Killick Martin and Company Ltd is a privately owned global transport and logistics company with its head office in the United Kingdom. The company can trace its origins back to 1861 when it was founded by Captain James Killick and James Henry Martin. The company provides ocean freight, air freight, road freight, customs clearance, warehousing and supply chain management services. The company today has 5 offices in the United Kingdom and a global network of agencies. The ultimate parent company is Atlantic Pacific Group Ltd.
Services Killick Martin & Company Ltd provides ocean freight, air freight, road freight, customs clearance, warehousing, distribution and supply chain management services, with a focus on providing IT-based Services.
They also provide Integrated Logistics including 4PL Management, Supplier & Inventory Management.
Services extend to the world's largest industries including: fast-moving consumer goods, furniture, industrial goods, homewares, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and foodstuffs (both ambient and temperature controlled).
History
Founding Killick Martin and Company was founded in 1861 under the name Killick Martin by Captain James Killick (1816–1889) and James Henry Martin. James Killick was born at the Killick family home, named Whitehall in Cheam, England, in 1816. He first went to sea in 1831, commanding his first ship in 1840. His seafaring background gave him the necessary experience to manage the ship-owning side of the business. James Henry Martin, twenty years younger than Killick, who had previously worked for Phillips, Shaw & Lowther, which later changed its name to Shaw, Lowther and Maxton (owners of famous clipper ships like Ariel and Titania) concentrated on the running of the office and securing of cargo.
In 1863, the company name was changed to Killick Martin & Company when David William Richie became a partner.
On 31 October 1953 the Killick Martin & Company partnership was dissolved and the business acquired by a private limited company formed for that purpose to be known as Killick Martin & Company Ltd. The partners became directors, and Denys Godin became chairman, holding this position until 1970.
Shipowners (1862–1886)
An important part of Killick Martin & Company's business during its first 25 years was the owning and management of sailing ships. The three partners Killick, Martin & Ritchie constituted themselves as joint owners, although James Killick also held shares in three vessels on his own account: Yang-tsze, Challenger and Miako. The partners only twice held all the shares in owned vessels and these were Gazelle and Heversham. As specialists in managing ships and finding cargo initially all the ship owning partners nominated James Henry Martin, David William Ritchie and James Killick as managing owners, but in 1875 Martin and Ritchie designated James Killick the sole managing owner.
Apart from the three partners, the next principal shareholder was Edward Boustead, who held shares in eleven of Killick Martin & Company's vessels. Boustead was the senior partner in Boustead & Company from 1851 to his death in 1888. Two of Boustead's partners in Boustead & Company, Wardrop Shaw and Jasper Young, also held shares in some of the ships. Jasper Young owned 40 shares in Mabel Young presumably named after his wife or daughter.
Other shareholders had connections with the initial Managing Owners. John Dugdale had been the owner of John Dugdale which James Killick had once commanded and George Fredrick Thomson had been the master of both the Fusi Yama and Obma. He was the only master and shareholder in the Killick Martin fleet.
Vessels
During the period May 1862 and July 1886, Killick Martin & Company held shares in twenty vessels. The first vessel owned by the company, Gazelle, was built in 1862. She was primarily a sailing vessel with auxiliary steam power, although registered at Lloyd's as a sailing vessel. Gazelle was sold after only one year in the fleet, and, after that, the company only owned and operated clipper ships. During its ship owning period, Killick Martin & Company were represented in Hong Kong and China by Jardine Matheson.
Years Name Built NRT Type 1862–1863 Gazelle 1862 335 iron steam ship 1863–1871 Yang-tsze 1863 688 composite ship 1864–1866 Heversham 1856 489 wooden barque 1865–1868 Challenger 1852 650 wooden ship 1865–1870 Fusi Yama 1865 556 composite barque 1867–1878 The Sir Jamsetjee Family 1863 1049 wooden ship 1868–1881 Omba 1868 836 composite ship 1869–1885 Miako 1869 516 composite barque 1869–1885 Osaka 1869 527 composite barque 1869–1886 Wylo 1869 799 composite ship 1872–1872 Eastern Star 1866 340 wooden barque 1872–1884 Elmstone 1866 698 composite barque 1872–1882 Hope 1867 454 iron barque 1873–1885 John C. Munro 1862 613 iron ship 1873–1885 Lothair 1870 794 composite ship 1874–1885 Agnes Muir 1869 851 iron ship 1874–1874 Maju 1874 918 iron ship 1875–1885 Kaisow 1868 795 composite ship 1875–1886 Lucia ex Maria Fidelia 1868 640 composite barque 1877–1879 Mabel Young 1877 1016 iron barque
One vessel listed within the Killick Martin & Company fleet table, 'Eastern Star' is not listed in the shareholders' table as she was only owned between 27 September and 15 October 1872. Eastern Star, would appear to have been a vessel possibly traded on behalf of another party.
Shareholders
The numbers below represent the number of shares held at the time of registration or soon after. In the case of Gazelle Ritchie had not yet joined the firm.
Shareholders Vessels Gazelle 64 Yang-tsze 8 Heversham 64 Fusi Yama 20 11 8 16 5 4 Challenger 27 16 5 11 5 The Sir Jamsetjee Family 16 32 16 Omba 16 16 16 16 Miako 32 8 8 8 8 Wylo 16 16 16 16 Osaka 40 8 8 8 Hope 32 16 16 John C. Munro 32 32 Lothair 16 16 8 8 8 8 Elmstone 40 8 8 8 Agnes Muir 20 8 8 8 8 8 4 Maju 40 16 8 Lucia 24 16 16 8 Kaisow 16 16 12 12 8 Mabel Young 8 8 8 40
Notable captains
James Killick - Captain of Challenger
James Killick was born on 26 August 1816 in Surrey. The first ship on which Killick served was The Ganges in 1833. Many of the ships he served on were not known but he is next recorded as commander of the Arun in the Canton Press in 1841. He then commanded the John Dugdale in 1845. In 1849 he obtained his Masters Certificate.
Challenger was built in 1852 by Richard & Henry Green, in their Blackwall Yard for Hugh Hamilton Lindsay, London. She was a remarkable departure from the previous ships produced. In 1850 the American clipper ship Oriental visited West India Docks, the largest clipper ship to visit London and the Admiralty was given permission to take her lines, and this was done by Messrs Waymouth and Cornish, both Lloyd's Surveyors, in the dry dock at Green's Yard in Blackwell. This is probably the reason that it was said that Challenger's design was inspired by and had a close resemblance to the Oriental's.
From The Copartnership Herald, Vol. I, no. 8 (October 1931)
On 8 August 1853 Captain James Killick commenced another race with Challenger against the American clipper Nightingale from Shanghai. Challenger reached Deal on 26 November, 2 days earlier than Nightingale.
Captain James Killick went on to found Killick Martin in 1863 and purchased Challenger in 1865.
John Smith - Captain of John C.Munro & Maju
John Smith was born in Anstruther, Fife, in 1823. His life at sea saw him rise from a boy on a Greenland whaler, to the position of master of the Lahloo, one of the most successful of the China tea clippers. After the loss of the Lahloo in 1872, Smith was given a position by Killick Martin & Company, first as Captain of John C. Munro in 1873 and then to oversee the building of their New vessel, Maju at Dundee. She was an iron clipper intended for the "China Run", and much was expected of her in the trade. She sailed from Dundee on her maiden voyage bound for Rangoon with Smith in command, but was lost with all hands five days later off Barvas in Lewis, in the "Great Gale of 21st October, 1874". John Smith's body was recovered and he is buried at Riccarton, Ayrshire. Eleven members of the crew are buried at Barvas, Lewis. A book has been written about his life called China Clipper Captain by John Robinson. The house John Smith was born in has a blue plaque to commemorate his life and another he had built in 1870 is also a hotel called The Spendrift both in Anstruther, East Neuk of Fife.
John Gadd – Captain of Kaisow
Captain John Gadd was born in 1825. He took command of Kaisow at 50 years of age in 1875 and stayed with the ship until she was sold in 1885.
In 1883 Kaisow was passing Krakatoa at the time of its eruption. Second mate on Kaisow was Harry Davis, who went on to be a Captain himself, wrote a very graphic account of the experience. He described how Captain John Gadd sailed the ship down the Sunda Straits, braced sharp up, how the ship weathered the erupting island and so got into the open water and felt the tail end of the huge Tidal wave which tore north up the Sunda Straits.
Both sides of the Sunda straights were hit taking out 165 villages. The town of Anjur was completely wiped out, killing approximately 36,000 people. Some estimates for fatalities are as high as 120,000.
The eruption of Krakatoa created the world's loudest sound recorded in human history and could be heard 3,000 miles away. Anyone within 40 miles would have had their eardrums ruptured. Tsunamis caused by Krakatoa reached 98 feet high. The Sumatran coastline was devastated by waves and erosion caused by the blasts. A pressure wave from the third explosion traveled over 670 miles out from the island.
James Lowe - Captain of Agnes Muir
James Lowe was the son of Robert Lowe, another Captain in the Killick Martin & Company fleet. Robert Lowe had been Captain of Osaka for 11 years. James Lowe served in sixteen different ships from 1864 to 1918 and was an apprentice on the ‘Taeping’ during the Great Tea Race in 1866. He served as first mate on Killick Martin & Company’s The Sir Jamsetjee Family before being appointed Captain of the Agnes Muir when he was 27 years old. He remained a Captain for Killick Martin & Company until the Agnes Muir was sold in 1869. Later in his career during the First World War James Lowe was Captain of ‘Petroleline’ which in 1918 was shelled by a German submarine whilst crossing the Atlantic. The Petroleline returned fire and escaped the encounter. James Lowe was awarded the Lloyd's silver medal and an O.B.E.
House flag (1868)
Killick Martin & Company initially used a house flag or maritime flag to identify the company's vessels with two blue stripes and a wider white center stripe. From 1868, the design was changed by adding a vertical blue bar to form an "H".
Harry James, a former Captain employed by Killick Martin said that he had suggested to Captain Killick that in his opinion the original flag was too similar in design to a signal flag, so Captain Killick himself requested the addition of a blue bar.
The flag became known as "Killick's H" or the "Hungry H". The exact date of the change is unknown but a sail plan of Obma, a clipper owned by Killick Martin & Company showed the new flag in February 1868. An example of a Killick Martin house flag is held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, and one was flown above Trinity House on 15 March 1961 to celebrate the company's 100th anniversary.
Ship broking (1861–1999)