Court Line - the company and its ships

Brief Company History

Court Line was founded in London by Philip Edward Haldinstein in 1905 with a capital of £30,000 and  for most of its life engaged in the world-wide tramp trades.  The ships were named after famous country houses with the first word ending in “ton” and the suffix “Court”. By 1911 there were 5 ships in the company and the company prospered.

The strong anti-German feeling during WW1 led the chairman to change his name to Haldin in 1915. The company was left with 4 steamers at the end of the war and  Haldin decided to to rebuild in collaboration with L K Philipps. In 1922 Haldin & Philipps was formed to take over Court Line and the surplus assets dispersed to Haldin.

In 1936 the name Court Line was revived for a fleet which, despite the depression, had grown to 19 steamers and 5 motorships. During WW2 Court Line bought 3 ships belonging to Cory & Strick and managed 14 ships for the Ministry of War Transport (MOWT. In the conflict 15 of the company’s ships and 3 managed ships were lost.

Court Line rebuilt its fleet but its fortunes declined during the 1950s. In 1959 it owned 8 ships. The company moved into bulk carriers and tankers in the 1960’s and started using the prefix Halcyon. 

The group later diversified and at one time or another had interests in shipbuilding, ship repairing, package holidays (by plane). It encountered cashflow problems and was liquidated in 1974  - see the entry for Halcyon the Great for one of the consequences of this.