Wilson Line Archival Collection

Founded in 1840 by Thomas Wilson Sons & Co. The British shipping company expanded its fleet to 52 ships in 1873. The company was incorporated in 1891 as Thomas Wilson Sons & Co Ltd before being acquired by the Ellerman Lines Ltd, shipowners, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1916. Even though the Ellerman group acquired the company, it continued to operate independently. It was generally known as Ellerman's Wilson Line.

Parti fra Trondhjems Havn (Bratören) | Party from Trondhjems Harbor (Bratören). The SS Aaro of the Wilson Line of Hul at the harbor in Trondhjem circa 1910. | GGA Image ID # 129a89efbe

AARO (1) 1909 - 1916 of the Wilson Line of Hull. Built 1909 by Earle's Shipbuilding & Engineering Co at Hull. Length: 301' 2" Breadth: 41' 3" Depth: 25' 3" Gross tons: 2,603 Net tons: 1,618 Built for the Scandinavian service, with fine passenger accommodation, 104 First Class - 40 Second Class - 594 immigrants. Sunk 1 August 1916 torpedoed by U20. 3 crew lost, remainder taken prisoner. | GGA Image ID # 129a94d8ce

History of the Wilson Line of Hull

Wilson Line. - Thomas Wilson, Sons & Co. is at present the largest private ship-owning company in the world. This line dates back to 1835. Mr. Thomas Wilson founded it in conjunction with Messrs Hudson and Beckington, and on the retirement of the two last-named gentlemen, it acquired its present title.

Early in the 1840s, the firm was running three steamships to Gothenburg and was mainly engaged in the iron trade, importing large quantities of Swedish and Russian iron, and running a regular line of sailing boats to Swedish ports. It also dispatched a regular service to Dunkirk. Steamships gradually superseded the sailing vessels, and new steamers year by year were placed on the Scandinavian service.

About this time, the firm secured the mail contract between England and Sweden, which it still holds. After the Crimean War, trade with St Petersburg, Stettin, and Riga began. During the Franco-German War, the business to Stettin had to be suspended, and, as a set-off, the service to Trieste was inaugurated and has since developed into an independent Adriatic and Sicilian service.

The Norwegian trade was then improved by the dispatch of steamships to Bergen, Stavanger, and Trondhjem. Subsequently, a service of large steamers began running to Constantinople and the Black Sea. After the opening of the Suez Canal, trade with India, which has since assumed considerable proportions, was inaugurated.

In 1875, the firm launched out into a more hardy enterprise, by commencing to run steamers to America. Its vessels in 1902 ran to New York regularly from Hull and the Tyne ports. The original Calcutta trade was discontinued when the New York line was started. Still, in 1883, a service was established between Hull and Bombay. In 1891, the firm became a private limited company and in 1894 took over the coasting trade between Hull and Newcastle.

The company employs many large and swift ships in the Norwegian passenger traffic, which in the summer season now reaches very considerable proportions. It has frequent passenger and cargo services to ports in northern Europe, carrying passengers in season as far north as the North Cape. Of course, the winter season necessitates considerable variation of summer services to Baltic ports.

In 1903, the fleet of the old established Hull firm of Messrs. Bailey & Leetham was absorbed, and in 1908 that of the North-Eastern Railway Company. There are also steamers leaving Grimsby, Manchester, and Liverpool regularly for Scandinavian and Baltic ports; weekly services to Ghent, Liverpool, and Newcastle; and services to Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. Besides the New York line, there are ocean services to Boston, to New Orleans, and to the River Plate.

There is also a weekly service to and from London and Boston in conjunction with the Furness-Leyland Line.

Ellerman's Wilson Line, Ltd.,

With the inauguration of the Ellerman's Wilson Line, Ltd., the Pacific Coast will have a new service to Hull, Leith, the east coast of England, and Continental ports, via Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Hamburg.

This line will also serve the following ports for transshipment at Hull, by their own steamers:

• Norway: Aalesund, Bergen. Christiania, Christiansand.
  Christiansund, Stavanger, Trondhjem;
• Sweden: Gothenburg, Gefle, Malmo, Norrkoping, Stockholm;
  Denmark: Copenhagen;
• Poland Free State: Newfairwater;
  Esthonia: Reval.

It will also serve, via Hull, Oporto, Lisbon, Levant porta. In other words, the new line will be in a position to issue bills of lading to practically any port in continental Europe and the Levant. - Shipping Magazine, Vol. XIV, No. 10, 25 November 1921, p. 36.