Apcar and Company

[5] Until P&O began shipping opium from Calcutta in 1851, the trade was divided between Jardine, Skinner and the Apcar Line.

[7] The Apcar Line's fleet became well-respected, efficiently carrying both cargo and Chinese coolies, mostly between Singapore, Hong Kong and Amoy, but also making regular voyages to Japan.

[9] The Apcar clippers dominated the opium trade until the 1870s, carrying their cargoes from Bombay or Calcutta, with a stop in Singapore, on to Hong Kong or the Canton River.

[5] The Apcars and Jardine Skinner exported opium to Singapore for use by the Chinese in the Malay Peninsula or for distribution to other locations in southeast Asia.

[11] Between 1875 and 1880 Captain Chapman James Clare (1853-1940) served on Apcar & Co. opium steamers trading between Hong Kong and Calcutta.

[15] They maintained this agency after the purchase of the Apcar Line by the British India Steam Navigation Company.

[16] In 1843 Arratoon Apcar founded the Armenian Patriotic School in his home town of New Julfa in Isfahan, Persia.

[21] He continued the family trading business, living at their home in Russell Street, where he entertained many people.

[23] On 27 February 1912 Apcar & Co, ships, workshops and mines, were sold to the British-India Steam Navigation Company for Rs 800,000.

[citation needed] The Arratoon Apcar, a 275-ton brig, began making regular voyages in the mid-1840s between Calcutta, Penang, Singapore and China, taking about two months each way.

In 1861 the 204-ton Thunder, a screw-driven steam ship, made the journey from Hong Kong to Singapore in just five days.

[26] SS Arratoon Apcar was an iron-hulled steamship with a 1,480 ton displacement built in Renfrew, Scotland, 1861.

She was taken over by the British-India Steam Navigation Company in 1912 when they purchased the Apcar Line, retaining her name.