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A public reference property of Baalvion
Open data · every figure carries its source
water transport
Reported fleet size
—
No published figure available
Container capacity
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Not a ranked container line
Gross tonnage on record
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Summed over 0 ships reporting tonnage
In brief
The New Zealand Shipping Company (NZSC) was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973.
A group of Christchurch businessmen founded the company in 1873, similar groups formed in the other main centres, to counter the dominance of the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line. There were seven initial directors: John Coster, George Gould, John Thomas Peacock, William Reeves, Robert Heaton Rhodes, John Anderson, and Reginald Cobb) representing the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency.
The similar groups of businessmen in Dunedin and Wellington soon joined this Christchurch company followed by the Auckland group. They completed the four-main-centre link in July 1873. John Johnston Wellington, John Logan Campbell Auckland, and Evan Prosser of Dunedin were elected to the main board. A Captain Ashby opened an office off New Broad Street London and chartered two ships carrying 500 government emigrants: Punjaub 883 tons and Adamant 815 tons set to sail for Canterbury on 31 May and 20 June respectively with full cargo. By November 1873 they had purchased two vessels, Hindostan and Dilfillan and chartered eighteen. Two 1,000 ton ships were scheduled to be launched the same month and named Waikato and Waitangi.
The company gradually established a fleet of vessels, using Māori names for each.
Corporate profile
Fleet on record
Composition of the 1 vessels this registry attributes to New Zealand Shipping Company. Bars are true proportions of that set, not of the company's full fleet.
Delivery history
Ships delivered in each of the last 10 years, counted from the recorded build year of vessels attributed to this company, with the running total of its fleet on record. No deliveries fall inside this window — this company’s vessels on record were all built earlier.
| Year | Deliveries | Ships delivered | Gross tonnage added | Fleet on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2018 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2019 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2020 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2021 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2022 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2023 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2024 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2025 | 0 | — | 1 | |
| 2026 | 0 | — | 1 |
Vessel records
| Ship | IMO | Type | Flag | Built | Gross tonnage | Deadweight | Length | Builder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5301564 | Unclassified | United Kingdom | 1951 | — | — | 178.2 m | John Brown & Company |
Ships in registry counts individual vessel records attributed to the company here. Reported fleet is the company’s published total. They measure different things and are shown separately on purpose.
In context
Counts over companies and vessels actually held in this directory — not over the world fleet, which is larger. Nothing here is estimated.
With 1 vessels attributed to it here, New Zealand Shipping Company is the 492nd largest of the 965 operators in this directory that hold at least one ship on record, against a median of 2 across that group. That is a count of individually identified hulls, not the company’s published fleet size — the two are different measurements and both are shown above where available.
United Kingdom is the country of registration for 97 commercial operators in this directory, among which New Zealand Shipping Company ranks 38th by ships on record. Between them those companies hold 260 vessels here. See every operator registered in United Kingdom.
Founded in 1873, New Zealand Shipping Company is 153 years old. This directory holds 43 operators founded within five years either side of that date, whose median fleet on record is 1 ships. The median founding year across all commercial operators here is 1966, and the oldest on record dates to 1514.
Same country
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49 on record · est. 1973
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17 on record · est. 1830

Cunard Line
14 on record · est. 1840
Thames Clippers
12 on record · est. 1999
P&O Ferries
11 on record · est. 2002
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
10 on record · est. 1837
TechnipFMC
10 on record · est. 2017
Subsea 7
10 on record · est. 1973
Provenance
Company and vessel recordsWikidata item Q1983344, released under CC0. Counted figures on this page are counts over those records.
Written summaryQuoted from New Zealand Shipping Company on English Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Published fleet figuresNo published fleet figure is available for this company.