Balfour Williamson & Co was a shipping company based in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and later an export confirming house

Confirming house

A confirming house is a specialised UK agency that purchases and arranges the export of goods on the behalf of overseas buyers. They finance the movement of goods into the country by offering short-term credit to importers and guaranteeing, or confirming, payment to the suppliers in the suppliers...

 and freight forwarding company. It is now a subsidiary of Lonmin

Lonmin

Lonmin plc , formerly Lonrho plc, is a producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...

 (formerly Lonrho).

The company was founded in 1851 by two young men from Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, Scotland, Alexander Balfour

Alexander Balfour

Alexander Balfour was a Scottish merchant and founder of the Liverpool shipping company Balfour Williamson.Balfour was born in Leven, Fife, the son of Henry Balfour, a foundry owner...

 and Stephen Williamson

Stephen Williamson

Stephen Williamson was a founder of the Liverpool shipping company Balfour Williamson & Co. and a Scottish Liberal Party politician.He was born in Cellardyke, Fife in 1827, the son of Archibald Williamson, a shipowner...

. They were joined for a time by a third partner, David Duncan

David Duncan (UK politician)

David Duncan was a British merchant and shipper and a Liberal politician who briefly represented the seat of Barrow-in-Furness....

. The company traded with South America, and had offices in Valparaiso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 and San Francisco.

Williamson and Duncan were responsible for the company's operations in Chile, which thrived. A subsidiary was set up in Chile, the Williamson-Balfour Company

Williamson-Balfour Company

The Williamson-Balfour Company was a Scottish owned Chilean company. Its successor company, Williamson Balfour Motors S.A., is a subsidiary of the British company Inchcape plc....

, which was involved in many activities, most notably in sheep farming on Easter Island

Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...

 between 1897 and 1953.

The company's first ship was the Gardner, soon replaced by the Santiago

Santiago (1856 ship)

The Santiago was a 455 ton barque launched in 1856. It was built by Henry Balfour of Methil, Fife for the Liverpool shipping company Balfour Williamson. It sailed mainly between Liverpool and Chile, but also to Australia....

, a 455 ton barque

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

. The Santiago was sold in 1888, and later the hulk was used as a coal store in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, where it still lies.