Thread by @cocteautriplets

Today's "as seen on an auction house site" picture is the handsome steam & sail ship SS Windsor out of Leith off of Flushing. She carries the house flag of George Gibson & Co. who were a big name in Leith shipping, principally serving the Low Countries trade

Here's a rather nice service brochure from Gibsons in the 1960s. They continued a bulk liquids service from the Forth until the 1970s

I am here for this sort of graphic design (source = scran.ac.uk/database/image…)

Gibson-Rankine line combined the commercial shipping interests of Gibsons and Christian Salvesen in the Forth (Leith and Grangemouth), Rankines of Glasgow and Nicolls of Dundee. The Gibsons house flag is on the left, Rankines on the right (with Gibsons legend)

Nicoll's house flag was defaced with N.D. (for Nicoll, Dundee)

Christian Salvesen and its subsidiary The South Georgia Co. Ltd. used a house flag that many with longer memories of Leith might recall, with the flag of Salvesen's country of birth in the middle.

Christian Salvesen, who were mainly a whaling company, are the reason there's a Leith on South Georgia, it being the largest whaling station of those islands.

The *other* Leith is a long-abandoned, rusting industrial relic.

Salvesen's ships had a Norwegian inspired funnel colour. This one is "Southern Actor", a post-war whaler that is now a museum ship in Sandefjord, Norway. It is the only functional steam whaler in existence.

Whale catchers were little ships. Salvesen's whaling factory ships were anything but, the "Southern Venturer" was a 15,000 tonne vessel complete with a helicopter. We can now look back on this with the horror it deserves, but this was big business in the 1950s

Salvesens got out of the whaling business in 1963 and sold their assetts to Japanese firms. Leith Harbour in South Georgia was abandoned by 1965. flickr.com/photos/ericy20…

It was ever-diminishing returns that had caused the extreme modernisation and industrialisation of the Salvesen fleet into the 1950s. As whale populations were decimated, they had to hunt further and further from the island base, for more of the year.

Salvesens reinvented themselves as a distribution and storage company based in Leith and Edinburgh after they abandoned whaling and then commercial shipping. I can clearly recall their lorries around town when I was younger. flickr.com/photos/8873852…

Salvesens left their Leith headquarters on Bernard Street in the 1990s at some point (not sure when exactly), they left their flagpoles behind. This building also co-housed the Norwegian Consulate at one point too.

Salvesens are gone from Edinburgh and Leith now, but left a few reminders. Like the Penguins of Edinburgh Zoo who were first brought back from South Georgia by Salvesen's ships (in 1913 I think).

The Salvesen family lost a number of sons and nephews in WW1 and after the war built a small "Veterans Garden City" estate in Trinity for injured ex-servicemen. (Earl Haig Gardens. No comment on the name)

Plaques over the doors of some of the cottages commemorate the lost Salvesens and relatives of some of the other benefactors.

After WW2, the Salvesens again financed the construction of ex-servicemens housing, this time in Muirhouse. Salvesen Gardens is a pleasant little housing scheme, again along Garden City sorts of lines. Again if you stroll around you will find commemorative plaques by most doors.

And Salvesen Crescent, for ex-Lighthouse keepers. This is really one of *the* most charming little bits of social housing Edinburgh has to offer. Small but perfectly formed and with a style that evoques the NLB's housing style.

(my Great Uncle lives down here and they really are lovely houses and a lovely little community, with really nice gardens)