OK, Martin, so you've made a believer of me with regards to "Grey Funnel Line"....well, more-or-less. I would think the term must be fairly recent. After all, how long have Royal Navy ships had funnels, and how long have those funnels been grey? When did the stacks of a ship come to be known as "funnels"? This page has a chart of steamship funnels in 1923, and this page speaks of the Blue Funnel Line in 1910 - so that takes us back at least that far. But when was it that funnels began to be used as identification for the owners of steamships?

With regards to St. Peter, my jury is still out.

-Joe-