WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.680 Welcome to the deep dive. Today we are we're 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:06.559 looking at a story that basically serves as the 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.880 biography of the British Empire's industrial 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:13.019 rise. Right. And it's fall. Yeah. And it's terrifying 00:00:13.019 --> 00:00:16.480 stumble through the 20th century. Plus this really 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.859 strange kind of ghostly afterlife it has in the 00:00:19.859 --> 00:00:23.320 modern world. We're talking about. Ellermann 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:27.579 Lines. Ellermann Lines. It is a name that for 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:29.780 a solid hundred years was totally synonymous 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:32.119 with the ocean itself. Literally everywhere. 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:34.420 Everywhere. Like if you were standing on a dock 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:37.719 in Liverpool or Bombay or Cape Town, anywhere 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:41.640 between say 1892 and 1980, you would have seen 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.869 their ships. They were the absolute titans of 00:00:44.869 --> 00:00:46.890 the trade route. And yet, unless you're a maritime 00:00:46.890 --> 00:00:49.429 historian, or maybe you happen to live on a very 00:00:49.429 --> 00:00:51.770 specific street in Amsterdam, you probably haven't 00:00:51.770 --> 00:00:53.329 heard of them. I mean, this isn't like Cunard 00:00:53.329 --> 00:00:54.890 or the White Star Line. No, they didn't have 00:00:54.890 --> 00:00:57.049 the Titanic. Exactly. They didn't have the Titanic. 00:00:57.130 --> 00:00:58.850 They didn't have the Queen Mary. They were the 00:00:58.850 --> 00:01:02.009 workhorses. The cargo haulers. But the scale 00:01:02.009 --> 00:01:04.230 of this operation was just mind boggling. We 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:06.329 are talking about a company that started as an 00:01:06.329 --> 00:01:09.510 800 ,000 pound startup. Which was huge back then. 00:01:09.730 --> 00:01:12.430 Massive. And they became one of the largest fleets 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:14.750 on the planet, lost nearly everything in World 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:17.290 War I. Rebuilt it. Rebuilt it, yeah. Then lost 00:01:17.290 --> 00:01:19.769 it all again in World War II. Rebuilt it again. 00:01:19.890 --> 00:01:21.909 Rebuilt it again. And then they just sort of 00:01:21.909 --> 00:01:23.870 vanished. Vanished until they reappeared out 00:01:23.870 --> 00:01:26.390 of nowhere in 2021. Which is crazy. It's a corporate 00:01:26.390 --> 00:01:28.489 resurrection that completely defies the usual 00:01:28.489 --> 00:01:31.349 logic of business history. It really does. So 00:01:31.349 --> 00:01:33.150 that's our mission today. We are going to trace 00:01:33.150 --> 00:01:36.650 this arc from the Victorian boardroom to the 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:38.989 U -boat wolf packs. Through the golden age of 00:01:38.989 --> 00:01:41.689 cargo passenger travel. Right. All the way to 00:01:41.689 --> 00:01:45.290 the shipping container crisis of the 2020s. We 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:47.670 need to understand how a company survives the 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:50.129 total destruction of its assets not once, but 00:01:50.129 --> 00:01:52.569 twice. And to really understand that resilience, 00:01:53.370 --> 00:01:57.370 you have to wrap your head around the sheer magnitude 00:01:57.370 --> 00:01:59.799 of what they built. It's hard to visualize. It 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:02.459 is. We aren't talking about a few boats shuttling 00:02:02.459 --> 00:02:04.939 coal across the English Channel here. By the 00:02:04.939 --> 00:02:08.080 early 20th century, Ellermann Lines dominated 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:10.199 the Mediterranean. And the Near East. The Near 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:13.919 East, yes. They had these ships with names like 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.819 City of Paris, City of London, City of Calcutta. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.280 The City of Ships, yeah. These were the veins 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:23.400 and arteries of the global economy before air 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:26.129 freight even existed. And we're gonna see that 00:02:26.129 --> 00:02:28.069 by looking through the historical records, the 00:02:28.069 --> 00:02:30.669 fleet lists. The corporate histories. All of 00:02:30.669 --> 00:02:33.949 it. It paints a picture of total dominance. So 00:02:33.949 --> 00:02:36.650 let's go back to the source. The year is 1892. 00:02:37.389 --> 00:02:40.210 The Victorian era is peaking. The map of the 00:02:40.210 --> 00:02:42.750 world is, you know, painted pink for the British 00:02:42.750 --> 00:02:46.030 Empire. Very pink. And we have this trio of financiers 00:02:46.030 --> 00:02:48.169 who decide to just... Jump into the shipping 00:02:48.169 --> 00:02:51.289 game. John Ellerman, Christopher Furness, and 00:02:51.289 --> 00:02:53.189 Henry O 'Hagan. It's an interesting mix of guys. 00:02:53.330 --> 00:02:55.030 You have O 'Hagan and Furness, who are already 00:02:55.030 --> 00:02:57.090 established players in the market. But the central 00:02:57.090 --> 00:02:59.590 character here is definitely John Ellerman. Oh, 00:02:59.629 --> 00:03:01.530 without a doubt. And the funny thing is, he wasn't 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:04.250 a sailor. Right. Not at all. He was an accountant. 00:03:04.889 --> 00:03:07.710 A financier. He looked at ships. And he didn't 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:10.389 see romance or the high seas. He just saw balance 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:12.909 sheets. Which probably explains why they didn't 00:03:12.909 --> 00:03:15.370 start small. The records show they incorporated 00:03:15.370 --> 00:03:18.530 with a capital of 800 ,000 pounds. It's staggering. 00:03:18.849 --> 00:03:20.949 Now, whenever we see Victorian money, it's really 00:03:20.949 --> 00:03:23.229 hard to contextualize for you listening today, 00:03:23.669 --> 00:03:27.750 but 800 ,000 pounds in 1892 is a war chest. It's 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:31.289 an immense sum. To put it in perspective, a highly 00:03:31.289 --> 00:03:34.389 skilled tradesman back then might earn maybe 00:03:34.389 --> 00:03:37.210 100 pounds a year. Right. So this capital allowed 00:03:37.210 --> 00:03:39.770 them to completely bypass that scrappy startup 00:03:39.770 --> 00:03:41.990 phase. There was no bootstrapping here. They 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:44.250 just bought their way in. They immediately purchased 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:47.129 the assets of Frederick Leyland & Co., which 00:03:47.129 --> 00:03:49.750 gave them a working fleet of 22 vessels right 00:03:49.750 --> 00:03:51.569 out of the gate. It's like a hostile takeover 00:03:51.569 --> 00:03:53.530 level of entry. They bought a working airline, 00:03:53.629 --> 00:03:55.409 essentially, rather than buying a single plane. 00:03:55.569 --> 00:03:58.370 Exactly. And the management dynamics from the 00:03:58.370 --> 00:04:00.330 start were fascinating. Initially, Christopher 00:04:00.330 --> 00:04:02.490 Furness was the chairman and Ellerman was the 00:04:02.490 --> 00:04:04.830 managing director. But Ellerman was clearly the 00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:08.960 shark in the tank. Oh, absolutely. By 1893, just 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:11.979 one year later, Ellerman had taken the chairmanship 00:04:11.979 --> 00:04:14.719 for himself. And he was only 31 years old. A 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:16.779 31 -year -old chairman of a major shipping line. 00:04:16.939 --> 00:04:20.000 and he immediately starts playing this game of 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.139 real -life monopoly. Relentless expansion. The 00:04:23.139 --> 00:04:24.920 expansion strategy detailed in the corporate 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:28.399 history is just aggressive acquisition. In 1900, 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:30.519 they bought the West Indian and Pacific Steamship 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:33.079 Company. Adding 20 ships to the fleet in one 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:36.319 go. Right, but the real test of Ellermann's acumen, 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:38.879 and this is a story that I feel gets overlooked 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:40.439 in business schools. It's brilliant. It came 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:43.439 in 1901. This is the J .P. Morgan connection. 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.600 Yes, the American banker. JP Morgan was trying 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.180 to buy up basically everything. He was attempting 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:52.180 to monopolize North Atlantic shipping. He formed 00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:54.899 this massive trust called the International Marine 00:04:54.899 --> 00:04:58.240 Mercantile Company. Right. His goal was to totally 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.300 control the rates and routes between the U .S. 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:02.579 and Europe. So he approached Ellerman to buy 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:04.800 the Leyland Line. So you have the biggest banker 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.800 in America coming over to buy out the British 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:08.879 fleet. That must have caused immense anxiety 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:12.480 in London. Oh, huge anxiety. It was seen as a 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:14.819 direct threat. to British national security. 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:17.540 The Americans buying the merchant fleet. But 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:20.300 look at what Ellerman actually does. He agrees 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:22.939 to sell. He does. He sells the Leyland business 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:26.079 to Morgan for a massive, massive profit. But 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:29.319 and this is the genius part. He retains the chairmanship 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:31.879 for a little while. And more importantly, he 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:34.319 keeps 20 of the ships for himself. Along with 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:37.339 the Mediterranean routes. Exactly. The calm, 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:39.259 lucrative Mediterranean routes, which Morgan 00:05:39.259 --> 00:05:41.839 wasn't interested in anyway. Morgan wanted the 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:44.600 Atlantic. So Ellermann sells the company, takes 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:47.300 Morgan's cash, keeps the best assets, and stays 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:50.339 in charge? Essentially, yes. He took Morgan's 00:05:50.339 --> 00:05:53.279 money and used it to finance his own completely 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.060 independent empire. He bought the Papiani Steamship 00:05:56.060 --> 00:05:58.339 Company almost immediately after. Which creates 00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:00.259 the foundation for the Ellermann and Papiani 00:06:00.259 --> 00:06:02.759 line. Right. He pivoted completely away from 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:04.839 the highly contestable North Atlantic where Morgan 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:07.699 was fighting his wars, and he doubled down on 00:06:07.699 --> 00:06:09.699 the Mediterranean and the East. It's the pivot 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:12.449 of the century. And he just keeps consolidating 00:06:12.449 --> 00:06:15.889 power. By 1903, he buys into the George Smith 00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:19.149 & Sons City Line. And the Hall Line. Yeah. 50 00:06:19.149 --> 00:06:22.009 % of both. Right. And this is crucial for the 00:06:22.009 --> 00:06:24.149 identity of the company. The City Line is where 00:06:24.149 --> 00:06:26.490 we got those iconic names. City of this, City 00:06:26.490 --> 00:06:29.389 of that. City of London, City of Athens. And 00:06:29.389 --> 00:06:31.790 the Hall Line gave them access to the African 00:06:31.790 --> 00:06:34.610 trade routes. By bringing these under one umbrella, 00:06:35.050 --> 00:06:38.129 he officially changed the name to Ellermann Lines. 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:41.319 He created a network that could move a crate 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:44.740 of tea from Bombay to Liverpool or a passenger 00:06:44.740 --> 00:06:47.699 from London to Cape Town entirely within his 00:06:47.699 --> 00:06:50.420 own system. Vertical integration. Exactly. And 00:06:50.420 --> 00:06:53.759 he didn't stop. By 1904, he grabs the Glenn line, 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.819 which was MacGregor, Gowan Co. And then in 1908, 00:06:56.860 --> 00:06:59.360 he buys the Bugnall steamship lines, which were 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:01.420 financially troubled. He's just buying distress 00:07:01.420 --> 00:07:03.540 assets, turning them around and integrating them 00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:06.759 into the machine. So by 1914, on the absolute 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.449 eve of the First World War, Ellermann Lines isn't 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:12.930 just a big company, it's a superpower. They controlled 00:07:12.930 --> 00:07:16.050 four major subsidiaries, the Ellermann City Line, 00:07:16.250 --> 00:07:18.110 Ellermann and Bucknell, Ellermann and Papiani, 00:07:18.410 --> 00:07:20.670 and the Hall Line. It was a dominating position 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:22.829 to quote the history books directly. They held 00:07:22.829 --> 00:07:24.949 total dominance in the Mediterranean and Near 00:07:24.949 --> 00:07:27.579 East. But I want to pause on that pre -war era 00:07:27.579 --> 00:07:29.759 for a second, because there's a specific incident 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.480 from 1908 that highlights the reality of operating 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:34.740 these ships. You're thinking of the wrecks. Yeah. 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:36.759 It wasn't just about balance sheets and corporate 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:39.100 takeovers. This was incredibly dangerous work. 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:41.920 The city of Naples. Exactly. The city of Naples, 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:45.319 which wrecked on the Zinesu Reef in 1908. We 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:48.420 tend to think of the Edwardian era as very civilized 00:07:48.420 --> 00:07:51.500 and technologically mastered, but navigation 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:54.779 was still largely visual. If you hit fog or a 00:07:54.779 --> 00:07:57.300 bad - storm you were in serious trouble. Losing 00:07:57.300 --> 00:07:59.980 a capital ship like that was a massive financial 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:02.800 blow. But for Ellerman with his scale it was 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:05.500 just a line item. He absorbed the loss and kept 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:08.160 building. He didn't blink. Which brings us right 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:11.740 to 1914. The company is at its absolute zenith. 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.220 John Ellerman is practically printing money. 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:16.379 And then the Archduke is shot in Sarajevo. And 00:08:16.379 --> 00:08:18.670 the lights go out all over Europe. World War 00:08:18.670 --> 00:08:21.269 I completely transformed the merchant navy overnight. 00:08:21.649 --> 00:08:24.129 We so often focus on the trenches and the western 00:08:24.129 --> 00:08:27.569 front, but the war at sea was the actual lifeline 00:08:27.569 --> 00:08:30.089 of Britain. If the ships stopped moving, the 00:08:30.089 --> 00:08:32.830 island starved. Was that simple? The British 00:08:32.830 --> 00:08:35.529 government knew this, so they immediately initiated 00:08:35.529 --> 00:08:38.909 the requisition. Now, requisition sounds very 00:08:38.909 --> 00:08:41.830 polite and administrative, but how did this actually 00:08:41.830 --> 00:08:44.789 work in practice? Did the government just steal 00:08:44.789 --> 00:08:47.620 the ships? It was essentially a compulsory lease. 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:50.279 The government took total operational control 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:52.659 of the vessel. They paid the company a set rate. 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:55.159 Which I'm guessing was not great. It was often 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:58.259 well below the market rate for freight. And the 00:08:58.259 --> 00:09:00.500 government dictated exactly what the ship did. 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:03.480 So Ellermann's beautiful, profitable fleet was 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:06.299 just carved up? Torn apart. They had to operate 00:09:06.299 --> 00:09:08.919 a skeletal service with whatever was left. The 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:11.240 requisitioned ships became troop transports. 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:13.700 They painted over those pristine buff funnels 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:16.379 with drab gray paint. Some carried munitions. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.080 And some, the larger liners, actually became 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:21.240 armed merchant cruisers. Which, when you think 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:23.580 about it, putting guns on a passenger liner seems 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:25.919 like an incredibly desperate measure. It was 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.279 beyond desperate. They reinforced the decks as 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:30.659 best they could, bolted on some six inch naval 00:09:30.659 --> 00:09:33.039 guns and sent them out to patrol the oceans. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.919 But they were still just merchant ships. Exactly. 00:09:36.059 --> 00:09:39.360 They were huge targets with very thin skin trying 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:41.559 to act like warships against actual warships. 00:09:41.659 --> 00:09:43.940 And the losses started basically immediately. 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:46.500 The city of Winchester. That was the first casualty 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:49.399 of the war, wasn't it? The very first. August 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:53.539 1914. She was a brand new ship. Brand new. On 00:09:53.539 --> 00:09:56.299 her maiden voyage homeward bound from India. 00:09:56.620 --> 00:09:59.899 She had a hold full of tea and spices, just doing 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:01.779 exactly what she was built to do. And she ran 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:04.379 into the German cruiser Konigsberg. A commercial 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:06.799 ship against a dedicated, heavily armed warship. 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:08.879 He didn't stand a chance. None at all. Yeah. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.039 She was captured, the crew was taken prisoner, 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:13.500 and the ship was scuttled, sent to the bottom. 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:15.740 And that must have sent an absolute shockwave 00:10:15.740 --> 00:10:18.000 through the shitting industry, the realization 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.100 that the oceans were no longer safe for business. 00:10:20.340 --> 00:10:23.240 It changed everything. But the company's response 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:26.419 to the war... And this is the part that I find 00:10:26.419 --> 00:10:28.320 wildest about John Ellerman. He doesn't hunker 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.779 down. No. In 1916, right in the middle of the 00:10:31.779 --> 00:10:33.539 war, while his ships are sinking left and right 00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:36.480 to U -boats, he goes shopping. He buys the Wilson 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.139 Line of Hull. And this wasn't some small regional 00:10:39.139 --> 00:10:44.340 purchase. He bought 67 vessels. 67 ships. While 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:46.879 German submarines are actively hunting British 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:49.820 shipping. It was a strategic masterstroke, honestly. 00:10:50.179 --> 00:10:52.440 The Wilson Line specialized in short sea routes. 00:10:53.220 --> 00:10:56.399 Scandinavia. The Baltic. So Ellermann was diversifying 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.539 his risk. Exactly. If the deep ocean ruts to 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.340 India and Africa were cut off by U -boats or 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:05.039 surface raiders, he still had the European trade 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.360 functioning. But the branding integration here 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.460 is a detail I absolutely love. Deliveries. Yes. 00:11:10.820 --> 00:11:12.879 Shipping lines were incredibly tribal about their 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:15.779 colors. You knew a ship by its funnel long before 00:11:15.779 --> 00:11:18.360 you could read the name on the hull. The Ellermann 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:20.899 standard was very distinctive. They had buff. 00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:24.639 which is like a yellowish tan funnels with a 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:27.340 black top and a white dividing line. Over a gray 00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:29.690 hull. Right. It looked very clean. Very efficient. 00:11:30.129 --> 00:11:32.570 But the Wilson line had red funnels with black 00:11:32.570 --> 00:11:35.350 tops and dark green hulls. Which is a complete 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:37.789 aesthetic clash. Total clash. You'd think Ellerman 00:11:37.789 --> 00:11:39.649 would just order them all painted buff and gray 00:11:39.649 --> 00:11:42.389 immediately. But he didn't. He didn't. He kept 00:11:42.389 --> 00:11:45.509 the Wilson identity completely separate. He understood 00:11:45.509 --> 00:11:48.190 that in hull, that red funnel actually meant 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:51.149 something. It meant local jobs, local pride. 00:11:51.389 --> 00:11:54.250 Exactly. So the corporate entity became Ellerman's 00:11:54.250 --> 00:11:57.409 Wilson line. But the ships stayed green and red. 00:11:57.649 --> 00:11:59.750 It was very smart corporate branding for the 00:11:59.750 --> 00:12:02.509 early 20th century. While he's buying fleets 00:12:02.509 --> 00:12:05.549 and managing paint jobs, the actual war at sea 00:12:05.549 --> 00:12:08.870 is getting weirder and much more dangerous. We 00:12:08.870 --> 00:12:10.909 really have to talk about the theatricality of 00:12:10.909 --> 00:12:12.929 the naval war here. You're thinking of the dummy 00:12:12.929 --> 00:12:16.500 metal ships. Yes, the city of Oxford. Ah, the 00:12:16.500 --> 00:12:20.179 city of Oxford. This is 1915. The British Admiralty 00:12:20.179 --> 00:12:22.320 is getting desperate to confuse the Germans. 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:25.159 So they take this standard cargo ship. And they 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:27.360 basically turn her into a movie prop. They literally 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.840 used wood, canvas, and paint to build fake gun 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.100 turrets and fake superstructures all over her 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:35.019 deck. To make her look like a dreadnought. Right. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:37.440 From a distance, or through a hazy periscope 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.460 site, she was supposed to look exactly like HMS 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:41.299 St. Vincent, which was a massive battleship. 00:12:41.450 --> 00:12:44.809 The idea being to draw enemy fire away from the 00:12:44.809 --> 00:12:47.149 real ships or to make the Germans think the Grand 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:50.330 Fleet was somewhere it totally wasn't. Yes. But 00:12:50.330 --> 00:12:52.649 imagine being a merchant sailor assigned to that 00:12:52.649 --> 00:12:55.509 ship. Oh, it's terrifying. You are sitting on 00:12:55.509 --> 00:12:59.210 a slow cargo vessel made of thin steel plating, 00:12:59.370 --> 00:13:01.389 but you're pretending to be the biggest threat 00:13:01.389 --> 00:13:03.570 on the ocean. And your primary weapons are made 00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:06.710 of plywood. If a real German battleship engages 00:13:06.710 --> 00:13:09.570 you, you are finished instantly. It was incredibly 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:12.860 dangerous bluffing. but it shows the desperate 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:15.320 creativity of the era. And then you had the inverse 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.879 of that strategy too, the Q -ship. Right, where 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:20.200 instead of making a weak ship look strong, they 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.600 made a strong ship look weak. Like the Barrelong. 00:13:22.740 --> 00:13:25.100 The Barrelong was an Ellermann ship, built in 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:28.659 1901, a standard, slightly rust -streak merchant 00:13:28.659 --> 00:13:31.419 vessel. She would chug along slowly, looking 00:13:31.419 --> 00:13:33.740 like an incredibly easy target. Because U -boats 00:13:33.740 --> 00:13:36.240 didn't always use torpedoes back then. Torpedoes 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:38.899 were expensive. Very expensive. And they carried 00:13:38.899 --> 00:13:41.480 very few of them. So a U -boat would surface 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:44.399 to sink a lone merchant ship with its deck gun. 00:13:44.740 --> 00:13:47.320 And then the trap springs. The Barrelong would 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:50.279 drop these false bulkheads and canvas screens, 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:54.259 suddenly revealing hidden 12 -pounder naval guns. 00:13:54.340 --> 00:13:56.299 And they would blow the U -boat out of the water 00:13:56.299 --> 00:13:58.980 before the Germans could even scramble back inside 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:02.100 and dive. It was brutal. Completely merciless. 00:14:02.509 --> 00:14:04.909 close quarters warfare. But unfortunately for 00:14:04.909 --> 00:14:07.809 Ellerman Lines, not every story was a clever 00:14:07.809 --> 00:14:11.029 ruse or a victorious trap. The losses overall 00:14:11.029 --> 00:14:13.490 were just catastrophic. By the end of the war, 00:14:13.529 --> 00:14:18.009 they had lost 103 ocean vessels. 103 ships. It's 00:14:18.009 --> 00:14:21.610 a capacity loss of up to 750 ,000 tons. It's 00:14:21.610 --> 00:14:25.210 a massive graveyard of metal and men. But amidst 00:14:25.210 --> 00:14:27.110 all that destruction, there are these incredible 00:14:27.110 --> 00:14:30.259 stories of survival. The city of Exeter is one 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:32.399 that we have to cover. That story is legendary 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.200 in the merchant navy. This is the mine strike 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:36.480 in the Indian Ocean. Right. She's 400 miles from 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:39.299 Bombay, middle of nowhere. She hits a naval mine. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:41.720 And the explosion is massive. The number one 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:44.419 hold fills with water instantly. The ship starts 00:14:44.419 --> 00:14:47.179 tipping forward, heavily down by the bow. The 00:14:47.179 --> 00:14:49.000 master looks at the damage and orders abandon 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.259 ship. Which is the only rational call. Everyone 00:14:51.259 --> 00:14:53.740 gets into the lifeboats. They pull away from 00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:55.919 the ship, just sitting out there on the water, 00:14:56.159 --> 00:14:58.419 waiting for the final plunge. But she doesn't 00:14:58.419 --> 00:15:00.980 sink. She doesn't sink. She just sits there, 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:04.039 wallowing low in the water. So the master and 00:15:04.039 --> 00:15:07.059 the chief engineer, just the two of them, decide 00:15:07.059 --> 00:15:09.860 to row back to the ship. They row back to a sinking 00:15:09.860 --> 00:15:13.100 ship. At grave risk to their own lives. They 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:15.899 climb up the side of this dying leviathan. They 00:15:15.899 --> 00:15:19.340 go down deep into the dark flooding hull to inspect 00:15:19.340 --> 00:15:21.899 the bulkheads. That is either incredible courage 00:15:21.899 --> 00:15:24.440 or complete madness. Probably a bit of both. 00:15:25.139 --> 00:15:27.620 But they look at the steel, they listen to the 00:15:27.620 --> 00:15:29.919 groaning of the ship, and they decide the bulkheads 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:31.899 are gonna hold. So they called the lifeboats 00:15:31.899 --> 00:15:34.960 back. They called everyone back. Imagine that 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:37.120 sales pitch to the passengers in the lifeboats. 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:39.480 Alright everyone, back on the sinking ship. We're 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:42.350 good, it's fine. But they re -embarked the passengers, 00:15:42.909 --> 00:15:45.370 fired up the boilers, and they actually linked 00:15:45.370 --> 00:15:49.409 that ship 400 miles to Bombay under her own steam. 00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:52.210 It's a massive testament to the engineering of 00:15:52.210 --> 00:15:54.629 the ships themselves. They were built remarkably 00:15:54.629 --> 00:15:57.789 tough. They were. But luck eventually runs out 00:15:57.789 --> 00:16:00.149 for a lot of them. We see the city of Athens, 00:16:00.509 --> 00:16:03.470 mined off Cape Town in August 1917. And then 00:16:03.470 --> 00:16:05.669 there's the naming conventions, which bring us 00:16:05.669 --> 00:16:08.610 to some interesting historical footnotes. The 00:16:08.610 --> 00:16:11.320 Lesbians. Right, we should clarify the name for 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:13.120 modern listeners. Yes, absolutely. Ellermann 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:15.419 used the city of names for the main line, but 00:16:15.419 --> 00:16:17.759 the Papianni and other subsidiaries often used 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:21.320 Greek or Mediterranean names, ending in Eegian. 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:25.340 Like Andalusian. Flaminian. And lesbian, referring 00:16:25.340 --> 00:16:27.519 directly to the Greek island of Lesbos. Right. 00:16:27.940 --> 00:16:30.039 There are two ships with this name in the company's 00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:32.039 history, and neither of them had a happy ending. 00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:35.429 The first lesbian was built in 1915. right into 00:16:35.429 --> 00:16:37.750 the teeth of the war. She was shelled and sunk 00:16:37.750 --> 00:16:41.110 by U -35 in the Mediterranean. Just another statistic 00:16:41.110 --> 00:16:44.049 in the Great Tonnage War. So November 1918 rolls 00:16:44.049 --> 00:16:47.850 around. The war ends. Ellerman has lost 103 ships. 00:16:48.370 --> 00:16:50.470 But John Ellerman himself is still standing. 00:16:50.789 --> 00:16:53.330 Standing very tall. He used the insurance payouts 00:16:53.330 --> 00:16:55.470 from the lost ships and the massive war profits 00:16:55.470 --> 00:16:57.570 to start rebuilding immediately. He didn't wait 00:16:57.570 --> 00:17:00.230 around. No. He bought up German liners that had 00:17:00.230 --> 00:17:02.590 been seized as war reparations by the British 00:17:02.590 --> 00:17:05.099 government. He ordered new ships built. And his 00:17:05.099 --> 00:17:07.299 personal wealth just skyrocketed. By the time 00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:11.119 he died in 1933, he was a baronet and his estate 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:14.700 was valued at 37 million pounds. Which, again, 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:16.740 doing the math on historical money is tough, 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:19.359 but that made him arguably the richest man in 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:21.660 Britain at the time. Without a doubt, an astronomical 00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:24.960 sum. But while he passed away wealthy, the storm 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:27.259 clouds were gathering over Europe all over again. 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:30.789 We move into the late 1930s. The fleet has been 00:17:30.789 --> 00:17:33.049 completely rebuilt to a hundred and five ships. 00:17:33.250 --> 00:17:35.730 Nearly a million tons of capacity. One of the 00:17:35.730 --> 00:17:37.490 biggest privately owned fleets in the world. 00:17:37.730 --> 00:17:40.829 They had mixed cargo passenger ships, pure cargo, 00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:43.910 short sea traders. And then it's 1939. World 00:17:43.910 --> 00:17:46.269 War Two begins. And if World War One was a tragedy 00:17:46.269 --> 00:17:48.950 for the merchant Navy, World War Two was an absolute 00:17:48.950 --> 00:17:51.170 slaughter. The technology of killing ships had 00:17:51.170 --> 00:17:53.789 advanced so much the U -boats weren't just lone 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:56.190 hunters anymore. They were operating in coordinated 00:17:56.190 --> 00:17:58.910 wolf packs. They had better range, better torpedoes. 00:17:59.130 --> 00:18:01.670 And air power was now a major, major threat. 00:18:01.789 --> 00:18:04.369 Dive bombers, torpedo bombers. Ellermann lost 00:18:04.369 --> 00:18:07.309 60 ships out of their 105. More than half the 00:18:07.309 --> 00:18:11.630 entire fleet. 41 sunk by submarines, seven by 00:18:11.630 --> 00:18:15.150 air attacks, three by mines, one by a surface 00:18:15.150 --> 00:18:18.589 raider. It was relentless. There is one specific 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:21.049 loss that really defines this era for the company, 00:18:21.049 --> 00:18:23.839 and it's heavily featured in the sources. The 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:26.140 city of Benares. Yes. Because this isn't just 00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:28.500 about losing steel and tonnage. This is about 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:31.039 the morality of the war and how the public perceived 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:33.359 the war at sea. The city of Benares was a beautiful 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:36.930 ship. A luxury liner, relatively new. In September 00:18:36.930 --> 00:18:40.150 1940, she was requisitioned for a very specific 00:18:40.150 --> 00:18:42.809 mission. She was designated to carry evacuees 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:45.230 to Canada. This was part of the CORB program, 00:18:45.390 --> 00:18:47.049 right? The Children's Overseas Reception Board. 00:18:47.230 --> 00:18:49.789 Exactly. British parents were terrified of the 00:18:49.789 --> 00:18:51.470 bliss, the bombing of London, and the cities. 00:18:51.650 --> 00:18:53.470 So the government set up this program to send 00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:56.190 children to safety overseas. So you have a luxury 00:18:56.190 --> 00:18:59.289 ship loaded with 90 children, plus paying passengers 00:18:59.289 --> 00:19:02.009 and the crew. She was sailing in a convoy. about 00:19:02.009 --> 00:19:04.390 600 miles out into the Atlantic. And the weather 00:19:04.390 --> 00:19:08.269 was horrific. Classic North Atlantic storm. Gale 00:19:08.269 --> 00:19:12.109 force winds, freezing rain, huge swells. It was 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:15.269 night. And U -48 spotted her. Did the U -boat 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:18.150 commander know who was on board? No. There's 00:19:18.150 --> 00:19:20.029 no way he could have known. To the U -boat, it 00:19:20.029 --> 00:19:22.789 was just a large British merchant ship in a convoy, 00:19:23.230 --> 00:19:26.130 a valid military target. They fired a torpedo. 00:19:26.329 --> 00:19:28.930 and it hit. The result was an absolute nightmare. 00:19:29.190 --> 00:19:31.970 The torpedo struck perfectly. The ship lost power 00:19:31.970 --> 00:19:34.809 and started sinking fast. She went down in 30 00:19:34.809 --> 00:19:36.849 minutes. And because of the storm? Because of 00:19:36.849 --> 00:19:38.809 the storm and the severe list of the sinking 00:19:38.809 --> 00:19:41.829 ship, launching the lifeboats was nearly impossible. 00:19:42.549 --> 00:19:44.509 Many of the boats capsized as soon as they hit 00:19:44.509 --> 00:19:46.490 the water. The numbers are just heartbreaking 00:19:46.490 --> 00:19:49.589 to read. 258 people died in the freezing water. 00:19:49.690 --> 00:19:52.390 Yeah. And 81 of them were children. 81 kids. 00:19:52.650 --> 00:19:54.930 It was officially cited as the worst maritime 00:19:54.930 --> 00:19:57.329 disaster in Ellerman Line's history. And the 00:19:57.329 --> 00:19:59.609 historical impact of that event was massive. 00:19:59.930 --> 00:20:02.309 When the news broke back in Britain, it effectively 00:20:02.309 --> 00:20:05.250 ended the overseas evacuation program immediately. 00:20:05.490 --> 00:20:08.049 The public realized that the Atlantic Ocean was 00:20:08.049 --> 00:20:10.130 just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than 00:20:10.130 --> 00:20:12.789 the Blitz. It changes the narrative of the war 00:20:12.789 --> 00:20:16.650 at sea, from naval battles to literal atrocities 00:20:16.650 --> 00:20:19.490 in the public eye. It does. It crystallized the 00:20:19.490 --> 00:20:22.710 cruelty of the U -boat war. And yet... The sailors 00:20:22.710 --> 00:20:24.549 had to just keep going back out there. Which 00:20:24.549 --> 00:20:26.670 is astounding. You look at the fleet list and 00:20:26.670 --> 00:20:29.369 it's just loss after loss. The city of Pretoria 00:20:29.369 --> 00:20:33.589 in 1943. Torpedoed. All 149 people on board died. 00:20:33.809 --> 00:20:37.430 The city of Shanghai in 1941 torpedoed by U -103. 00:20:37.609 --> 00:20:39.869 The second city of Winchester also torpedoed 00:20:39.869 --> 00:20:43.529 by U -103. The city of Cairo in 1942 sunk by 00:20:43.529 --> 00:20:46.789 U -68. The carnage was just relentless. There 00:20:46.789 --> 00:20:48.869 is a contrasting story, though, from the sources. 00:20:49.210 --> 00:20:51.730 The city of Birmingham. Ah, right. This was a 00:20:51.730 --> 00:20:54.730 mine strike. Yes, in 1940. She hit a mine and 00:20:54.730 --> 00:20:57.630 sank. But because the evacuation was orderly 00:20:57.630 --> 00:20:59.750 and the weather conditions were better, every 00:20:59.750 --> 00:21:02.349 single person, all 80 souls on board, was saved. 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:04.960 It really highlights the capriciousness of fate 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.960 at sea during the war. One night you lose everyone, 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:10.500 the next day, in a similar situation, everyone 00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:12.440 survives. Completely down to luck and weather. 00:21:12.819 --> 00:21:14.799 There's another tragic vignette from this era 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:16.900 involving that unlucky name we mentioned earlier, 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:20.859 the second lesbian. Built in 1923. She actually 00:21:20.859 --> 00:21:23.480 survived the interwar years fine, but during 00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:25.900 World War II, she was operating in the Mediterranean. 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:28.750 And she didn't get sunk by a U -boat. No, she 00:21:28.750 --> 00:21:32.329 was seized by Vichy French forces. The collaborationist 00:21:32.329 --> 00:21:34.930 French government. Exactly. Captured by former 00:21:34.930 --> 00:21:37.849 allies. And rather than let her be recaptured 00:21:37.849 --> 00:21:40.670 by the advancing British forces later on, the 00:21:40.670 --> 00:21:43.950 Vichy French just scuttled her in Beirut Harbor. 00:21:44.430 --> 00:21:47.829 A sad, kind of ignoble end for a ship. Very much 00:21:47.829 --> 00:21:51.950 so. So by 1945, the war is finally over. The 00:21:51.950 --> 00:21:55.640 fleet is decimated yet again. down to 45 ships 00:21:55.640 --> 00:21:58.480 from 105. But the company has done this before. 00:21:58.660 --> 00:22:00.519 They know how to rebuild. They start the rebuild 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:03.240 immediately. But this time, the corporate strategy 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:05.660 shifts significantly. They launch what the records 00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:08.839 call the new policy. This is a really fascinating 00:22:08.839 --> 00:22:10.759 moment in maritime history. We're in the late 00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:13.180 40s. Right. Aviation commercial flight is starting 00:22:13.180 --> 00:22:15.339 to happen, but it's not totally dominant yet. 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:17.599 The jet age hasn't quite arrived. So Ellermann 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:20.160 decides to build what they called fasting cargo 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:22.240 liners. And the key defining feature of these 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:25.180 new ships is the passenger limit. Twelve passengers. 00:22:25.579 --> 00:22:28.460 Twelve. Exactly. Why 12? I mean, why not 20? 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.519 Why not 50? It's the magic number in international 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:35.109 maritime law. Ah, a loophole. A huge loophole. 00:22:35.609 --> 00:22:39.470 If you carry 13 passengers, you are legally classified 00:22:39.470 --> 00:22:41.650 as a passenger ship. Which means? Which means 00:22:41.650 --> 00:22:44.369 you need a dedicated ship's doctor, a hospital 00:22:44.369 --> 00:22:48.069 on board, very specific watertight bulkhead spacing, 00:22:48.750 --> 00:22:51.529 massive amounts of extra lifeboats, more stewards, 00:22:51.710 --> 00:22:54.289 more cooks. It's incredibly expensive to run 00:22:54.289 --> 00:22:57.130 a passenger ship. Very expensive. But if you 00:22:57.130 --> 00:23:00.029 carry exactly 12 passengers or fewer, you are 00:23:00.029 --> 00:23:02.349 legally just a cargo ship. So they dodge all 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:04.990 the passenger ship regulations. They do. But 00:23:04.990 --> 00:23:07.269 for those 12 people who booked passage, it was 00:23:07.269 --> 00:23:09.829 the absolute height of exclusivity. This wasn't 00:23:09.829 --> 00:23:11.750 sleeping on a cot down in the cargo hold. The 00:23:11.750 --> 00:23:13.509 sources describe it as considerable comfort. 00:23:13.609 --> 00:23:15.549 These ships were beautiful. They had gorgeous 00:23:15.549 --> 00:23:17.750 wood paneled staterooms, a dedicated lounge, 00:23:18.130 --> 00:23:20.390 a formal dining room. You essentially dine with 00:23:20.390 --> 00:23:22.170 the captain every night. It was known as the 00:23:22.170 --> 00:23:24.630 country house at sea concept. That sounds incredibly 00:23:24.630 --> 00:23:27.509 civilized. It really was. If you were a team 00:23:27.509 --> 00:23:29.630 merchant heading out to Calcutta, or maybe a 00:23:29.630 --> 00:23:32.069 diplomat traveling to Cape Town, this was how 00:23:32.069 --> 00:23:33.970 you wanted to travel. It was much slower than 00:23:33.970 --> 00:23:36.809 flying, obviously. Slower, yes. but infinitely 00:23:36.809 --> 00:23:39.569 more comfortable. You spent three weeks drinking 00:23:39.569 --> 00:23:42.569 gin and tonics on the deck while the ship hauled 00:23:42.569 --> 00:23:45.269 thousands of tons of cargo below your feet. The 00:23:45.269 --> 00:23:48.250 absolute golden age of travel before cheap flights 00:23:48.250 --> 00:23:50.650 took over. The Indian summer of the British merchant 00:23:50.650 --> 00:23:53.470 Navy really. They also vastly improved the crew 00:23:53.470 --> 00:23:55.490 accommodation on these new ships, giving the 00:23:55.490 --> 00:23:57.809 sailors much better living conditions. And they 00:23:57.809 --> 00:24:00.450 bought up 12 government ships that they had managed 00:24:00.450 --> 00:24:03.769 during the war to pad out the number. So by 1953. 00:24:04.119 --> 00:24:06.740 They reach their post -war peak. The fleet is 00:24:06.740 --> 00:24:11.599 almost completely rebuilt. 94 ships. 900 ,000 00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:14.019 tons of capacity. They are back on top of the 00:24:14.019 --> 00:24:16.599 world. But even in peacetime with these beautiful 00:24:16.599 --> 00:24:19.359 new ships, things still go wrong. We have to 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:21.920 mention the City of Sydney incident in 1956. 00:24:22.259 --> 00:24:24.500 An incredibly unfortunate accident. Because it 00:24:24.500 --> 00:24:27.579 wasn't a mine or a torpedo this time? No. The 00:24:27.579 --> 00:24:29.819 City of Sydney was navigating the very foggy 00:24:29.819 --> 00:24:33.190 crowded waters of the North Sea. and she accidentally 00:24:33.190 --> 00:24:37.170 rammed directly into a coal ship called the Corpschester. 00:24:37.250 --> 00:24:39.470 Just a straight -up collision. The impact was 00:24:39.470 --> 00:24:42.029 so severe that the Corpschester literally broke 00:24:42.029 --> 00:24:44.230 in half and sank. It's a stark reminder that 00:24:44.230 --> 00:24:46.769 these ships loaded with thousands of tons of 00:24:46.769 --> 00:24:50.329 cargo have massive, massive momentum. Even with 00:24:50.329 --> 00:24:52.410 radar, which was becoming very common by the 00:24:52.410 --> 00:24:55.549 50s, physics still wins. You can't stop a 10 00:24:55.549 --> 00:24:58.079 ,000 ton ship on a dime. So we get through the 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.339 50s and into the 1960s. Ellermann Lines is rich, 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:03.779 they have these beautiful fast cargo liners, 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:06.039 and they have a global network of routes. But 00:25:06.039 --> 00:25:08.140 there is an asteroid heading straight for the 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:11.930 industry. 1967. The looming threat? The box. 00:25:12.170 --> 00:25:14.369 The shipping container. We really cannot overstate 00:25:14.369 --> 00:25:16.990 how much containerization disrupted the entire 00:25:16.990 --> 00:25:19.309 world. It changed everything. Before the container, 00:25:19.329 --> 00:25:21.269 shipping was what we call break bulk. Meaning 00:25:21.269 --> 00:25:23.930 everything was loose. Basically, yes. You had 00:25:23.930 --> 00:25:26.609 cranes lifting individual nets of coffee sacks, 00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:29.470 wooden barrels, wooden crates, pallets of machinery. 00:25:29.690 --> 00:25:32.490 A complete mess. total mess. A ship would arrive 00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:35.410 in port and it would have to spend two or maybe 00:25:35.410 --> 00:25:37.710 three full weeks just unloading and reloading. 00:25:37.829 --> 00:25:40.089 So the ship is earning absolutely zero money 00:25:40.089 --> 00:25:43.650 for what 60 % of its lifespan? Exactly. It's 00:25:43.650 --> 00:25:45.869 essentially just a very expensive floating warehouse 00:25:45.869 --> 00:25:49.369 while it's in port. Plus you needed literal armies 00:25:49.369 --> 00:25:52.069 of stevedores and dock workers to manually move 00:25:52.069 --> 00:25:55.440 all that stuff. And theft was rampant. Oh, massive 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:58.519 theft. Shrinkage, they called it politely. Cases 00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:00.799 of whiskey would just go missing. But the container 00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:03.460 changed all the math. Completely. A standardized 00:26:03.460 --> 00:26:07.079 steel box, a ship docks, massive specialized 00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:09.319 cranes, pull the boxes straight off onto trucks 00:26:09.319 --> 00:26:11.660 or trains, put new ones on, and the ship is gone. 00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:14.680 In like 12 hours. Right. The efficiency gains 00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:17.240 were astronomical. And this killed Ellermann. 00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:20.359 It killed their entire business model. Ellerman's 00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:23.660 beautiful, fast, 12 -passenger cargo liners were 00:26:23.660 --> 00:26:25.740 suddenly totally obsolete. Because they weren't 00:26:25.740 --> 00:26:28.059 designed to hold uniform steel boxes. They were 00:26:28.059 --> 00:26:30.220 designed for brake bulk, they were too slow to 00:26:30.220 --> 00:26:32.680 load and unload by the new standards, and the 00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:34.880 capital required to switch containers was just 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:37.069 astronomical. You didn't just need to buy new 00:26:37.069 --> 00:26:39.250 ships. You needed new port terminals. You needed 00:26:39.250 --> 00:26:42.410 new trucks, new rail links, new logistics computer 00:26:42.410 --> 00:26:45.029 systems to track the boxes. And simultaneously, 00:26:45.390 --> 00:26:47.269 while this technological revolution is happening, 00:26:47.730 --> 00:26:51.230 they have a massive geopolitical problem. Decolonization. 00:26:51.430 --> 00:26:54.990 The world map isn't pink anymore. Exactly. Newly 00:26:54.990 --> 00:26:57.990 independent nations, specifically India, wanted 00:26:57.990 --> 00:27:00.670 to set up their own shipping companies. They 00:27:00.670 --> 00:27:03.539 didn't want to rely on the old British imperial 00:27:03.539 --> 00:27:05.819 lines anymore. So they established their own 00:27:05.819 --> 00:27:07.839 state lines. Like the shipping corporation of 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:10.500 India. And these new governments implemented 00:27:10.500 --> 00:27:13.259 protectionist policies. They said, look, if you 00:27:13.259 --> 00:27:15.880 want to trade with India, 50 percent of the cargo 00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.980 has to go on our Indian ships. So Ellermann instantly 00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:21.559 loses its guaranteed monopoly on its most profitable 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:23.740 routes. And his technology is out of date. It 00:27:23.740 --> 00:27:26.039 was a perfect storm. They tried to adapt, though. 00:27:26.140 --> 00:27:29.039 The records show in 1966, they joined the ACT 00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:31.539 group. The Associated Container Transportation 00:27:31.539 --> 00:27:34.599 Consortium. They tried to pool their resources 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:37.500 with other struggling British lines to build 00:27:37.500 --> 00:27:39.640 container ships together, because no one could 00:27:39.640 --> 00:27:41.910 afford it alone. They even tried diversifying 00:27:41.910 --> 00:27:43.809 completely outside of shipping. They expanded 00:27:43.809 --> 00:27:46.269 into hotels. They bought into the brewing industry. 00:27:46.589 --> 00:27:48.390 They even bought a printing company, which is 00:27:48.390 --> 00:27:50.529 the classic corporate panic move. We don't know 00:27:50.529 --> 00:27:52.329 how to make money on ships anymore. Let's try 00:27:52.329 --> 00:27:56.089 to sell beer. It rarely ever works out. By 1973, 00:27:56.089 --> 00:27:58.289 they merged all their remaining shipping companies 00:27:58.289 --> 00:28:01.670 into one single division just to cut costs. The 00:28:01.670 --> 00:28:04.609 profitability just plummeted. And by the 1980s, 00:28:04.670 --> 00:28:07.150 the writing was on the wall. The company began 00:28:07.150 --> 00:28:10.250 what the outline hilariously calls the corporate 00:28:10.250 --> 00:28:12.849 potato pass. It gets sold from hand to hand as 00:28:12.849 --> 00:28:15.049 everyone tries to extract whatever value is left. 00:28:15.269 --> 00:28:19.210 So in 1983, the Barclay brothers, the famous 00:28:19.210 --> 00:28:22.029 billionaire twins, buy it. And they sell it. 00:28:22.369 --> 00:28:25.049 In 1985, the management actually buys it out. 00:28:25.289 --> 00:28:27.930 A management buyout. But that doesn't last. No. 00:28:28.049 --> 00:28:31.349 In 1987, it gets sold to Trafalgar House. And 00:28:31.349 --> 00:28:34.130 they merge it with Cunard to form Cunard Ellermann. 00:28:34.299 --> 00:28:36.119 Now, that actually sounds like a strong brand, 00:28:36.319 --> 00:28:38.440 combining two legendary names. It was a strong 00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:41.160 brand for a brief moment. But the bleeding didn't 00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:44.579 stop. In 1991, it gets passed along again, this 00:28:44.579 --> 00:28:47.140 time to the Andrew Weir shipping group. And finally, 00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:51.500 in 2003, it is sold to Hamburg Sud, the massive 00:28:51.500 --> 00:28:53.880 German shipping conglomerate. And that was essentially 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:56.680 the end of the line. In 2004, Hamburg Sud announced 00:28:56.680 --> 00:28:58.960 they were officially dropping the Ellermann name. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:02.480 The remaining city of ships were repainted renamed 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:05.259 or sold off for scrap. The staff were let go 00:29:05.480 --> 00:29:07.799 were just absorbed into the German machine. And 00:29:07.799 --> 00:29:10.579 after 112 years of history, the name Ellermann 00:29:10.579 --> 00:29:13.839 Lines completely ceased to exist. It feels like 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:16.839 such a quiet, bureaucratic death for such a loud, 00:29:17.140 --> 00:29:19.180 dramatic history. It really does. I mean, you 00:29:19.180 --> 00:29:21.359 have streets named after John Ellermann in Amsterdam 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:23.839 and Antwerp. But the company itself just evaporated 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:26.079 into the ledger of a foreign conglomerate. That 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:28.599 is usually how these corporate stories end. Globalization 00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:31.859 just kind of eats its parents. It does. It consolidates 00:29:31.859 --> 00:29:34.460 into these anonymous mega -corporations. That 00:29:34.460 --> 00:29:37.380 is n - where this story ends. No, it's not. Because 00:29:37.380 --> 00:29:40.279 in 2021, something incredibly weird happened. 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:43.000 The supply chain crisis. Right. Everyone remembers 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:45.619 the pandemic. Ports were completely clogged. 00:29:45.759 --> 00:29:47.400 Ships were parked off the coast of California 00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:50.259 for weeks. And shipping rates went absolutely 00:29:50.259 --> 00:29:53.319 insane. They went from like $2 ,000 a container 00:29:53.319 --> 00:29:57.019 to $20 ,000 a container. Everyone was desperate 00:29:57.019 --> 00:29:59.539 for cargo space. And in the middle of all that 00:29:59.539 --> 00:30:02.779 chaos, a ghost appeared. A new company. Backed 00:30:02.779 --> 00:30:05.319 by Uni Ocean Lines, launched a brand new cargo 00:30:05.319 --> 00:30:08.619 service between the UK, China, Europe, and the 00:30:08.619 --> 00:30:11.759 USA. And they needed a name. They called it Ellermann 00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:14.539 City Liners. They literally brought the name 00:30:14.539 --> 00:30:17.019 back from the dead. They did. After a 17 -year 00:30:17.019 --> 00:30:19.190 hiatus. The name returned to commercial use. 00:30:19.490 --> 00:30:22.849 Why? I mean, why revive a dead British brand? 00:30:23.029 --> 00:30:24.930 Because they recognized that in the shipping 00:30:24.930 --> 00:30:28.509 industry, trust and legacy mean everything. And 00:30:28.509 --> 00:30:30.289 Ellermann still meant something in the collective 00:30:30.289 --> 00:30:32.450 memory of the ports and the forwarders. It meant 00:30:32.450 --> 00:30:34.990 British reliability. It meant a century of history. 00:30:34.990 --> 00:30:37.660 Exactly. So today. Right now, as we're speaking, 00:30:38.019 --> 00:30:40.039 there are giant container ships moving across 00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:42.079 the ocean with Ellermans stamped on the side. 00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:44.440 Yes. They are chartering ships. They're running 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:47.059 active routes. The city of Prefix is even back 00:30:47.059 --> 00:30:50.680 on some vessels. That is wild. It's a modern, 00:30:50.900 --> 00:30:52.960 asset -light version of the old company, obviously. 00:30:53.460 --> 00:30:55.920 They aren't building passenger steamships. But 00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:58.900 the lineage, the brand? is back. It really is 00:30:58.900 --> 00:31:01.279 a remarkable survival story when you zoom out. 00:31:01.619 --> 00:31:04.720 From that 800 ,000 pounds Victorian startup to 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:07.519 the dummy battleships of World War I, to the 00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:10.299 luxury cargo liners of the 50s, to being chewed 00:31:10.299 --> 00:31:12.940 up by the corporate mergers, and finally this 00:31:12.940 --> 00:31:15.759 modern container revival. I think the whole story 00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:18.279 serves as a really powerful reminder that the 00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:20.880 global trade network isn't just some anonymous 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:23.980 automated machine. No. It's a deeply human endeavor. 00:31:24.140 --> 00:31:27.140 It was built on massive financial risks, on the 00:31:27.140 --> 00:31:29.799 bravery of sailors, on terrible heartbreaking 00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:32.200 tragedies like the Benoris. And on incredible 00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:35.180 feats of seamanship like the Exeter. So a final 00:31:35.180 --> 00:31:37.839 thought for you to chew on. In this modern hyper 00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:40.539 globalized world of completely identical anonymous 00:31:40.539 --> 00:31:42.799 shipping containers, the dramatic history of 00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:45.299 lines like Ellermann, Ramon is of the sheer human 00:31:45.299 --> 00:31:47.180 and mechanical post of building the world we 00:31:47.180 --> 00:31:49.339 live in today. Next time you see a container 00:31:49.339 --> 00:31:51.440 truck out on the highway, take a close look at 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:53.579 the logo on the side. You might just be looking 00:31:53.579 --> 00:31:56.480 at a piece of history that absolutely refused 00:31:56.480 --> 00:31:59.279 to die. Thanks for joining us on the deep dive. 00:31:59.539 --> 00:32:00.279 We'll see you next time.