This history of one of the oldest merchant shipping companies traces the company from its early shipbuilding roots — its English-born founder opened his first shipyard in Sheepscot, Maine, in 1770, re-locating it to Whitehaven, England, five years later as the colonies became more at odds with Britain — through its 19th century shipping business to India, South America and China, to the Second World War, and beyond. Eventually absorbed into the Cunard company, the name finally died in 1983; this book covers the entire period when members of the Brocklebank family were at the helm, or at least in the boardroom, of the company — more than half of volume 2 covers WWII.