Golden era of London’s last great shipyard
Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd built the first ‘modern’ battleship for the Imperial Japanese Navy, the world’s most powerful warship, and HMS Warrior, the world’s first all iron and armour-plated battleship.
London and the River Thames might not immediately spring to mind as a major shipbuilding centre – yet there were a number of yards during the 19th Century which were highly successful builders.
Samuda Brothers of the Isle of Dogs, Thorneycroft at Chiswick, and J. Scott Russell & Co. of Millwall, which built Brunel's Great Eastern, are leading examples. One yard that became the river’s largest, constructing some of the most significant warships of the period, was Thames Iron Works. It would also be the last major yard on the river.
Roots date to 1837
The company's roots can be traced back to the Ditchburn and Mare Shipbuilding Co., established at Deptford in 1837. The company was amongst the first to build iron ships on the Thames, and by 1849 it was constructing vessels of over 300 tons.
In 1843, construction started on a new site at the confluence of the rivers Lea and Thames at Bow Creek, Canning Town, with the yard becoming operational in 1846.
Its future, under the name CJ Mare and Co from 1847, was one of mixed fortunes, with considerable growth and some 3,000 employees by 1855. But bankruptcy followed as a result of late payments on naval contracts and cost miscalculations.
New company established
As a result, in 1857, a new limited company, named the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd, was established with a capital of £100,000. The company would become the largest shipbuilder on the Thames and in December 1860 established its reputation with the launch of the battleship HMS Warrior, at the time the world's largest warship and the first constructed of iron, and with armour plating.
Now preserved at Portsmouth, Warrior would set the pattern for major warships for decades and would be followed by the yard’s even larger HMS Minotaur in 1863 – one of a large number of significant vessels built by the yard.
A philanthropic owner... and golden years
The most notable of the new owners were Charles Mare, Peter Rolt, and Arnold Hills. Hills became managing director in the 1890s and, in 1894, introduced an eight-hour working day, reducing the much longer hours common in industry. He also set up a profit-sharing scheme.
At its peak in 1891 the yard employed 7,000 men and covered an area of 30 acres. In total, 144 warships, for nearly all the governments of Europe, Russia and Japan, together with 287 merchant ships, would be built by the yard. In addition to ships, the company produced a range of motor cars and marine engines, and built docks, cranes and bridges such as the Westminster and Hammersmith Bridges, and Blackfriars Railway Bridge.
However, rising wage costs in London and increasing competition from the shipyards in the north of England and Scotland led to the yard finally closing in 1912.
The golden era of major shipbuilding on the Thames had come to an end.
Yard’s most famous ships: Launch dates
HMS Dwarf, 1842: Steam yacht, first Royal Navy vessel to be solely screw powered. (In 1840, HMS Bee was designed with a screw propeller and paddles.)
Argo, 1853: Iron screw steamer, the first screw steamship to circumnavigate the world. (The paddle steamer HMS Driver completed the first steam circumnavigation in 1847).
Himalaya, 1853 (above): Built for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co, and with a displacement of 4,490 tons, Himalaya was the world's largest ship at the time. Purchased by the Royal Navy in 1854 for use as a troopship.
HMS Warrior, 1860: The world’s first all iron and armour-plated battleship, now preserved at Portsmouth.
Anglia, 1866: Steam paddle tug famously known as ‘three fingered jack’ because of its three funnels arranged one forward and two abreast behind. Towed the barge, also built by Thames Iron Works, that contained the Egyptian obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle on its last leg from Ferrol, Spain, to London in 1877.
SMS König Wilhelm, 1869: The Prussian Navy's first iron-hulled warship, popularly considered at the time to be the world's most powerful warship.
HMS Sans Pareil, 1887: Sistership to the ill-fated Victoria that collided with the Camperdown in 1893.
IJNS Fuji (above), 1896: First ‘modern’ battleship for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
IJNS Shikishima, 1898: Battleship for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Together with Fuji formed 50 per cent of Togo’s battleship force at the battle of Tsushima, 1905. The other two battleships were built by John Brown, Clydebank.
HMS Thunderer, 1911: A so-called ‘super dreadnought’ battleship of the Orion class. At 22,500 tons she was briefly the world's largest battleship and would be the last major ship built by the yard and on the Thames.
More than 250 lifeboats were built at the yard.
John Barnes is a maritime journalist and former editor of Engineer’s Review.