Elder Dempster - Ships of the Fleet

Elder
Dempster
Lines

ships of the fleet

1960s
	Aureol - the flagship 14,000 grt
	Accra 11,500 grt
	Apapa 11,500 grt
	Bhamo 9,650 dwt
	Calabar 8,300 grt
D-boats	Daru, Degema, Deido, Dixcove, Dumurra, Dunkwa 9,500 dwt Dalla, Donga, Dumbaia 10,500 dwt (photo is Dumbaia)
E-boats	Eboe, Ebani 10,000 dwt (upper photo is Eboe) Egori 10,500 dwt (lower photo)
F-boats	Falaba, Fian, Forcados, Fourah Bay, Freetown, Fulani 8,500 dwt (photo is Fourah Bay)
K-boats	Kabala, Kaduna, Kalaw, Kandaw, Kentung, Kohima, Koyan, Kumba 9,500 dwt (photo is Kabala) Kadeik 10,500 dwt
O-boats	Obuasi, Onitsha, Owerri 7,000 dwt (photo is Onitsha) Oti 8,000 dwt
P-boats	Patani, Perang 10,000 dwt (upper photo is Patani) Pegu (lower photo) 9,500 dwt
S-boats	Salaga, Sekondi, Sherbro, Shonga, Sulima, Swedru 6,500 dwt (photo is Salaga)
T-boats	Tamele 8,000 dwt Tarkwa 7,500 dwt (photo is Tarkwa)
	Winneba 8,300 grt (photo is Calabar)

The table above is an overview of the Elder Dempster fleet in the mid 1960s (including those absorbed from the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company). It is not intended to be a definitive list, but rather an indication of the size and variety of the fleet and the names and classes of the ships when the company was at its peak.

Vessels coming in to service in the 1970s and 1980s are shown in the following table. In addition to those listed a number of Blue Funnel Line ships were nominally transferred to Elder Dempster ownership, but are not shown here.

1970s / 1980s
	Akosombo (ex Ascanius) 9,500 dwt Blue Funnel ship transferred to EDL
	Obuasi (ex Machaon), Onitsha (ex Menestheus), Opobo (ex Maron), Mano / Oti (ex Menelaus), Owerri (ex Memnon) 9,500 dwt (photo is Mano) Blue Funnel ships transferred to EDL
	Sapele, Sherbro, Shonga 12,000 dwt (photo is Shonga)
	Sapele, Sekondi, Sokoto 11,500 dwt (photo is Sapele)
	Maron, Melampus, Memnon, Menelaus, Menestheus, Mentor, Myrmidon 21,000 dwt (photo is Menelaus) Ocean Fleets ships in EDL service
	Blue Kobe / Kaduna, Blue Yokohama 12,000 dwt (photo is Kaduna) Chartered ships in EDL service

The tonnages given are deadweight (dwt) for the cargo ships and gross registered (grt) for the mailboats. The actual figures varied even between ships of the same class so there has been some rounding up/down to ensure clarity in the table.

Five measures of ship tonnage may be used -

Gross Registered Tons (GRT/grt) - 1 gross registered ton = 100 cu feet of enclosed space
Net Registered Tons (NRT/nrt) - which is GRT less the volume of the non-earning areas of the ship (for example the engine room)
Deadweight Tons (DWT/dwt) - is the weight of the cargo, fuel, and water that can be carried (the difference between the ship empty and fully loaded)
Displacement - is the weight of water that a ship displaces when it is floating (the weight of the ship and its contents)
Twentyfoot Equivalent Unit (TEU/teu) - with modern container ships having so much of what is carried above the upper deck the standard measurement of capacity is the TEU, based on the volume of a 20 ft long container (although standardized it is an inexact unit, as containers range in height and length)

The naming convention for Elder Dempster Lines and Guinea Gulf Line vessels was place names in West Africa, for the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company places in Burma, and for Blue Funnel Line (and Ocean Fleets) names from Greek mythology.

for full details please see the books and links below

Company Colours

Funnel
buff

Hull
Aureol white, green boot-topping
Accra / Apapa grey, green boot-topping
Other ships black, red boot-topping

House Flag
as shown here

see funnel colours and house flags

Photographs

class and individual ship photographs

Elder Dempster Fleet Lists
	The Elder Dempster Fleet History 1852-1985 J E Cowden and J O C Duffy published by Mallett and Bell, 1986 ISBN 0950945315 Elder Dempster Lines Duncan Haws TCL Publications Merchant Fleets series, 1990 ISBN 0946378177
History of Elder Dempster Paul Wood on this website this is in PDF format download a free copy of Adobe Reader software from Adobe website

Other Fleet Lists
	British and Burmese S.N.Co. ships
	Guinea Gulf Line ships
	other West African fleets
	links to more fleet lists

all text © Mike Ingham
photographs © as indicated on this website
book covers © publishers and authors
Elder Dempster Lines House Flag © Elder Dempster Lines
funnel colours © the individual companies

Elder Dempster Lines page

this page last updated 6 April 2015