UK-based Stephenson Clarke Shipping goes into liquidation after nearly 300 years trading. Stephenson Clarke Shipping Ltd is the oldest British shipping company. King George II had been on the throne of England for just three years when the brothers Ralph and Robert Clarke purchased an interest in a 300-ton sailing vessel. The year was 1730 and their limited trading activities were to develop during the next 270 years into the present Ship Owning and Ship Management business of Stephenson Clarke Shipping Limited. Sons of the Reverend Ralph Clarke, a vicar of Long Benton, near North Shields, the two brothers took up seafaring Careers, becoming master mariners.