Material: Gilt brass with rope-edged rim and loop shank
Diameter: 25 mm
Description: This die-struck uniform button belonged to a ranking officer serving aboard a vessel of the Harrison Line (Thomas & James Harrison). The central design dramatically features the company's distinctive house flag: a broad, dark red Maltese Cross centered upon a solid white field, beautifully simulated here by the alternating smooth and horizontally lined textures of the brass face. Arching cleanly along the upper right-hand rim are the decorative, raised serif letters P.D.E.P., reinforcing the company's proud traditional operating values. The entire maritime composition is neatly enclosed within a premium, high-relief embossed roped border edge.
Reverse: Two-piece construction, marked FIRMIN • LONDON, with loop shank.
Notes:
The iconic Maltese cross house flag was originally adopted by the Harrison brothers in the mid-nineteenth century, quickly becoming a symbol of massive merchant dominance as their fleet expanded from early wine imports to a global network spanning the West Indies, South America, and East Africa.
The Harrison Line (officially managed under Thomas & James Harrison Ltd.) was formally established in 1853 following the passing of senior merchant partner George Brown. The Harrison brothers, who had managed smaller shipping operations with Brown since 1839, took full executive control of the business and astutely focused their initial fleet on a highly profitable niche: importing fine French brandy and wine directly from the Charente region. The massive financial success of this early spirits trade allowed them to expand rapidly, establishing the dedicated Charente Steamship Company in 1871 to absorb their growing fleet. Over the next several decades, the line systematically retired its older masted wooden sailing vessels to assemble a highly modern, steel-hulled merchant steamship fleet that projected British commercial power across South America, South Africa, and the Caribbean.
The company owned the most famous merchant cargo ship in Scottish folklore, the SS Politician, which tragically foundered off the Isle of Eriskay in 1941 while carrying 50,000 cases of fine Jamaican rum and Scotch whisky. This iconic shipwreck and the subsequent illegal salvage by local islanders directly inspired Compton Mackenzie’s famous novel and the classic 1949 British comedy film, Whisky Galore!