William Davies (master mariner)
Captain William Davies MBE (1862 – 27 March 1936) was a British sea captain and business man, a founding partner in the City of London shipping company Davies and Newman and Chairman of the London General Shipowners Society.
His Petroleum Tables (1903), a standard reference work for tanker officers, went into several editions and was still the best-known book on its subject in the 1930s. During the First World War, Davies worked with the Admiralty on tanker transportation and was rewarded with the Order of the British Empire.
Early life[edit]
Born in Bristol, Davies was the son of Thomas Seth Davies, master mariner, originally from Pembrokeshire, Wales, and his wife Julia. In 1871, the family was living in Fremantle Square, Cotham, and Davies and his younger brother Joseph were at school.[1]
In June 1885, Davies’s father died at sea.[2]