The Brocklebank Line

The Brocklebank shipping line was founded in the last decade of the 18th century by Daniel Brocklebank, who owned a shipbuilding yard in Whitehaven. The company grew in the 19th century opening routes from Liverpool to South America, India and China. The Brocklebank family closed their shipyard in 1865 and subsequently most of their ships were built at Harland and Wolff.

SS Makaland

SS Makaland, built at Lithgow's Ltd, Port Glasgow in 1918, which was destroyed at Liverpool in 1941.

In 1912, Anchor Line, a subsidiary of Cunard Line, took a controlling interest in Brocklebank Line, and in 1919 Cunard purchased the entirety of the Brocklebank and Bates families' shares. Cunard's takeover was completed in 1940, when they purchased the remaining Brocklebank stock, though the line lost the majority of its ships during World War II. Notably SS Makaland was in Huskisson Dock Liverpool and loaded with munitions during an air raid on 3 May 1941. A fire in the dock sheds spread and the ship caught fire. Attempts to put the fire out failed and it blew up on 4 May 1941 destroying Huskisson No. 2 dock.

A restructuring in 1967 led to the formation of the Cunard Brocklebank Line, to handle all of Cunard's cargo business, however the move to container shipping took away most of the trade and their last ship was sold in in 1983.

SS Maturata

One of the line's later ships, the Maturata, built by William Hamilton & Co., Port Glasgow in 1955. It was sold in 1969 and broken up in 1972.

To find out more about the line's ships and their history please look at the Benjidog website, a mine of maritime history.