Continuing down
the river we are now past Morden Wharf and are at Bay Wharf – today a boat
repair business.
After
Nathan Thompson and his Boatbuilding Company had gone, a different company took
over the new slips and boat yard in 1864 at Horseshoe Breach. The new occupants
were long established and world famous - Maudslay Son and Field. Henry Maudslay
had been born in Woolwich and trained under Marc Brunel. He is shown on one of the stained glass
windows in Woolwich’s Public Hall. His Lambeth works is famous for many
engineering innovations, including marine steam engines. However, Henry
Maudslay had died in 1831 and the firm continued under his sons and grandsons. They began to
branch out into other types of manufacture and The East Greenwich site was to be their
shipyard.
On
what the Kentish Mercury described as a 'great day for East Greenwich' Maudslay’s
first ship was launched in October 1865. This was the Lady Derby - named after
the wife of the then Prime Minister. She was a screw collier built for the
General Iron Screw Collier Co.’, meaning that she was meant to carry coal. A dampener was put on the proceedings when
Daniel Fitzpatrick, one of the partners in the firm, died the day before the
launch – which meant that at the ‘sumptuous luncheon’, which followed, all
toasts were cancelled except for 'success to the new ship'. This
luncheon was, inevitably, at The Trafalgar, while skilled artisan staff lunched
next door at The Yacht, and the labourers at The British Sailor in Hoskins
Street.
Sadly
The Lady Derby floundered after only a year and was abandoned at sea near Whitby.
The
next two vessels to be launched were naval tank vessels– ‘Pelter’ in 1867 and
‘Despatch’ in 1869. They were built for use at the Royal William Victualling
Yard at Devonport and used for carrying fresh water to the fleet and they remained
in service there until 1905. Tugs were built at the yard. – Traveller for
Field, Grappler for William Cory, and later Alert.
It
has not been easy to find out exactly what ships were built at Maudslay’s
Greenwich yard. A good friend of mine spent a lot of time trying to track them
all down but we have only a few names – and I sometimes still come across
others. Two of the most important ships built at Greenwich were sailing ships –
despite that Maudslay’s had been specialists in marine engines. These two sailing ships deserve more space
and will have their own separate article.
Elizabeth
was another tank vessel for use at Devonport Dockyard which remained in use
until 1921. There was a steamer - SS Legislator built for the Liverpool based
Harrison Line. In 1879 there was a Torpedo boat with a brass hull and described
as was ‘a very bad sea boat with good engines’ which was broken up in
1896. Maybe this comment fact sums up
the Maudslay’s yard at Greenwich – they made wonderful engines, but their ships
never quite reached the same standard.
The
yard covered nine and half acres with a 350 ft frontage to the Thames with a
deep water jetty. At the gate were a lodge, timekeeper's office and urinals.
There was a three bay erecting shop, a galvanising shop, a boiler house, a
foundry, a machine shop, an engine house and chimney. There were also offices,
a designing room, a stable, a typewriting room, and a strong room. Somewhere on site was a Massey patent steam
hammer, and radial drilling machine by Whitworth.
Sometime
between the early 1870s and the late 1880s the yard changed and became a boiler
works. The gate to the works had a large sign - ‘Maudslay Sons and Field Ltd.
Belleville Boiler Works’. Belleville
Boilers were French and 48 had been ordered by the British Navy in 1892 for the
cruisers Powerful and Terrible. But the company was failing fast.
In
May 1896, the company wrote to Morden College that they wanted to move Lambeth
Works to East Greenwich and –to extinguish the right of way on the riverside
path – a request which had come up several times in the past.. Negotiations were with Herbert Maudslay but
he appears less than keen, since he cancelled a meeting with Morden College
trustees on the grounds that he had to go to Cowes, .on the Isle of Wight. This
‘urgent business’ might explain a lot about the way in which the family, and
the company, was going. Herbert
Maudslay’s main interest was in yachting.
Thirty years previously he had been the owner of Sphinx, said to be the
originator of the spinnaker sail, and in 1893 he had been a founder of the Sea
View Sailing Club there, He was Hon. Secretary to the Club for eight years, and
by 1908 and remained as Commodore there
until his death in 1926.
In
the 1890s the Blackwall Tunnel was being built almost underneath the Greenwich
site and the Prince of Wales was to open it. The London County Council wanted
to alter the frontage of the Blackwall premises for the tunnel but agreement on
this could not be reached. The LCC erected a fence on their version of the line
and Maudslay’s foreman took it down. Things were beginning to deteriorate even
further. In March 1898 the company was summoned by the London County Council
and Maudslay had stopped paying any rent to Morden College.
In
October 1899 receivers were appointed and it was at Greenwich in June 1902 that
the bankruptcy sale was held. Equipment
from Lambeth was brought down to Greenwich and the site laid out for the sale. The
sale catalogue makes for poignant reading. Here is all the machinery and
equipment used by one of the leading engineering companies in the world. The first item is for the original screw
cutting and slide rest lathe and set of stock taps and dies made by Henry
Maudslay himself in the early 19th century.
It is a piece of machinery which, it is said, changed the world. At the
auction sale it was bought by the Science Museum and has been on display there
ever since. The Science Museum had in
fact had first choice of everything that was there.
On
the fourth day the auction turned to the offices with their lino, and the
stools covered in ‘faulty American cloth’, to the square of blue Axminister
carpet and a 'japanned tin purdonium'.
There were books ‘Bourne on the Screw Propeller’; coloured prints of the
‘Great Western Steamship’. In addition,
there were 14 photographs of machinery. Where
are those photographs now? Second on the
auction list, after Henry Maudslay’s own equipment, came ‘Camera with Wray
Lens’ – which was what they considered their second most valuable piece of
equipment. Wray’s works still stands by
the Ravensbourne in Ashgrove Road, Bellingham
A
sad end to what had been a great company.
Many of the ships built by
Maudslay Son and Field at Greenwich were identified by the late Hugh Lyon – to whom
I am endlessly grateful.
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