Alexandra Towing Company Ltd

From Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, volume 1: Alexandra Towing Company. Founded at Liverpool in 1887, after the take over of G.B. Cowl's towage firm of 1882, with the Mack family (see J.J. Mack and Co.) and Alexander Bicket (Athel Line) among the major shareholders, it became one of the major towage firms on the Mersey. It took over W. & T. Joliffe and Co. of Liverpool, a tug company founded in 1854. In 1919 it followed the Cunard Line's move to Southampton and in 1925 it had a base at Swansea. A series of takeovers between 1962 and 1975 including Liverpool Screw Towing, Britannia Towing Co. (Swansea) in 1962, J.H. Lamey in 1968 and London Tugs in 1975, made it a national business. It also diversified into deep sea towage, offshore services, ship repair, aircraft and road transport. In 1992 it was sold to Howard Smith Industries of Hull. The museum holds a number of plans in the SAS collection, five models and the full size tug Brocklebank (1964). For further details see the attached catalogue or contact The Archives Centre for a copy of the catalogue.