Jamaica Banana Producers Steamship Co. Ltd., managed by Kaye, Son and Co. Ltd.

Includes various documents including employment and pay records, fleet movements, details of ships, photographs and ephemera.

Related materials at RMG:

Archive: Papers relating to Douglas Stanley, merchant seaman and former employee of Kaye, Son & Co. (RMG ID. AML/Z/35)
Library: Kaye, Son and Co Ltd (RMG ID. PBN8995)
Objects: House flag, Kaye Son & Co. (RMG ID. AAA0281); House flag, Jamaica Banana Producers Steamship Co. Ltd (AAA0279); Captain H. Bird Collection (RMG ID. HNC0480)

Administrative / biographical background
Kaye Son & Co. Ltd was established as a shipowning company in 1912, when Frederick Kaye, who had been running a successful business managing steamers in Argentina, decided to acquire his own ships. In 1918 the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. Ltd and the Furness Withy and Co. Ltd acquired a large shareholding in the company. At the end of 1918 Frederick Kaye was succeeded as Managing Director by his son Sydney, who had served as the Secretary of the Refrigerated Tonnage Committee of the Ministry of Food during the First World War. By 1925 Kaye, Son & Co. was operating eight vessels, and in 1926 the company acquired the trading rights of R.P. Houston & Co. in the U.K and River Plate and ordered four new steamers. In 1929 the Jamaica Direct Fruit Line was formed as a result of a deal negotiated with the Jamaica Banana Producers Association of Kingston (an organization of independent growers) for Kaye Son & Co. to manage four steamers transporting passengers and cargo from London to Rotterdam and Jamaica and shipping bananas back to Europe. By 1935 the Jamaica Direct Fruit Line had acquired additional ships and changed its name to the Jamaica Banana Producers Steamship Company. By the outbreak of the Second World War Kaye Son & Co. Ltd owned 11 ships, and its operations included a UK-River Plate liner service, Jamaican vessels and general tramping. However eight of its ships were lost were lost by enemy action, one through collision, and a further three ships that the company had been managing for the British government were also lost. At the end of the war only two Kaye Son & Co. Ltd ships remained, the MARGALAU and the MARSDALE, and one Jamaica Banana Producer Steamship Co. ship, the JAMAICA PRODUCER. In the postwar period Kaye Son & Co. acquired more ships to continue its River Plate and tramping activities, and a new ship, the JAMAICA PLANTER, was also acquired for transporting bananas. In 1961 Kaye Son & Co. expanded its operations by acquiring a tanker, the KAYESON, but in 1973 the company was absorbed into the Furness Withy Group, and ownership of the KAYESON was transferred to its subsidiary Royal Mail Lines Ltd. Furness Withy sold the KAYESON in 1981. Following Jamaican independence in 1962 the ships of the Jamaica Banana Producers Steamship Company sailed under the Jamaican flag, and the Jamaican government took over the company in 1977.