Douglas Steamship Company

HF: The Douglas Steamship Company was a British merchant company and maritime trading company founded in 1833 in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong by John Steward Lapraik and dissolved in 1987.

After arriving in Hong Kong in 1858 to join his uncle, Douglas Lapraik’s shipping empire at Douglas Lapraik & Company, John Steward Lapraik quickly became one of the main figures in the business. With the death of Douglas Lapraik in 1869, John Steward Lapraik became of the main beneficiaries of his uncle’s estate together with Robert Ellis Baker, William Lane and Robert Manger.

Due likely to reasons related to desired control over operations underway at Douglas Lapraik & Company and future expansion opportunities, in 1883, John Steward Lapraik founded the Douglas Steamship Company 28 July 1883 with two partners. The company, named for Hong Kong Tai-pan Douglas Lapraik, became registered as HKCR No. 0000012, the 12th limited company ever registered in the colony.

By 1892, the Douglas Steamship Company successfully acquired the operations of Francis Cass of Amoy to form a new subsidiary called Lapraik, Cass & Company which would continue operations out of Amoy. In the same year Douglas Steamship Company also acquired Dodd & Company of Tamsui on Formosa which would go on to be a bastion of the company’s activities. The Tamsui subsidiary was dubbed Dodd and Lapraik & Company. The same year, the Douglas Steamship Comany issued around 1,000,000HKD in new share capital following the publication of a prospectus.

Source: Wikipedia

This article was first posted on 8th May 2025.

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