House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: S

Sabine Transportation Co.

Sabine Transportation Co., Port Arthur, TX
The Sabine Transportation Company, from its flag and stack design nicknamed the "Diamond S," was founded in 1908 and has long been a substantial presence in the tug and barge business on the Mississippi-Missouri river system and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Since 1998 it has been a subsidiary of the Stickle Group of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The company currently operates six ships, plus a number of tugs and barges. The flag is a red burgee with a white S inside a white diamond.
Sources: Stewart (1953), US Navy's 1961 H.O.

Joe McMillan, 18 November 2001

I was a Vice President of Sabine Towing and Transportation Company from 1984 until 1998 when the "real" company ended. Sabine, which operated a fleet of tugs, inland barges, and U.S. flag tankers commenced operations in 1909. The founding families merged the company with Chromalloy American Corp. (of St. Louis) in 1967. Chromalloy was acquired in the mid-'80's by Sequa Corp. (of NY)...and then Sabine was sold to Kirby Corp. (of Houston, TX) in 1992. In 1998, the Sabine ships, tugs, and property in Port Arthur were sold to two buyers, Hvide Marine, Inc. and Stickle Enterprises of Iowa. The barges were retained and renamed by Kirby. For all practical purposes, this asset sale ended Sabine. The name of the company was given upon request to Stickle Enterprises which retains it. All of the original Sabine vessels have been retired though the company in Iowa continues to use the name and logo.

Bill Withers, 20 November 2003

Sampson & Tappan

  by Joe McMillan

Sampson & Tappan, Boston (mid-19th century)
Sampson and Tappan was originally a China trading firm that joined in the thriving business carrying gold rush traffic to California in the 1850s.  It was also apparently one of the most active lines in bringing Chinese immigrant laborers ("coolies") to both California and South America in the 1850s. Its most famous ships were the fast clippers Stag Hound (built 1850) and Westward Ho (1852). The flag was divided horizontally, white over blue, with a red disk on the center.
Source: paintings of clippers Stag Hound in Greyhounds of the Sea and Westward Ho in "The Clipper Ships")

Joe McMillan, 18 November 2001

See also: Donald McKay's Clippers

Scott and Morrell

         by Joe McMillan

Scott and Morrell, New York (mid 19th Century)
I have nothing on the company, except that from the names of the lines it obviously specialized in coastwise shipping from New York to the American South, probably dealing in cotton. The flags are very similar to those of the well known Grinnell and Minturn, and there may have been some kind of business ties between the two companies. The New Orleans Line used a white and blue swallowtail divided by a horizontal V paralleling the cut of the fly. The Savannah Line was the same in white and red.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

Seabulk International

  by Joe McMillan

Seabulk International, Port Everglades, FL
Seabulk International specializes in three core business areas: support to offshore oil facilities, tugs and towing on US Gulf coast (in which it is a leading company with 30 tugs in operation), and specialty chemical and refined product tankers (10 tankers in service). It was founded as Hvide Marine in 1958 and just recently changed its name. The flag is a dark blue burgee with a white disk in the hoist bearing a blue S superimposed on a gold anchor and encircled by a gold chain. Hvide Marine used the same flag, but with an H instead of an S.
Source:  www.seabulk.com

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

by Neale Rosanoski

Seabulk International. Brown 1995 shows a slightly different version being a normal rectangular flag with the white circle being edged with a yellow and black ropelike border and a blue "S" surmounted by a yellow anchor. It is shown under the name of Seabulk Tankers Ltd. which was a name subsidiary formed in 1974 but no longer appearing by 2000.

Neale Rosanoski, 1 August 2004

Sea-Land Services, Inc.

  by Joe McMillan

Sea-Land Services, Inc. (1956-1999) and CSX Lines (1999-present)
Founded in 1956 as a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship Company by Malcolm McLean, a trucking magnate who pioneered  the concept of containerized shipping. McLean, with financial support from the billionaire shipowner Daniel K. Ludwig, built Sea-Land into one of the largest merchant shipping companies under the United States flag, but never made it profitable. He sold it--virtually bankrupt--to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1969. Then, with RJR about to shut it down, CSX Corporation (the intermodal parent company of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad) stepped in to rescue Sea-Land in 1986. Sea-Land's international services were bought by A. P. Møller's Maersk Line in 1999 to form Maersk Sea-Land under the Maersk flag (making Maersk in part a US-flag company). Sea-Land's US domestic services were retained by CSX under the name CSX Lines, which kept the Sea-Land flag, a stylized S-L logo in black and red on a white field.
Source: Styring (1971)

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

  by Joe McMillan

Sea-Land Service Inc. Brown 1995 shows a different version having the panel smaller and flanked on either side by a small red oblong panel bearing respectively the white words "SEA" and "LAND". It seems that their sold container vessels now operate under the US flag through U.S. Ship Management Inc. based in Charlotte, NC. They still have "Sea-land" names but I have no idea of what connection there is with A.P. Möller or what houseflag they use.

Neale Rosanoski, 1 August 2004

Sealift Inc.

provided by Alan Adler

Sealift Inc. in 1975. It presently owns and operates 11 US flag vessels. More information is available at our website www.sealiftinc.com. I am attaching a picture of our house flag.
A. Adler, 30 January 2004

Seatrain Lines

         by Joe McMillan

Seatrain Lines, New York (1928-1981)
Seatrain was established to specialize in carrying loaded railroad cars in the U.S. Atlantic coastwise trade and between the US and Cuba. It was a considerable success and soon expanded into other geographic regions and other areas of shipping such as tankers. The loss of the Cuba trade after the Cuban Revolution hurt the company, as did competition from the railroads. As a result, Seatrain decided to focus on the tanker trade and was one of the most innovative companies in the business, fitting the supertanker Manhattan as an icebreaker and using it to open the Northwest Passage to ship Alaska oil directly to the US east coast. Although technically successful, the venture was not profitable, so Seatrain instead decided to focus on containerships. It pioneered the "landbridge" concept across the United States, cutting 10 days off travel time from Europe to the Far East, and was in position to become a dominant force in the industry despite a heavy debt burden. However, its owners decided to get into the shipbuilding business, which sucked off more resources, then to diversify into oil and coal  production, and eventually drove it into bankruptcy. The company was finally liquidated in 1982. I have found two flags for this company:
Source: US Navy's 1961 H.O.: White with a red rail-line running from upper hoist to lower fly.
Source: Styring (1971): White with two curved blue arrows forming a letter S.

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

Seaways Shipping Corp.

  by Joe McMillan

Seaways Shipping Corp.
No information. Flag blue with a white triangle.
Source: Styring (1971)

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

Seaways Shipping Corp. I assume this is the Seaways Shipping Co. shown by Lloyds from the late 1950s until the beginning of the 1980s, originally based New York but then coming under the Skaaraup Shipping Corporation as agents.

Neale Rosanoski, 1 August 2004

Seven Seas Shipping Corp.

  by Joe McMillan

Seven Seas Shipping Corp.
No information. Flag black with a large red 7.
Source: Styring (1971)

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

Arthur Sewall & Company

  by Joe McMillan

Arthur Sewall & Company, Bath, ME (1854-?)
The Sewalls were a prominent shipping family in Bath from at least the 1820s, when Arthur Sewall's father William established a building yard.  The firm of E. & A. Sewall was formed in 1854, took over the other family ventures in 1875, and changed its name to Arthur Sewall & Co in 1879. The company was one of the last to operate square-rigged steel-hulled sailing ships, well into the 20th century, specializing in traffic out of New York around Cape Horn. It continued to build as well as operate ships and apparently built the last square rigger produced on the U.S. east coast.  The flag was simply blue with a white S.
Source: Lloyds 1912

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

Shenango Furnace Co.

  by Joe McMillan

Shenango Furnace Co. (1906-1969)
The Shenango Furnace Company was an iron and steel foundry in Pittsburgh which established a small fleet of ore carriers on the Great Lakes in 1906. It sold the last of its ships to Pickands Mather Steamship Co. in 1969. The flag was a white swallowtail bordered in blue with the diamond-shaped company logo in red and white on the center.
Source: www.steamship.net (no longer available)

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001

Siffkin & Ironsides

  by Joe McMillan

Siffkin & Ironsides, New York (mid 19th century)
Nothing on the company. The flag was interesting, six horizontal stripes of red and blue, with a white canton bearing a black A. No idea what the A stood for.
Source:  chart of "Private Signals of the Merchants of New York"

Joe McMillan, 19 November 2001