The Company was registered in Singapore beginning with a nominal capital of $10, 000, 000 in $10 shares, its issued capital however was no more than $421, 000 and all the shareholders were local participants. The Company began according to the Straits Times with five ships, Will O' the Wisp (148 tons), Sappo (324 tons) both contributed by Bogaardt, the remaining three Hye Leong (406 tons), Malacca (404 tons) and Billiton (335 tons) contributed by the Tan family, Billiton however appears to have been sold at the outset and played no part whatsoever. For the first twenty-five years Straits Steamship operated mainly to the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, to Malacca and Penang also to small river ports such as Port Weld and Teluk Anson in Perak, Klang, Port Swettenham in Selangor and Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan. The offices of the Company were in Cecil Street and its General Manager was D.J. Mathens, its first Marine Superintendent was Captain F.M. Darke a former Blue Funnel pilot. For its service to Port Weld where they loaded tin ore the Company operated two ships initially, they were Lady Weld and Kaka, both ships later transferred to the Singapore Malacca - Muar service.  KAKA Tin ore at the time was the main produce of the area and its most productive area was the Kinta Valley. The Straits Steamship Company played quite a considerable part in the exploitation of the mineral running a twice-weekly service from Penang and also a regular service to Teluk Anson calling at Klang and later Port Swettenham carrying ore for the Straits Trading Company's smelters located on Palau Brani. Other exports from the area included coffee, pepper, rice, rubber and tobacco. The Federal Malay States formed in 1896 with Kuala Lumpur as its capital were determined not to be dependant on Penang and Singapore and built its own ocean terminal at Port Swettenham though this did not open until 1901. In 1892 Mansfields took over the management of Straits Steamship though Bogaardt himself controlled both Companies, three years later Mansfields ceased to manage Straits Steamship and Bogaardt resigned from Mansfields. Bogaardt operated the Company for a year or so from 6 Prince Street before retiring from Singapore altogether, he was succeeded by C.W. Laird a family member of the famous Liverpool Shipbuilders who had arrived as Manager in 1896. Laird became Chairman and General Manager of not only Straits Steamship but also Tan Kim Tian Steamships, Captain F.M. Darke also retired as Marine Superintendent shortly after Bogaardt but he spent his remaining years in Singapore. Captain Darke was replaced by John Harley Sunner an Irishman from Cork who had been Captain Darke's assistant. Bogaardt left very few records and so information on the early years is very scant, even in his dealings with Blue Funnel, Mansfield and his Chinese colleagues. Though on reflection it is interesting to note that it was Bogaardt a Dutchman and Muhlinghaus a German who founded two of the most successful Singaporean enterprises, Straits Steamship Company and Straits Trading Company. The year following Bogaardt's departure 1900, the Fleet stood at six ships, Sappho, Malacca and Hye Leong from the original Fleet which had been joined by Lady Weld, Lady Mitchell and Ban Whatt Hin.  LADY WELD In 1902 C.W. Laird retired and was replaced by D.K. Somerville a gentleman who had previous maritime experience operating Steam Packets out of Belfast. With his experience operating First Class passenger travel Mr. Somerville commenced to adapt the Straits Steamship Fleet to operate in a similar manner and passenger numbers steadily rose. He also realised that the existing Fleet was decidedly dated so he travelled to Dundee in Scotland and ordered new tonnage. Selangor of 445 tons was the first ship to arrive in December 1903 and the weekly edition of the Straits Times said of her 'She was undoubtedly the best equipped and most comfortable of all passenger vessels among local shipping. She made the voyage from Dundee in 35 days at an average speed of 11 knots. She will take the place of Malacca next week on the run up the Straits. Captain Daly will be in command. She is fitted through with electric lights and electric fans and is splendidly equipped.Between 1903 to 1911 Selangor was joined by Perak, Klang, Ipoh, Kuala and Krian and all entered service on the passenger routes to Port Swettenham and Penang. Each of the ships catered for 50 or 60 First Class passengers and made provisions for the carriage of approximately 600 deck passengers. The deck passengers, mainly Chinese labourers were migrating in greater numbers at the start of the Twentieth Century than they had been in the 19th. Between 100, 000 to 250, 000 arrived in Singapore every year until 1928 to work in the Peninsula's rubber estates and tin mines, pouring onto coastal passenger ships for their passage.  PERAK Perak joined the Fleet in 1906 an account at the time stated 'This vessel of 1, 200 tons attains a speed of 14 knots, she offers accommodation for 806 passengers - 75 First Class, 20 Second Class and the remainder Third Class, consisting principally of coolie labour going to and returning from estates in the Malay States'. By 1914 the Straits Steamship Company stood at seventeen vessels with a total tonnage of 13, 745, unfortunately no Fleet book exists as was standard with other Shipping Companies which gave water, fuel and cargo capacities along with the vessel's dimensions though a Fleet list with gross tonnage was found and is as follows:
D.K. Somerville retired from the Straits Steamship Company at the outbreak of the First World War and returned to Britain, he was succeeded as Chairman by W.W. Cook though the direction of the Company passed to his younger brother H.E. Somerville. H.E. Somerville's first appointment was that of Managing Director and in 1919 he replaced W.W. Cook as Chairman. When he joined the Company it was still confined to the west coasts of Malaya, by a series of takeovers and added tonnage H.E. Somerville transformed Straits Steamship into the largest line based in Singapore whose services extended to Sabah, Sarawak, Sumatra, Thailand, Burma and both coasts of the Malay Peninsula.  CARLYLE At the outbreak of war all the German Shipping Lines disappeared most notably Norddeutscher Lloyd this created a serious problem in the region because they carried food and other essentials to Borneo, Thailand and other countries in South East Asia and the West Pacific. Blue Funnel stepped into the void created by N.D.L.'s departure and E. Anderson M.D. of Mansfields was instructed by Richard Holt as follows: 'Owing to the war and the consequent termination of our agreement with the N.D.L., it is necessary to provide for services between Singapore and Borneo and Bangkok capable of dealing with the Ocean Steam Ships Company's through traffic creditably under our general control. We are agreed that this result can be best obtained by co-operating with the Straits Steamship Company, thus providing for local management and securing local goodwill and interest' (Richard Holt to E. Anderson, 5th Sept 1914). Richard Holt was then to go further by offering Straits Steamship all its through traffic to Borneo and Bangkok in exchange for an agreement that Blur Funnel would carry all the trade homeward from those two areas. Blue Funnel would provide five new steamers to replace the N.D.L. vessels, three for Bangkok and two for Borneo were discussed in the beginning, Blue Funnel would receive shares in Straits Steamship in exchange. Richard Holt also insisted that Blue Funnel be given the right to nominate the Directors to the Board of Straits Steamship Company.  PENANG The Straits Settlements Government had already approached Straits Steamship about rescuing Sabah which was suffering a severe shortage of rice, the Company's vessels had all been fully engaged and so the Company had chartered in another vessel to carry rice to Sabah. After protracted negotiations between Blue Funnel and Straits Steamship it was agreed that Blue Funnel would supply three ships in exchange for 4, 750 new shares, however the remaining two points, homeward trade and two Directors were rejected by Straits Steamship. As a result of the agreement the three new ships, Kajang, Kamuning and Kepong were built at the Taikoo dockyard in Hong Kong in 1916, all three were placed on the Borneo run, Kuala and Katong were placed on the Bangkok run.  KUALA With the issue of the new 4, 750 shares the Ocean Steamship Company became the largest shareholder in Straits Steamship. The original 10, 000 shares were divided thus, approximately 4, 000 between sixteen distinguished Straits Chinese, the remaining 6, 000 were held by eighty-three Europeans residing in Singapore and four institutions. Meanwhile the two ex-German ships chartered in for the Borneo trade Ranee and Giang Ann were running at a loss and it was with some relief when Kajang and Kamuning arrived to take up the run, almost immediately the losses turned to profits, this was the beginning of forty-four years service for Kajang.  KAJANG Company Profits for the War Years
The First World War was fought mainly in Europe and there was only one incidence of any importance in the region when on the morning of the 14th of October 1914 the German Raider Emden shelled Penang's Harbour sinking both a French and Russian Warship she quickly fled the scene leaving thirty or so other ships quietly at anchor. The drop in Company profits for the years 1918/19 are attributable to the Government requisitioning Straits Steamship vessels, Chow Tai served in the East African campaign, Kamuning, Kajang and Kepong served in the Mesopotamian campaign from 1917 and all but a few of the Company's Fleet were requisitioned in the final year of the war. On the return to service of Straits Steamship vessels after the war trading conditions improved so much so that European purchases of Asian goods rose steadily, law, order and peace prevailed in the region and the standard of living rose accordingly. As standards rose so did seabourne traffic, as yet land based infrastructure was none existent not only in the Peninsula but Singapore itself, the causeway linking the Island with the mainland was a long way off and so Straits Steamship were well placed to reap the benefits for some time to come.  KINTA The relatively new commodity of rubber had become a major crop in the region and large estates had sprung up behind the ports of Port Weld, Teluk Anson, Port Swettenham, Port Dickson, Malacca, Sandakan and lesser ports served by the Company, again Straits Steamship were to benefit from this major expansion.  MAHIDOL Somerville felt the time was right in 1922 for further expansion of the Fleet and he purchased two ex N.D.L. ships Den Samud, renamed Deli and Vulcan which was renamed Malaya, the previous year Ranee had arrived from the Ocean Steamship Company and Kelantan which had been ordered in May of 1919 arrived late in 1921. At the beginning of 1922 Straits Steamship Fleet stood at twenty-four vessels whose combined tonnage was 25, 446, a valuation at the time estimated the Company's worth to be in the region of $5.5 million. Somerville not only decided on adding new ships to the Fleet but also with the full support of Blue Funnel embarked on a series of Company acquisitions; these were spread over the next 12 years. The first Company purchase was the Eastern Shipping Company of Penang which ran fifteen regular services from the port of Penang; its major asset was its ownership of the Eastern Smelting Company. After purchase Somerville instituted a period of re-organisation whereby old ships and boats were retired from the Fleet of Eastern and replaced by new Straits vessels. A concerned Lord Inchcape of British India which had merged his Company with that of P & O now began to feel threatened by the enlargement of the Straits Steamship Company's Fleet particularly with regards to its own services to Moulmein and Southern Burma. He then concentrated his attention to the whole of the Asian coastline from Aden to Japan. Representatives from British India, P & O, Blue Funnel, China Navigation Company and Straits Steamship held various meetings the culmination of which was the Victoria Point Agreement.  KEPONG This outlined three areas of interest, first the India sphere, Aden to Victoria Point, the tip of South Burma, the Straits sphere, Victoria Point round to Bangkok, the east coast of Sumatra, Borneo and the South Philippines, finally the China sphere, the Asian coastline from Bangkok to the Artic Circle, Japan and the Northern Philippines. It came as something of a surprise to Straits Steamship that not only was it able to operate in its traditional theatre of operations, Straits sphere but the China sphere also. Blue Funnel and China Navigation were also entitled to operate in the Straits sphere whilst P & O were restricted to two vessels, British India were restricted to passenger and cargo services from India to Singapore and its direct service from Singapore to Bangkok.  AYUTHIA Somerville either contained or removed the competition on its coastal services by firstly acquiring from Blue Funnel the ships it was actually operating. The remains of an enterprise involving three ships, Ayuthia, Circe and Medusa which had been maintained by Holts were transferred to Straits Steamship on the signing of the Victoria Point agreement. At this juncture the Tobacco Twins were reunited Circe and Medusa both built in 1912/13 by the Taikoo dockyards first run by Alfred Holts, then Straits Steamship who placed them on the East Coast run. Both ships served together for the Admiralty as minesweepers, both escaped to Australia were they served alongside each other until both made the final voyage to the breakers, still together. The second point on which Somerville succeeded was in part mainly down to P & O's apathy, although it did introduce Bulani to run alongside Mata Hari on its twice fortnightly service from Singapore to Port Swettenham, Teluk Anson, Penang, Belawan and return P & O's piecemeal operation was easily surpassed by Straits Steamship greater efficiency thus rendering P & O's service unimportant. The third and final point where Somerville secured the fortunes of his Company came by way of a gentleman's agreement between Straits Steamship and China Navigation, in a nutshell both parties agreed to stay out of each others main spheres of operation. The Victoria Point Agreement only covered British Companies a separate agreement had been signed with the Dutch in the December of the previous year between Straits Steamship and KPM, this restricted Somerville's operations to Eastern Sumatra securing a pooling and non-competitive agreement for the carriage of copra and rubber using the vessel Kampar on the service with Began in 1926.  KAMPAR  MARUDU 1927 was a year of expansion for Straits Steamship, Klias and Jarak were built at Sungei Nyok, Malacca and Jeram were purchased from Taikoo Dockyards, Lipis, Larut and Kedah were all commissioned and two others Petaling and Pansai were both laid down at Sungei. Two further small vessels Eng Guan and Jerantut were also purchased and Matang a vessel of 1, 000 tons was ordered from Taikoo Dockyards. The port of Singapore itself was changing beyond all recognition, shallows had become navigable by larger vessels, swamps had been infilled, a railway terminal had been constructed as had further docks and warehouses. Unfortunately after all this development along came the Great Depression and Singapore was not to escape its full impact. From this time on until the mid thirties profits fell, services were curtailed and tonnage was either laid up or scrapped, by 1934 the Company's tonnage had fell to 39? 581. To its credit unlike the vast majority of employers world wide Straits Steamship never laid off one employee though economics did necessitate salary cuts from the Boardroom down. Seagoing staff made idle by the Company's cut in services were accommodated onboard Kampar, one of ten ships anchored in Singapore Harbour. Chief Officer Tilley, his Officers and men kept the vessels ship shape and the engines well maintained. Those onboard the Kampar referred to their location as 'Tilley Tea Rooms'  KINABALU Go to Straits Steamship History Part Two |
