Shri Ambica Steam Navigation Company was an Indian owned navigation company having its head office at Dadabhai Naoraji Road at Bombay.
It was started in 1942 by Bombay based Gujarati businessmen and founder directors were Ratanji Mulji, Mathuradas Mulji, Liladhar Chatrabhuj, Madhavji Nensi, Kanji L. Sheth and other promoters included Seth Haridas Madhavdas, Rai Bahadur Jagmal Raja, Seth Vithaldas Kanji, Seth Vijaysinh Govindji.Our seafaring in the the [sic] Indian Ocean by Odayamadath Kunjappa Nambiar, 1975International Shipping and Shipbuilding Directory - Page 168 - 1972Kothari's economic guide and investors' handbook of India, 1965, pp:xxxii
The company operated on western coast of India. Its crew consisted of ships like D/S Mammy purchased in 1945 and renamed Ambica,http://www.lardex.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_sobipro&pid=75&sid=462:1911-DS-MANDEVILLE-I-3021911057&Itemid=143 Woodlark purchased in 1956 renamed AshaWoodlark (1928) The s.s. Halcyon Med was purchased by the Shri Ambica Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., Bombay in 1956 and also renamed Asha II.Fairplay Weekly Shipping Journal - Volume 187 - 1956 - Page 1206
The Shri Ambica Steam Navigation Company later also launched an airline company named Ambica Airlines, as its subsidiary, in year 1947, however, the airline was closed in 1949.A History of the World's Airlines by Ronald Edward George Davies. Oxford University Press, 1964. pp 391. Another short-lived company was Ambica Airlines Ltd which began local services to points north of Bombay on 10 March 1947. Operating the inevitable DC-3s, with a few Beech 18s and other types, it was associated with the Shri Ambica Steam Navigation..Jagmal Raja vs Crown - Ambica Airlines
The company was member of the National Steamship Owners' Association.Liner Shipping in India's Overseas Trade by T. K. Sarangan, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - 1967 - Page 101Kothari's Economic and Industrial Guide of India, Kothari, 1978 pp:50
The company, however, became defunct due to operational losses and other factors and stopped doing business by the year 1980 by which time most of the founders were either not alive or not active.Diary of Golden Days at Jharia – A Memoir & History of Gurjar Kashtriya Samaj of Kutch in Coalfields of Jharia – written by Natwarlal Devram Jethwa of Calcutta & Sinugra compiled by Raja Pawan Jethwa (1998). Life sketch Jagmal Raja, Rai Bahadur
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