Alexander Collie and Co
of Manchester and London
See also Alexander Collie.
Alexander Collie & Co. purchased the SS Giraffe (built by J. and G. Thomson as a fast Glasgow-Belfast packet for the Burns Line) for their blockade-running fleet in the American Civl War. They were persuaded by blockade-runner Lieutenant John Wilkinson (Confederate Stares Navy) to sell her to the Confederate States Navy. She was renamed CSS Robert E. Lee.
1870 Description of packing machinery made by E. T. Bellhouse and Co for the cotton textile warehouse of Alexander Collie and Co in Manchester (steam engine, boilers, cisterns, hydraulic pumps and presses, shafting, gears, etc.[1].
The firm committed fraud and crashed in 1875 with liabilities of £2,000,000 due to .[2]. Alexander Collie jumped bail and left the country.