^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

British shipping companies (D)

Diamantis Lemos Ltd.
T. Dixon & Sons, Ltd.
Dixon, Robson & Co.
W.H. Dodds & Co.
Dodwell & Co.
Dolphin Steam Fishing Co., Ltd.
Dominion Line
Dominion Shipping Co. Ltd
Don Fishing Co.
Donald & Taylor
Donaldson (Atlantic) Line
The Dornoch Steamship Co. Ltd
Doughty Shipping Co.

See also:

Diamantis Lemos Ltd.

image by Jarig Bakker, 15 January 2006

Diamantis Lemos Ltd., London - white flag bordered yellow; blue diamond.
Source: Loughran (1995)
Jarig Bakker, 15 January 2006

Daniel Dixon was a highly successful timber merchant and ship-owner; from a County Antrim family - variously of Cushendun, Ballycastle and Larne, in which last Daniel's father Thomas had a shipping and timber business. The third son of four, Daniel attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and then followed into the family business, Thomas Dixon and Sons, becoming a partner in 1864. This business was quite considerable and said to be the largest timber merchant in Ireland. In 1879 the company founded its own shipping firm, Irish Shipowners Company, Ltd, known as the Lord Line, which operated services between Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff and Baltimore, and also ran to the Gulf of Mexico and South America. This shipping firm was wound up in 1917, at the height of the First World War.

Dictionary of Ulster Bilbiography
http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1809

Lord Line (Irish Shipowners Co., Ltd), Belfast was formed by Thomas Dixon in 1879 and operated services between Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff and Baltimore. They also sailed to Gulf of Mexico and South American ports. In 1917 the company went into liquidation and sold its two remaining ships to the Head Line (Ulster SS Co.). The Lord Line ran between Baltimore and Belfast every ten days.

Wreck Site
http://www.wrecksite.eu/ownerbuilderview.aspx?10883

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Thomas Dixon & Sons, Ltd. (#1642, p. 115)y, as red, charged in the middle with a white voided pentagram inscribing a white "D".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#80
Ivan Sache, 3 May 2021

Dixon, Robson & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Dixon, Robson & Co. (#422, p. 57), a Newcastle-based company, as blue with a white lighthouse equipped with a red lamp.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#22
Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

W.H. Dodds & Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "W.H. Doods & Co." (#269, p. 49), a company based in Aberdeen
(Scotland), as blue with a broad white descending diagonal stripe charged with a red "D" flanked by two red stars.
Ivan Sache, 3 April 2008

Dodwell & Co.

image by Jarig Bakker, based on the website of the National Maritime Museum.

From the website of the National Maritime Museum, "the house flag of Dodwell & Co. A white rectangular flag with a red cross overall and red borders. A black saltire is in the canton. The flag is made of a wool and synthetic fibre bunting. It has a cotton hoist and is machine sewn. A rope is attached."
Jarig Bakker, 11 August 2004

Dominion Shipping Co. Ltd

See the Canadian Black Diamond S.S. Co. Ltd.

Dolphin Steam Fishing Co., Ltd.

image by Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Dolphin Steam Fishing Co., Ltd. (#409, p. 56), a Grimsby-based company, as horizontally divided red-white-red.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#21
Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

Dominion Line (Liverpool & Mississippi [Dominion] Steamship Co.)

Flag	Pennant
	image by Ivan Sache, 27 December 2005

The Liverpool Journal of Commerce chart for 1885 shows a Dominion S.S. Co. of Liverpool, but managed by Flinn, Main and Montgomery. The flag is red with a white diamond and a dark blue disc in the centre. In the 1909 chart from the same publishers, the flag has changed to a pennant shape, but with the same devices, and the F, M & M reference has been dropped.
Ian Sumner, 9 December 2005

The rectangular flag can be seen at www.mysticseaport.org and a clearer image (top of page) at www.theshipslist.com. The pennant can be seen at www.mysticseaport.org, no. 1721 ‘Dominion Line, Liverpool’ in the on-line 1912 Lloyds Flags & Funnels and bigger, at (cigarette card) www.gdfcartophily.co.uk.

A short history of this firm (using sources: http://www.greatoceanliners.net/columbus_republic.html, http://www.greatships.net/canada.html) follows:

"Dominion Line" is in fact the short name of the Liverpool & Mississippi Steamship Co., founded 1870 and renamed Mississippi & Dominion Steamship Co. two years later. These names expressed the firm's interest in a route linking Liverpool and New Orleans but this was abandoned in favour of a Canadian route. Not much goods and passenger transport here but livestock, mostly. Along with other companies - the most famous being the White Star Line - the Dominion Line was absorbed by the International Mercantile Marine Co. in 1902. Reduced to a component in a large business conglomerate, Dominion had to stop passenger transport in 1914 and in 1921 all its ships were allocated to IMM's Leyland Line. From 1908 on a service using the combined name White Star-Dominion Line had been active but in 1926 it was renamed the White Star Line Canadian Service. By then, all Dominion's ships had been scrapped.

Link to a 1920 poster of this joint service, showing the two house flags: http://www.internationalposter.com/wdetail.cfm?ImageName=UKL09462 and a luggage sticker ca. 1910 giving precedence to the White Star pennant: http://www.geocities.com/White_Star_Liners/WhiteStarSticker.jpg. When was the pennant introduced? Lloyds 1912 shows it whereas the following timetable issued Oct. 1903 still shows the rectangular house flag (see last photo): http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/dom03i.htm. In view of the above, including Ian's comments, we may suppose that the rectangular house flag was replaced sometime between 1903 and 1909.
Jan Mertens, 23 December 2005

Don Fishing Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2008

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "Don Fishing Co., Ltd" (#322, p. 52), a company based in Aberdeen
(Scotland), as white with a red saltire, not reaching the edges of the flag.

The company, named after the river Don at the mouth of which Old Aberdeen was built, is still involved in fishing. I have not found evidence of a modern house flag.
"Don Fishing, part of the Aberdeen-based JW Holdings group, is one of Scotland’s leading fishing and vessel management companies, with offices in Aberdeen, Peterhead, Macduff, Wick, Scrabster and Kinlochbervie.
"We have interests in around 40 fishing vessels and we provide services to those boats, plus another 80 or so in which we don’t have a share."
http://www.welcom.co.uk/casestudies/donfishing.htm
Welcom Software- Case Studies - Don Fishing
Ivan Sache, 29 April 2008

Donald & Taylor

image by Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of Donald & Taylor (#1058, p. 87), a Glasgow-based company, as horizontally divided black-yellow-black.
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/52/
Ivan Sache, 28 April 2021

Donaldson (Atlantic) Line

Version 1

image by Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

Donaldson Atlantic line, Ltd. had a red-white-blue vertical tricolor with a blue D on the white stripe but above flew a white pennant with the thistle (the related Donaldson Line, Ltd. flew the same flag, but not the pennant).
Source: Stewart (1953)
Ned Smith, 1 July 2003

According to "All about Ships & Shipping, E.P.Harnack (ed), 1938", There were three companies:

Donaldson Atlantic Line (Glasgow-New York): Houseflag: White Pennant, with Red and Green Thistle, over Red, White and Blue vertical tricolor, Blue D in center. (ship: Letitia, Athenia (torpedoed 3 Sep 1939)
Donaldson Brother, Ltd. (Glasgow, Liverpool-Canada, British Columbia): Houseflag: Red, White and Blue vertical Tricolor, with Blue D in center. Ship: M.S. Salacia
Donaldson South American Line, Ltd. (Glasgow, Liverpool-South America): Houseflag: Blue Pennant, with DSAL in White, over Red, White and Blue vertical Tricolor with Blue D in center. Ships: Coracero, Corinaldo, Corrientes, Cortona, Cordillera.

Jarig Bakker, 6 October 2003

"Flags and Funnels of the British and Commonwealth Merchant Fleets" shows this flag but with a wider white panel and smaller "D".
Antonio Martins-Tuvalkin, 16 June 2006

Version 2

image by Jarig Bakker

A similar flag, but with a gold D, was seen on a pin and one without the letter D also on a large sailing vessel in West Bay of Victoria Harbour (B.C., Canada).
Charla "Vikingwoman", 6 October 2003

The companies as detailed were managed by the owners who originated as Donaldson Brothers around 1855, by 1938 becoming Donaldson Bros. & Black Ltd. Griffin 1895 shows a tapered swallowtail with a black letter but nobody else supports this version. There does seem to be a connection with the version with the yellow D from the pin as T.S.S. Captain Cook was managed by them for the N.Z. Government between 1951 and 1960 but I cannot find any comment on such a flag. Whether it has any connection with the sighting on the sailing vessel depends on what it was and when, as Donaldsons folded in the 1970s.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 January 2004

Version 3

image located by Jan Mertens, 31 July 2005

The white pennant bearing a red and green thistle can be seen at www.merseysideviews.com. The same page shows a blue pennant bearing white letters DSAL (Donaldson South American Line).
Jan Mertens, 31 July 2005

Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag (#448, p. 58) with a blue, regular "D".
https://research.mysticseaport.org/item/l011061/l011061-c008/#23
Ivan Sache, 24 April 2021

The Dornoch Steamship Co. Ltd

image by Al Fisher, 29 Jan 1999

The Dornoch Steamship Co. has a strikingly similar house flag to the Temple Steamship Co. Ltd.. Both house flags are white with a red triangle. They differ only by the geometry of the triangle. It seems to me very weird that two different companies could have had so similar and potentially confusing house flags.
Ivan Sache, 28 February 2004

It sometimes helps to record the funnel marking as well as the house flag. A white flag with a red triangle, point uppermost, was also the house flag of Lambert Brothers. Their ships had black funnels with the red triangle on a white band.
David Prothero, 29 February 2004

The Dornoch Steamship Co. The reason for the so called similarity with the flags of the Temple Steamship Co. Ltd. and Lambert Brothers is because they are all one and the same and the correct allocation is to Lambert Brothers who operated through various companies including Dornoch Steamship and Temple Steamship until 1968 when they merged their shipping into Scottish Ship Management Ltd.
Neale Rosanoski, 23 March 2005

Doughty Shipping Co.

image by Ivan Sache, 11 April 2008

Lloyds Book of House Flags and Funnels (1912) shows the house flag of "Doughty Shipping Co., Ltd." (#267, p. 49), a company based in West Hartlepool, as white with the red letters "D.S.Co.LD.
Ivan Sache, 11 April 2008

In 1889/1900 the partnership of Maclean, Doughty & Co., was dissolved with Henry Doughty taking four steamers with him. He formed Doughty & Co,. in 1900 and changed the name to Doughty Shipping Co. Ltd. in 1901. Doughty also managed ships for the British Government during WW1. The company lost four steamers during WW1 and went out of business in 1919.

Henry Doughty was born in 1859 at Middlesbrough. In the early 1890�s he volunteered and became captain in the 4th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry and reached the rank of major. In April 1908 he was given command of the newly organised Durham Royal Garrison Artillery and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in May 1909. Henry joined the Board of Directors of Hartlepool Gas and Water Company in 1916.
Henry died on 13 July 1927 at Harrogate.

https://www.hhtandn.org/venues/4972/doughty-shipping-co-ltd
Hartlepool History Then and Now
Ivan Sache, 22 April 2021

British Shipping lines: continued