Stephenson Clarke Shipping

[1] The company specializes in short sea bulk cargo such as aggregates, alumina, grain, coal, fertilizers and steel.

[3] During their career at sea, they began to buy shares in ships, gradually making the transition from captain to owner.

[3] The company that would become Stephenson Clarke was formed when the brothers bought shares in a 300-ton sailing vessel.

[4] On 11 January 1940 she survived being bombed and machine-gunned by enemy aircraft in the North Sea about 25 miles (40 km) off Flamborough Head.

[5] On 19 November 1941 she was involved in a collision off West Hartlepool with the 744 GRT coaster SS Gateshead[4] and sank about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Heugh.

[4] SS Woodcote was a 1,527 GRT flatiron coastal collier launched by Burntisland Shipbuilding Co. in 1924 for the Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Epsom and District Gas Company.

[4] On 4 December 1939 she was in an east coast convoy in the North Sea when she suffered an explosion caused by either a torpedo or a mine.

[9] SS Portslade was a GRT coaster built by William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd of Sunderland in 1936.

[10] On 25 July 1940 while sailing in a convoy in the English Channel she was bombed by enemy aircraft and sunk east of Dungeness.

[4] MV Ardingly was a 1,436 GRT coaster launched by SP Austin & Son Ltd of Southwick, Sunderland in 1951.

[4] In 2008, the Stephenson Clarke fleet consisted of 10 bulk carriers with a combined capacity of 68,238 tonnes deadweight (DWT).