Last week I wrote about the great jetty at East Greenwich gas works and I thought that I should add to that something about the actual ships in wartime. I am aware of articles and talks which Lewisham gas historian, Brian Sturt, gives on these ships – and I will try not to copy what he has said - although he is much more authoritative than me on the subject.
Before the Great War in 1914 coal came to the gas works jetties at East Greenwich and Rotherhithe in chartered vessels from the north east ports. As the war continued this became more and more expensive and unreliable and in 1915 the South Met. Gas Company decided to set up their own fleet of vessels. They already had a considerable number of barges and tugs and a depot to service them at the West Greenwich gas works site – where Waitrose is now at the entrance to Deptford Creek.
To start with in 1915 the gas company bought four steam ships which were in course of construction. These were of course at the time in great demand and thus extremely expensive. It says a lot about the wealth and profitability of the gas industry that they could afford these ships in the middle of a major war and that they could use them essentially to reduce costs and thus the price of their gas. It was possible for the company to have changes made to the new vessels before delivery – in particular to the design of the access to the holds and also for better accommodation for crews including heating and baths.
The first ship to go into service was SS Dulwich – she had a triple expansion engine and could take 2,250 ton of coal. She was followed by SS Ravensbourne, SS Redriff and SS Lambeth. They were followed in 1918 by SS Kennington and SS Brixton. Other ships were chartered and purchased as necessary and as shipping losses mounted.
In 1916 the company bought SS Ravensgarth. Six days after her purchase, in November 1916, she was on her way to the Tyne from Cardiff when she was sunk by a U-boat off Worthing. To compensate for her loss the company bought thirty year old SS Pontypridd. But this was just the start.
In 1917 an hour after leaving the Tyne brand new SS Ravensbourne was subject to a violent explosion and went down in three minutes. Fifteen of the crew made it into the lifeboat and were picked up by a Danish vessel. As ever, down in the engine room, men died.
A month later SS Pontypridd had just left the Tyne when she hit a mine. Most of the crew made it to the lifeboats. The men in the engine room died.
In March SS Quaggy was nearing the Tyne when she hit a mine. Most of the crew made it to the lifeboats and were taken to Hartlepool. The men in the engine room died.
In June SS Dulwich, just fourteen months old, had left Seaham and was torpedoed. The lifeboats could not be lowered and the crew clung to wreckage – and three drowned before they could be picked up. The men in the engine room died.
Shall I go on...?
In October SS Amsterdam was proceeding south; the men on deck saw the torpedo coming toward them and the Captain was blown into the sea. The ship sank but most of the crew were picked up. The men in the engine room died. On the same day SS Togston was south of Flamborough Head when she was torpedoed and sank in two minutes. As the crew clung to the remains of the vessel the U-boat concerned came alongside to ask the name of the ship they had just sunk. Most of the crew survived. The men in the engine room died.
A few months later SS Kennington came into service and was torpedoed on her first voyage to Middlesbrough. She had been ordered into convoy by the Navy and had to move slowly with the other ships although she had been designed to be fast and outrun the torpedoes. South Met. complained to the Admiralty and after that their vessels could choose their own speeds.
In 1918 SS Giralda went down having been torpedoed and many of the crew survived. Her Captain, Captain Macfarlane, was one of them. He had also been captain of SS Ravensbourne when she went down in 1917 and later captain of another torpedoed vessel. He continued to captain the gas company’s vessels after the war was over. He was not the only member of the collier crews who survived ship wrecks and returned to another ship, and another ship wreck.
During the Great War South Met Gas Co. lost ten steamers by enemy action and thirty two men died. As the Company said ‘in the performance of ..a duty so prosaic as the supply of raw materials to our works..a duty as hazardous as any undertaken by those serving in the official forces.’ Let’s not forget too that these men when on land, in the pub, or the street, were those who were sometimes given white feathers by ardent militarists because they were not in the armed services and thus labelled as cowards.
Look – I know it was worse than this in the Second World War but I don’t have any details. Roughly, South Met. began the war with seven vessels of which four were lost - SS Brixton mined August 1940; SS Old Charlton dive bombed and sunk 17th February 1941 SS Effra was torpedoed by an E boat and sunk in 1941. Catford sunk by a mine in 1941.
After the Great War South Met Gas Co. thought long about their shipping. From 1927 all their ships were fitted with two extra water tight bulkheads to divide the ship up into many water tight compartments to minimise the risk of floundering after damage.
As you will see the same names were used for vessels over and over again. Effra is a river which is said to run under the streets of H=Brixton. SS Effra was the only one of the company’s original fleet to be still afloat at the 1918 Armistice. One of their junior officers was Sidney Smith. Effra had done a thousand trips between the Tyne and Thames by 1935 but in 1941 she was torpedoed with the loss of two lives.
In 1946 a brand new ship steamed up the river with coal from Newcastle. ‘She was called SS Effra. The new Effra could carry 4,050 tons of coal, twice the capacity of older ships and she could make three trips a fortnight. She could discharge at the East Greenwich jetty in 12 hours. She had a crew of 21. She had an echo sounder with an automatic pencil’. There was central heating, a stove and a refrigerator!! Most of all there was a Master’s cabin with blue furnishings and light mahogany furniture, and a private bathroom. And the corridor leadig to it had a pale blue carpet! I am sure you will be pleased to know that the Captain, living in such comfort, was the same Sidney Smith who had sailed on the original Effra thirty years previously.
I would be interested to know what happened to SS Effra of the 1940s – did she last into the 1970s to be one of the last of the ships which brought the coal to London gas works and power stations. The South Met fleet was not alone – North Thames Gas at Beckton also had a big fleet and so did Wandsworth Gas Co. with special vessels whose funnels could be lowered to go under bridges.
These vessels were the last of the massive coal trade which had dominated London River for centuries. When they stopped coming so the river became – and remains -an empty place. Young people today will not understand the shock of the loss of a River once full of boats, in the mid-1980s - and how quickly it happened – a couple of Clippers and the odd cruise liner are nothing at all. Around 1985 I remember sitting on the river bank opposite the silent South Met. East Greenwich jetty amid dereliction. The only sounds came from a scrap metal yard – and the river was empty. It felt like it was the end of the world. Perhaps it was.
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