes

MV Bamenda Palm

Built by Hyundai South Korea in 1979.On 18th Dec 1980, she appeared in an article on the front page of the UK national newspaper the Sunday Express, under the headline 'Drama At Sea As Gales Sweep Coast'. The Bamenda Palm rammed a Romanian fish factory ship whilst entering Carrick Roads, Falmouth harbour during the early hours in a southerly force 9 gale. The fish-factory ship was holed just below the water-line midships on the port side by the bulbous bow of the Bamenda Palm. The Captain was George Holeyman.

In May 1984 she was chartered to Lloyd Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro and renamed Lloyd Texas, whilst in South Shields dry dock. As the Lloyd Texas she sailed from South Shields to Teesport, Middlesbrough to load cement for the new RAF runway in Ascension Island.In 1985 she reverted to Bamenda Palm and then in 1985 taken over by United Africa Co International, London.In 1986 she was sold to Cyprus renamed Arko Glory.

11,223 tonnes

MV Ibadan Palm

Built at Swan Hunters on the Tyne in 1959, and sister ship of the mv Ilorin Palm.She had a 4-cylinder 2-stroke Doxford engine, with a service speed of 14 knots.

In 1978 she was sold to Kuwait and renamed Hind

5,658 tonnes

MV Ikeja Palm

Built at Swan Hunters shipyard on the Tyne in 1961, and sister ship of the MV Ilesha Palm.She had a 4-cylinder 2-stroke Doxford engine, with a service speed of 14 knots.

In 1981 she was sold to Panama and renamed GME Palma.

5,682 tonnes

MV Ilesha Palm

Built at Swan Hunters shipyard on the Tyne in 1961, and sister ship of the MV Ikeja Palm.She had a 4-cylinder 2-stroke Doxford engine, with a service speed of 14 knots.

In 1979 she was sold to Liberia and renamed Daphnemar and handed over in Bombay.When news that the ship would be sold rumours broke that Palm Line had rejected an offer of £250,000+ from a film company that wanted to blow up and sink the ship.

5,682 tonnes

MV Ilorin Palm

Built at Swan Hunters shipyard on the Tyne in 1960. and sister ship of mv Ibadan Palm.She had a 4-cylinder 2-stroke Doxford engine, with a service speed of 14 knots.

She was sold in 1979 to Liberia and renamed Diamant Captain

5,658 tonnes

MV Matadi Palm

Built on the Tyne in 1970, she was a purpose built parcel tanker.

In 1986 she was taken over by United Africa Co. International Ltd and renamed Matadi.In 1986 she was sold to Troodos Shipping & Trading Co., London and renamed Modesty.

She carried refined vegetable oils (e.g. rape seed oil) from N.Europe to West Africa, and returned with mainly unrefined palm oil or coconut oil.

She had a design flaw, however, and that was having no double-bottom, so although each tank had permanent steam coils installed in order to maintain the oil at a constant 96F; discharging the unrefined oil in N.Europe during winter time was difficult. Getting the remainder of the expensive oil from the bottom of each tank was an arduous, manual and messy job called 'puddling'.

She had a 4-cylinder 2-stroke Doxford engine, with a service speed of 16 knots.

8,870 tonnes

External links

* http://www.theshipslist.com