Rick, Your quotation is from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective novel " A Study in Scarlet". Sherlock is speaking with Doctor Watson. from Chapter 1 ......Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me. "I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street," he said, "which would suit us down to the ground. You don't mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?" "I always smoke `ship's' myself," I answered.* "That's good enough. I generally have chemicals about, and occasionally do experiments. Would that annoy you?" "By no means." ...... *ship's tobacco...... is slang for navy tobacco. The pipe, by its nature, is a contemplative device, as is evidenced by its place in the tales of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. In the Sherlock Holmes stories, a tricky conundrum is referred to as a "three pipe problem", and it is obvious from a peremptory study of the great detective’s methods that he was a devotee of "ship’s" tobacco*, a tough shag (tobacco cut into fine shreads) sometimes chewed by sailors, who occasionally referred to it as "pig’s tail". Here is the reference: http://news.scotsman.com/kirkelder/Mysterious-pipes-and-tough-shag.2562528.jp

I agree, it seems like "Ship" is the brand name of tobacco. It's already clear that they both smoke tobacco. It's a bit like saying "I drive a Porsche" instead of "I drive a Porsche car".

In this sentence, "Ship's" is a brand of tobacco. "I smoke Ship's brand tobacco myself."

Hi it sounds like a brand of cigarettes.