History
Sailing ships were still in use when the Clarksons story began in 1852. The business expanded rapidly, thanks to the dynamic leadership which has characterised Clarksons from then until the present day.
Becoming exclusive brokers to Esso in the USA in the 1920s helped establish Clarksons as the biggest tanker brokers in the world. We have since developed into a global conglomerate establishing a network of offices across five continents, providing an array of financial as well as port services, based on our core business of shipbroking and the provision of market intelligence - unrivalled in its scope - on the shipping and offshore industries.
Tale of Two Dogs
Clarksons were small in tanker broking when, in 1929, Esso decided to appoint an exclusive shipbroker. Facing tough competition, Clarksons' chairman, Sir Osborn Holmden, visited Esso's formidable president, Walter C Teagle, in New York to plead his case. Both men, it transpired, shared a love of Labradors and talked for an hour of little else – and it was largely thanks to two gundogs that Clarksons won the business, becoming the biggest tanker brokers in the world as a result.