Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd.

The Scindia Steam Navigation Company was one of the oldest Indian shipping companies. Founded in 1919, envisioned by Walchand Hirachand, it was a joint venture of Walchand along with Narottam Morarjee, Kilachand Devchand and Lallubhai Samaldas all of them businessmen hailing from Gujarat.[1] It played a significant role in Indian independence.[2] It was the first large scale Indian owned shipping company and started an India — Europe service with the Loyalty (ex-RMS Empress of India), but was forced to sign a 10-year agreement with British companies and its shipping route was restricted to the Indian coastal shipping trade for this period.

House flag of Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd.
Scindia house - Ballard pier Mumbai closeup
Scindia house - Ballard pier Mumbai full view

National Maritime Day of India & Scindia

5 April marks the National Maritime Day of India.[3] On this day in 1919 navigation history was made when SS Loyalty, the first ship solely owned by Indian people, through The Scindia Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., journeyed to the United Kingdom. This was a crucial step for Indian shipping history as sea routes were controlled by the British. The National Maritime Day was first celebrated on 5 April 1964 remembering this historic day and event, saluting the indefatigable spirit of Indian entrepreneurs, wholly owned by Indian management.

History

Foundation and early years

In 1919, after the end of the First World War, Walchand Hirachand, with several of his friends, bought the SS Loyalty from the Scindias of Gwalior. The vessel was originally the RMS Empress of India (1890) bought from the Canadian Pacific Railway and paid for by the Maharaja of Gwalior as a hospital ship for Indian troops in the First World War.[4] Hirachand's business premise was that the post-war years would also spell massive growth for the shipping industry just as the war years had done; however, British companies such as Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) and British-India Steam Navigation Company (BISNC) were strong in the shipping industry and this combined with political inertia had caused most of the previous attempts to establish competing Indian companies to fail. Scindia's founders, Narottam Morarjee and Walchand Hirachand, formed the new company to take on the entrenched British interests and create India's own mercantile fleet. Equipped with a ship Walchand named his company The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. On 5 April 1919 the SS Loyalty sailed to the United Kingdom. This occasion was commemorated with the establishment of a National Maritime Day of India, celebrated for the first time on 5 April 1964, and annually thereafter.

The company was recognised as the first Swadeshi shipping company in the true sense of the term and was referred to widely in Mahatma Gandhi’s columns in Young India and Harijan on the Swadeshi movement, the boycott of foreign goods and the non co-operation movement. The new company started with passenger services but quickly concentrated on cargo to avoid competition with P&O. The company barely managed to survive after entering into agreements on routes and fare wars with its foreign competitors. However, Walchand still supported new indigenous shipping ventures, as he believed that a strong domestic shipping industry was vital.

Expansion and competition

In 1923, the company signed a ten-year agreement with Lord Inchcape of P&O and British India, which restricted Scindia to coastal trade only, but still allowed the company to expand steadily. In 1927, SS Jalabala (1927) was launched by Vithalbhai Patel which was the first cargo steamer built by order of the company. Jalabala was later torpedoed and sunk by U-532 in 1943.[5][6][7][8][9][10] In 1929, Walchand became the Chairman of Scindia Steam and continued in the same position till 1950, when he resigned on grounds of ill health.

In 1932, the company purchased the Bengal Burma S.N. Co. The company entered the pilgrim trade to Saudi Arabia in 1937 and in the same year took over the Indian Co-operative Navigation & Trading Co. and the Ratnagar S.N. Co. 1939 Bombay S.N. Co. acquired and 1941 Eastern S.N. Co. also taken over. Services between India and the U.S.A began in 1947 and regular passenger and cargo services between Calcutta and the U.K./ Continent started in 1948. In 1950, a cargo and passenger service opened between India and Singapore and in 1954 an India to East Africa route was inaugurated. An India to West Africa service commenced in 1956 and in 1964 a Calcutta — Great Lakes service started. In 1968 a service to the Persian Gulf was started. Scindia also operated services to Australia and New Zealand.

Following the global shipping slump of the 1980s, Scindia S.N. Co. gradually sold off its fleet and ceased trading.

By 1953, the company had secured 21% of Indian coastal traffic. In 1951, the Scindia Steam Navigation Company was involved in establishing the Indian Coastal Conference, with the help of twelve other Indian shipping companies.[11] In September 1958, Indian Coastal Conference was registered as a non-profit making company under sec. 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. Based in Mumbai, its role is to deal with issues affecting the development of coastal shipping trade and to represent the interests of the coastal shipping industry before Government on matters relating to Merchant Shipping, Maritime Labour Convention. It became a successful organisation in the 1960s and continues to represent the interests of Indian coastal shipping companies.

In 1954, Scindia was involved in a court case with Pyrene Co. Ltd. during which Lord Devlin spoke about the archaic references to a ship's rail as indicating when risk and liability passed from seller to buyer under an FOB contract, described the situation thus:

Only the most enthusiastic lawyer could watch with satisfaction the spectacle of liabilities shifting uneasily as the cargo sways at the end of a derrick across a notional perpendicular projecting from the ship's rail.[12]

To be able to survive against competition in the shipping market from British and other foreign businesses, Walchand had developed supporting businesses such as insurance. He also believed that there was a strong need for a shipyard in India and started work on one in 1940 at Visakhapatnam, named Scindia Shipyard later renamed the Hindustan Shipyard Limited. Its first ship, the 8000-ton Jalusha, was launched soon after independence by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948. However, the shipyard came under government control a few months later due to the presumed importance of the project to country’s security and economic growth and was fully nationalised in 1961. The intervening years had been beset by harsh competition with the larger British shipping concerns. Passenger services were started with subsidiary companies, for the Burma trade and the Haj trade to Saudi Arabia. The war left a legacy of ships in poor condition, and a much smaller fleet.

Shanti Kumar Morarjee and Sumati Morarjee also guided the fortunes of the company for many decades.

Post war

Following Indian independence in 1947, Scindia, supported by the Government, entered the U.S. and UK passenger and cargo trades, and later traded to Australia and Singapore. Business was rationalized with many small subsidiaries being wound up. The government continued to support the company with loans for expansion plans, and in 1958 the National Shipping Board was formed, marking the progress made by the Indian shipping industry. In the 1960s cargo services went to Germany, the Pacific coasts, Poland and Canada, with increasingly large ships. Following the global slump in the 1980s Scindia ceased trading.

Status and operations since Scindia Steam Navigation Company (SCINDIA), incorporated on 27 March 1919, was established as a shipping company.

Since April 1997, the company has not undertaken any shipping or shipping-related activity. It has continued maintenance operations and sale of its properties in compliance with various statutory and regulatory bodies. Scindia Workshop is a wholly owned subsidiary.

The registered office is at Scindia Colony, Building III, Sir M.V. Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai-400069.

Financials

Scindia Steam Navigation Company disclosed that loss for the quarter ended in September 2008 had widened. During the year, the loss of the company increased 2.86% to Rs 48.95 million from Rs 47.59 million over the previous year period.

Total income for the quarter dipped 6.9% to Rs 0.27 million, when compared with the prior year period.

The company posted an earnings per share of Rs 5.17 for the quarter ended September 2008.

On 17 March 2011 Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company was to be held on 24 March 2011, to consider shifting the Registered Office of the Company and also the share department of the Company within the local limits of the city.

Flag

The company's house flag was a rectangular blue flag with a white disc in the centre bearing a red swastika, an ancient Hindu emblem of well being and goodluck.

Legacy

The Government of India has launched a number of stamps commemorating the company or its ships. The company produced a documentary film India's Struggle for National Shipping in 1947 which is considered as the first shipping film of India.

Locality
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References
  1. Stanley A. Kochanek (1 January 1974). Business and Politics in India.[Mit Tab.]. University of California Press. pp. 345–. ISBN 978-0-520-02377-2. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  2. Sue Swiggum. "Scindia S.N. Co". Theshipslist.com. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  3. Government of India, Press Information bureau. "Government of India — Press Information bureau". Press Information bureau. Press Information bureau (India). Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  4. "Empress of India Sold; Gaekwar of Baroda Buys Liner to Serve as Hospital Ship," New York Times. 20 December 1914; Ship List: Description of Empress of India Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Jalabala". Uboat. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  6. Gita Piramal (1 December 2010). Business Legends. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 250–251. ISBN 978-93-5118-148-4.
  7. Narayan Gopal Jog (1969). Saga of Scindia: Struggle for the Revival of Indian Shipping and Shipbuilding [1919-1969]. Scindia Steam Navigation Company. p. 52.
  8. "Launch of the "Jalabala"". Fairplay Weekly Shipping Journal. Fairplay Publications Limited. 21 July 1927. p. 165.
  9. The Shipbuilder and Marine Engine-builder. Shipbuilder Press. 1927. p. 446.
  10. Alan J. Tennent (2001). British and Commonwealth Merchant Ship Losses to Axis Submarines, 1939-1945. Sutton. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-7509-2760-4.
  11. About us: ICC Shipping Association, accessed 4 July 2017
  12. "Pyrene Co. Ltd. v. Scindia Navigation Co. Ltd". QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION [1954] 2 Q.B. 198. Archived from the original on 10 March 2015.

Further reading
  • https://openlibrary.org/a/OL1752330A
  • The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Limited, Bombay, India 1919-1958. by Scindia Steam Navigation Company. (TheCompany, 1958)
  • Saga of Scindia by Scindia Steam Navigation Company.(1969)
  • Foundation stone laying ceremony of the Scindia Co's shipyard at Gandhigram, Vizagapatam by Scindia Steam Navigation Company. (Printed at Zenith Print. Works, 1941)
  • The Scindia chronicle by Scindia Steam Navigation Company. (1953)
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