Cap badge.
The shipping company was started in the 1820s by an English emigrant to Newfoundland, Benjamin Bowring, and its vessels traded across the Atlantic to British ports. In its early days, it shipped cod and seal oil to Liverpool. When Benjamin's son Charles took over the business in 1841, the name of the firm changed to Charles T. Bowring and Company. By the 1860s shipping routes were opened up to India, Australia, New Zealand and the west coast of America. The company also had interests in sealing, petroleum and insurance. It operated the English & American Shipping Company Ltd and Red Cross Line running services across the Atlantic. The latter firm was sold to Furness Withy in 1929. The other company was liquidated in 1919 and re-formed as the Bowring Steamship Company. The company diversified after the First World War and by the 1950s the shipping side of the business concentrated on freight, iron ore and oil.