Shaw Savill Line

A poster of the Shaw, Savill Line promoting immigration to New Zealand in the 1870s

Shaw, Savill, and Co. of Billiter Street, London was a shipping company set up to transport both produce and passengers between Great Britain and New Zealand.

Robert Edward Shaw and Walter Savill (employees of Willis, Gann and Company, a London ship-broking and chartering firm) set up on their own account in 1858 and began chartering ships. They bought their first ship in 1865. While the trading name remained the same the partners who owned it changed a number of times.

The burning of the Cospatrick

476 lives were lost, there were ultimately three survivors, when the wooden Shaw Savill emigrant ship Cospatrick bound for New Zealand burnt at sea south of the Cape of Good Hope on 17 November 1874. There were lifeboats for only a third of those on board, the fire was believed to have been started by crewmen while plundering cargo.

Avalanche en route London to Wellington was struck amidships after dark near Portland, Dorset by Forest on 11 September 1877 with the loss of more than 100 lives. The New Zealand government bought land nearby and it was planned to erect a small church in memory of the passengers and crew.

Albion line

The company, by then a partnership of Walter Savill and James William Temple, agreed in November 1882 to join the Albion line in 1883 to form Shaw Savill and Albion Company Limited.