Thames shipbuilding was a major industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. Greenwich – taken as the area covered by today’s London Borough - lay at the downriver end of this industry. There were many more yards upriver and on the north bank of the river but although we need to recognise that they existed we should stick as far as possible within Greenwich Borough boundaries in the 20th and 21st centuries. ‘Shipbuilding’ here is about substantial ocean going vessels and some larger river boats. Barge building will be a separate chapter/
Apart from the Royal Dockyards, the oldest yards were in the St. Nicholas Parish – the Greenwich part of Deptford. In the 19th century, but as wood was replaced with iron, yards were set up in Greenwich and then the Peninsula, to eventual complete closure. There were also sites in Woolwich and of course, many shipyards much further down river at Erith and Gravesend and beyond my remit.
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
The Deptford Royal Dockyard had an influential shipbuilding neighbour. The East India Company known for ruling and exploiting a considerable portion of the world – and doing it from a London office. In 1607 they built a timber dock at Stone Wharf – that’s the site at the end of Watergate Street now called ‘Payne’s Wharf’.[1] In the sixteenth century the site was owned by Bridge House the City of London’s bridge maintenance fund. In 1604 it was leased to the newly set up East India Company and was known as Stone Wharf. [2] The Company was then undertaking speculative voyages – their role as rulers of a sub-continent was well in the future. They extended their lease in 1610 and on 1624 it is shown of the map of the area drawn up by the locally based diarist, John Evelyn.[3]
In 1609 they had two ships built at Deptford The Trades Increase and the Peppercorn
And it is possible they were built here. Houses at Stone Wharf are mentioned,
as being let out and on the street side were buildings of a Mr.’Felpes’’. A
‘banquetting house’ was built in 1615 and Evelyn’s 1624 map shows two quite
large buildings on the site together with a riverside crane.. But by 1640 Stone Wharf was being used for
storage of landing and storage of guns and ammunition by contractors..[4]
In 1614 they opened a yard in the area now known as Stowage[5] and the 1624 map shows their works on the western edge of Church Marsh.. Before 1620 they had built over 30 ships and employed 500 men. Their East Indiamen were ‘superior vessels’ fitted out both to repel attacks from pirates, or whoever, and also to provide a standard of comfort for company dignitaries.[6]
This second Deptford site was set up in 1614 for the Company by one, William Burrell, who had been appointed as ‘Master Shipwright’. He had previously been a shipbuilder with a site at Ratcliffe near Wapping. In 1614 Shakespeare is still alive, so let’s remember Burrell was setting up his major shipyard in doublet, hose and a big lace ruff although his work on the site and sourcing timber supplies all sounds very organised and ‘modern’. From 1619 he was also Master Shipwright at Deptford Royal Dockyard which must have led to some complications. After this second appointment the East India Company raised his salary from £200 to £300 a year. He is said to have had a house on site in Deptford. He eventually fell out with the Company in 1626, resigned and died in 1630 after a trip to Portsmouth. [7]
Between 1610 and 1620 the East India Company is said to have built over 30 ships here. These were said to be the larger ships, and it is possible the Company’s first two purpose built first ships were built here. They were the Trades Increase, which came to a relatively tragic end and lies wrecked off Bantam, and the smaller, Peppercorn. Peppercorn returned to England, losing another 19 sailors to disease on the return voyage. [8]
The Deptford site seems to have had a remit for repair and fitting out. On site was an iron foundry to make anchors and chains, a spinning house to make cordage, a slaughterhouse to kill animals and then facilities for salting and packing the meat. There were store houses for timber and canvas. There was also a gunpowder store isolated on the east side of the site nearest the Creek.
There was a major archaeological dig at this second site 1997 with 20 archaeologists working on it. They did not find a vast amount. The East India site had slips which let out onto the Thames and s is described as ‘an open yard area with deep wharves for loading and unloading’. They found dumps of ‘the primary waste from shipbuilding’. It looks very much as if some of the site was intended not so much for building ships as for fitting them out and supplying them for a voyage plus doing any necessary repairs on a return from a voyage.[9] Excavations showed that in the 17th Century a deep wharf had been provided to allow larger vessels to the dock edge and later in the 18thCentury a new river wall was built on its Thameside frontage. Much of this work was done re-using old ship’s timbers and much of this was built extending the dockyard out to the north by 10 metres. Surrounding debris found was ship construction related, caulking hair, treenails, and so on.[10]
The East India Company closed this Deptford Yard in 1643 to concentrate on the now famous Blackwall site. The Company however continued to have ships built it Deptford and they were also present in Woolwich. From 1633 they leased the Woolwich rope yard returning it to the Navy in 1661.[11] The facilities which were built at Deptford were used by other shipbuilders throughout almost 300 years and for the construction of Deptford Power Station and General Steam Navigation‘s site. One slipway, greatly strengthened and altered, may have been used for coal deliveries to Deptford Power Station in the late 19th
There are some famous views which claim to be of the East
India Company’s Deptford shipyard in production. One, ‘East India Company Ships
at Deptford’, is the subject of several web pages which point out that the
date of the painting is after the closure of the yard and then, very
impressively, they detail every
ship in the painting and describe what it is doing there..Another well known
sketch apparently dated 1840 shows an impressive building with a little bell
tower.[12]
OTHER SHIPBUILDERS ON SITES BETWEEN UPPER WATERGATE AND DEPTFORD
A number of shipbuilders operated on these sites
from the mid-seventeenth century. The East India Company’s yard was leased to a
John Tailor in 1636 to be followed by others.[13] The yard then had a dock and two
slipways. Most of them were fulfilling government
contracts for warships and private merchantmen were probably built here
too.
The East
India Company was not alone in providing dock areas in the
mid 17thCentury. In
1655 Nicholas Crispe, who owned the earliest Deptford Copperas works visited
John Evelyn to
make a suggestion about a ‘mole to
be made at Sayes Court‘. I am entirely unclear as to what a ‘mole’
means in this context but it was some sort of breakwater or pier in the river
and something to do with the Royal Dockyard. Evelyn mentions this episode in his diary
without comment but in the files of his correspondence, now in the British
Library, are letters from Crispe filed and kept by Evelyn. They describe a number of visits
which Crispe made to Sayes Court in order to discuss his ‘mole’ but on each
occasion Evelyn was ‘out’ and it is only after some time that he replied to
Crispe and they eventually met.
This idea
was also noted by Samuel Pepys who discussed the project with Crispe and
noted that it entailed a dock at Deptford to take ‘200 ships of sail’.
BARNARD
William
Barnard seems to have taken on the old East India Yard in 1779.[14] The site appears to have consisted of a dry
dock, three slipways, crane houses, and ancillary buildings. However this is much more like a description
of their Deptford Green shipyard, than the old East India site – and this is borne
out by a plan of the Barnard yard reproduced in their company history.[15]
They are
said to have had the largest output of any of the Thames Yards Second only to ‘the
great Blackwall yard’.[16]
Barnard were
long established ship builders with several sites. They had originated in the
mid 17th century in Harwich and Ipswich where they built the Hampshire in 1741 and the
Arrogant and the Centurion in 1761 and 1774. They also built many ships for the
East India Company. Later they took on a large site at Grove Street, Deptford (north of the current Greenwich boundary). After
1780 they appear to have concentrated on the Deptford sites
At first
Barnard did well with forty two ships built at their two Deptford yards - thirteen
for the Navy and the rest for the East India Company. However following the
American War of Independence the Navy Board began to ask for delays to launches
of completed ships – a financial loss to the builder while they remained unused
on the slips. In 1803 the Admiralty records report that Francis Barnard Sons
& Roberts were only willing to contract for a warship ‘on a stuff and time'
basis, as they had lost money on a previous contract.
William
Barnard died in 1795 leaving a widow and two teenage sons. While England battled with Napoleon there was
still a demand for ships and the vessel which took him finally to St.Helena was
the Northumberland, built by Barnard in 1788.
The business was managed by the elder of the two teenage sons, another
William and he had to face a falling off of orders, inflation and industrial
action. He died in 1805 aged 29 and management was taken over by his younger
brother, Edward
The Navy
Board continued to order ships from Barnards – one ship from this period, Cornwall, ended up as a boys’
reformatory school. At least twenty-six warships, including eleven line of
battle ships, were built in thirty-eight years and there was also a steady
output of East Indiamen - twelve are listed in his Register of Ships .. of the East India Co of 1835. When the
East Indiaman, Baring, was launched in 1801 there was a celebration in the
London Tavern.
Not much is
known after the end of the Napoleonic War but a newspaper report of 1834,
states that the East Indiaman, Coutts, is now under repair at Mr Barnard's
Yard, Deptford'. In the same year there was considerable local feeling against
George Barnard Esq., one of the MPs for Greenwich, for non-payment of the poor
rate on part of his shipyard at Deptford. He pleaded that that part of the yard
had been very little used during the period quoted. He referred to himself in
court as a poor broken down Shipbuilder'.
After the
defeat of Napoleon orders for naval ships fell away quickly, and in 1814 The
East India Company’s monopoly on Indian trade was ended. The yards became empty ‘virtually shut’. Meanwhile Edward Barnard bought a vast Essex
mansion and became Member of Parliament for Greenwich. The company history says ‘the yards
were...abandoned in the late 1830s’. Edward lived on until 1851 when his will revealed
him to be insolvent.[17]
The shipyard
at Deptford Green is thought to have built
23 ships for the government between 1790 and 1813. They would also have built
18 East Indiamen and 17 other merchant vessels.[18]
CASTLE
The Castle family were well known as ship breakers, but claim to be descended from a 17th century Rotherhithe shipbuilder. He is apparently mentioned as early as 1637 by the East India Company in relation to the disposal of their site at Stone Wharf.[19] An occupant of the Stowage site from 1692 was a Robert Castell. William and Robert Castle were shipbuilders in the late 17th century and mentioned in Pepys's Diaries. Robert was also a contributor to local charities at St.Nicholas Church in this period.[20] Research by Castle historians indicate that in 1664 the site was leased to William Castle and then in 1692 taken over by his brother Robert Research by Castle family historians indicate that ‘in 1664 the site was leased to William Castle and then in 1692 taken over by his brother Robert. William Castle was an expert on the construction of naval vessels as well as being married to the daughter of the Surveyor of the Navy. In 1677 he was one of only two builders on the Thames able to build 3rd Rates was considered too expensive. In the building programme of 1690, the yard probably built 3rd rates. [21]
In 1689
Robert Castle was one of several Thames shipbuilders summoned to the Navy
Office and asked to quote for eleven fire ships. All quoted £7 5s to £7 l0s per
ton. Castle finally accepted a contract for two at £7 2s 6d per ton, and the
money was paid in four instalments of £400. [22]
Occupation of the yard by the Castles appears to have
ended in 1713. The website lists 14 ships built by the Castles at Deptford.[23] Of these the earliest was a frigate, Formosa, for the East India Company and
the remainder were Royal Navy ships.
These include two bomb vessels,
two fire ships, five fourth rate ships, one 6th rate and
three third rates.[24].
There are also suggestions that they were
forerunners to the later Castle ship breakers.
COLSON
Identification
of William Colson as a London shipbuilder seems to depend on the identity
of Frederick Henrik Chapman who was born in Gothenburg in 1721 – he was a
very, very major naval architect and based in Sweden. His mother was the daughter
of a London shipbuilder called William Colson [25]- note however that it
says ‘London’ ship builder not ‘Deptford’ and I can find no
reference to a Colson as early as this in Deptford.
There
was a Colson shipbuilder in Deptford over hundred years later who is said to have
a wharf on Deptford Creek. I doubt that Colson had been there all the
time since the 1720s and never been noticed! This Colson was near Creek
Bridge in 1835.[26]
In
the late 1830s Colson was commissioned to build two big packet boats for the
Navy. These were two masted sailing vessels probably intended for use in
training. They were called ‘Express’ and ‘Swift’. There is a
newspaper report of the launch of Express[27] and also, sadly, a report
of how a number of men were Deptford to help with the launch of Express.[28] Both ships are described
as “packet brigs”. Having been built in Deptford were taken to Woolwich
for fitting out.
Once
commissioned and based at Falmouth with later repairs at Plymouth. Express
eventually went to the east coast of South America and was sold in the 1850s.
Swift, also commissioned went to the Pacific in 1849.[29]
In
1835, Colson advertised the sale of English and African oak and fir from his
yard as ‘over plus puff the building of two of His Majesty’s packet
boats’. He also said he was building a ‘new pleasure yacht on the
most approved principles. [30] There is no more
information after that.
GORDON & CO.
Gordon’s shipbuilding activities were upriver o Deptford, mainly atDudmsn’dsDpclThe Gordon family did have an operation at Deptford Green but it was a metalworking one, focusing on iron founding and anchor making. It was developed in the last quarter of the 18th century by David Gordon (1751-1831), and his then partners John Biddulph (his brother-in-law) and William Stanley - of Lime Street in the City.[31]
It was a
very substantial operation. The various entries in the London directories state
that the following trade activities were undertaken there 'millwrights";
'engineers'; 'machinists'; anchorsmiths'; 'founders'; and 'wholesale
ironmongers'. Given the Gordon family's educational and mercantile background,
they must have been very dependent on skilled draughtsmen, managers and foremen
for the production of both businesses. This skill base certainly helped make it
a ship building business of first rank.
IVE
In 1834 part of the site at the old East India Company yard
was taken on by a William Ive, a shipbuilder, who had apparently been occupying
the site for some time previously. There were at least two generations of the
family working on site. In 1849 he was given notice to undertake repairs to
what was a dilapidated site.[32]
LUNGLEY
There were
great changes in shipbuilding as iron replaced wood and steam replaced sail in
shipbuilding. Wooden ships depended on
highly skilled craftsman and firms were at first overtaken and then eliminated
by the large technologically innovative businesses’ as the industry was
transformed by iron and Thames supremacy ‘became still more pronounced.[33] In Greenwich dynasties of wooden shipbuilders
- often originating from staff from Deptford Dockyard - were replaced by new
and innovative builders.
Shoehorned
into this area somewhere between the Deptford Green shipyard and the old East
India was the shipyard of Charles Lungley.[34] He was clearly a bit different to other
shipbuilders, inventing, adapting and changing in the use of new materials and
methods.
Lungley’s
background is unclear. He appears to have had brothers in various provincial
shipyards.[35] There
was a ship yard under the name of Lungley in existence as early as 1814 when a
frigate was built there[36]
but then no apparent mention until after 1854 when they built five screw mail
steamers, implying that they already had a reputation.[37]
These steamers were for the Union Steam Collier Co and the Union Steam Ship Co.
and, even by contemporary standards these were small - but, of course, the
destination of the ships was Cape Colony, a very small, poor and sparsely
populated place. He also built several
shallow draught steamers for Australia and, in the early 1860s, some sailing
ships for the China trade.[38]
At Deptford
Green he built ships with iron hulls. He held a series of patents and of which
the most noticeable was for unsinkable ships with watertight compartments
below.[39].
Barry says two vessels built by Samuda were partially fitted with his
unsinkable system of watertight compartments above the waterline.
Lungley’s constructions
were generally of modest size although his hull design and workmanship were
both conspicuous and he had a number of very smart vessels his credit’.[40]
19th writer P.Barry says that
Lungley’s Deptford Green dockyard was 'without exception the most complete yard
on the Thames' and further”,
Lungley also
designed and built steam engines at Deptford and he is thought to be the person
who persuaded the Admiralty to use screw-steamers as mail ships. He also undertook repairs and Lloyd's
Committee made his work a model when they extended the rules for the
restoration of ships. In 1866 he built the largest ship launched at the
yard . She was built for the Panama, Australia & New Zealand Royal Mail Co
. She raced Scott Russell's Lions from
Newhaven pier to Dieppe pier and won.[41]
His yard was
centred round a large dry dock with caisson gate which was divided up as
necessary. It had a large entrance lock leading to an ‘elastic basin’. No doubt
he used cheap labour to dig it out and fill it in as required. Barry was
particularly impressed by it.[42]
In 1864 his
Deptford Green yard was purchased in a deal with Millwall Iron Works and he
became what appears to have been their manager. He may therefore have been
involved for the mishap at the launch of
HMS Northumberland. When Millwall Iron
Works went out of business he returned to the Deptford yard.[43]
After Lungley left Deptford his dry dock became
known as the Metropolitan Dry Dock and was also associated with General Steam
Navigation – more about them in a moment...
PETER PETT
In 1649 the old
East India Company Yard was leased to Peter Pett as the first of a succession of ship builders
and repairers on this site. Clearly it
is not easy to get right which Peter Pett this was – and I note various web
pages trying to explain the differences between them. It is said that the Admiralty itself had difficulty with the family with so
many members as shipwrights and all with the same first names.
There was
more than one Peter Pett around in 1649, but I assume that whichever it was
worked as a shipwright. If so the old East India Company yard was used by then for either for private
work or as an extension to whatever prestigious post they held in the royal
dockyards.
POPLEY
After the Castles
the old East India site is said to have been leased to Edward Popley. His will was proved in 1716[44] and his death in 1728 is recorded in
St. Nicholas church.[45] This is perhaps a father and son, although
they are clearly short lived. They were involved in the building or, more
likely, the 1716 rebuilding, of HMS Panther[46] and in repairing the Mercury and Queen,
packet boats for Lisbon.[47]
WALKER
Another
shipbuilder who definitely had a wharf frontage on the Creek although he seems
to have later moved to Deptford Green - was William Walker who is mentioned as
a neighbour of the Anthracene Company in the 1870s. Walker is a good example of
another ship builder who had a number of sites and moved about between them,
Keeping track of him is not helped when every port and shipbuilding area on the
east coast and elsewhere seems to have a ‘Walker’s’ shipyard. [48]
In
the 1880s Walker advertised having a ‘large graving dock’.[49] This has to be one
of the docks which were originally built by the East India Company. They had
been used by various successors - Lungley, for instance, who altered and
modernised one of them. Walker described his company as ‘marine engineers’ and
probably concentrated on using the dry docks for repair work.
Walker
definitely built ships at Rotherhithe – they built ‘Lothair’ there in 1870
. This was the last of the famous clippers and the last big ship built in
Rotherhithe.[50]
Meanwhile
we hear nothing about what Walker’s Deptford site was used for. In 1875 Walkers
declared bankruptcy describing themselves are ship builders and engineers.[51] Bankruptcy doesn’t seem to have stopped ship building
by Walker’s at Deptford, In 1879 they
built ‘Fury’, a steam tug [52]– and tugs and similar
sized vessels seemed to be what they built in this Deptford yard. She was
bought by a company up river in Pimlico and in 1881 her skipper was fined 40
shillings for navigating at a speed ‘to cause is damage to the river bank’ at
Putney . She had various owners at Brentford and lasted until 1939
In
1881 Walker’s also built iron screw tug ‘London’ nicknamed ‘The
Squib’ - because ‘she was very narrow, ran very fast and had a
terribly large turning circle’. She was owned by Mark Goodwin of
Southwark and then The Gamecock Company which was a Gravesend based group of pilots
owning and operating tugs. In 1887 she was used to rescue the crew
off a sinking barge and then took them to Sheerness. In the 1890s she was
sold to Newport, in Wales and then to Liverpool and was eventually scrapped in
Tranmere on the Wirral in 1908.[53]
In
1882 Walker’s advertised a ship called August, a brig ‘of
Grieveswald’ – which I suspect was with them for repairs and never claimed
back. It is they say, in their dry dock. It had been in an accident at
Southend and was going to be auctioned.[54]
There
were however problems at Deptford in 1882 with ‘trade riots’ ‘of a
serious and threatening character’. This was among men from Walker’s
shipbuilders and Wheen’s soap manufacturers.[55] It appears that trade
unionists at Walker’s were refusing to work extra long hours for low wages but
that Irish men had signed up ‘to work all the year for a fixed scale of
wages,…’and are now working overtime without extra pay’. The unionised workers
at Walkers ‘have taken a strong stand against long hours and low
wages’. The newspaper report is keen to blame the Irish population
in Deptford for this and everything else – they said that the Irish population
in Deptford was very large and the disturbances which ‘take place after
dark involve heavy sticks, pokers, and even crowbars …’ extra
police have been brought in’.
In
a press statement of 1882 Walkers say they are building a
ship, ‘Cormorant’, also a ship ‘Morton’ ,three new ships and two
1,000 ton steamers. ‘Cormorant’ is a fairly common name for ships and
it appears that General Steam had a number of Ships with bird names. The
P&O Heritage web site says that she was built in 1882 and that she was a
general cargo ship working for P&O, owned by General Steam Navigation. [56].I’ve been unable to find
a press report of a launch.
So Walker’s seem to have continued to build vessels at Deptford although I suspect that they were working on behalf of General Steam Navigation who were eventually to take over all these Creekside .
WELLS
This small shipyard at Deptford Green seems to have been run
in conjunction with Wells and Perry’s largely yard in Rotherhithe. However the
yard had a large double dry dock and a substantial building. It is therefore
thought that some of the EastIndiamen which Wells built in this period would have
been built at Deptford Green.[57]
WEST
In 1738 the old East India yard site was leased to Titus
West, described as a ‘merchant’ from Wapping; the lease was later transferred
to Thomas West. Between 1740 and 1764 West built thirteen ships for the Navy
ranging from bomb ships and sloops to the third rate Russell. They include HMS
Baltimore, said to have been designed and built for Sea Lord Baltimore.[58]
GENERAL STEAM NAVIGATION
The most famous firm on the site, now Glaisher Street and houses, here
was General Steam Navigation , They who were on the most easterly section of
the wharf, alongside the Creek. Some readers will remember them. I am sure many of us older people
can remember the Royal Daffodil steaming across to France with day tripper in
the 1950s.
Their founder, Thomas Brocklebank, is said to have first built a paddle steamer on Deptford Creek, then other vessels which were eventually taken over by General Steam. His site has not been identified but is said to have been on Deptford Creek.[59] He is said to have built a number of vessels there which were later taken over by General Steam . This Mr Brocklebank was a Deptford timber merchant and is not to be confused with the Liverpool shipbuilder of the same name who lived in Westcombe Park.[60]
General Steam dated from 1824 and had been set by a group of business men including the construction contractors Joliffe and Banks. They had leased Stowage Wharf from the East India Company along with the old dry dock. from 1825 when it was leased from a Mr. Pearson.[61] By then they were had a fleet of 15 Deptford-built steamers at Stowage. Early ships included Eagle in 1820, – firstly Eagle in 1820, said to be a wooden paddle steamer used on the Margate Service, followed by Hero, Royal Sovereign, City of London and Brocklebank. Later Harlequin and Columbine were built on the same site by Evenden.[62]
Most ships built
here were used by the Company for their network of services. Paddle steamers were
used for passenger transport and screw drive steamers for their cargo trade.
They carried mail and pioneered the ‘coastal steamship services on which
England depended’. They imported live cattle and sheep - although this trade
was lost with the opening of the Foreign Cattle Market on the Dockyard site.
They specialised in links with ports in Britain and they also ran all those
pleasure cruises to resorts down river from Deptford and across the Channel. By
1837 they had 351 vessels.[63]
From 1900 parts of
the site began to be leased to the London Electricity Supply Company for
Deptford Power Station expansion. Stowage Wharf was the first site to go. In
the Great War their yard was taken over by the Government and the Company lost
25 vessels on war service.
By the 1940s they
had about 45 ships and early on in the Second World War they evacuated London
schoolchildren. Their vessels undertook a distinguished role at Dunkirk where
their eight ships are thought to have evacuated 31,000 troops. They
also evacuated troops from the other small ports and much else. Deptford Yard
was badly bombed on several occasions including a V2 in the Creek itself.
Before D-day 303 smaller vessels were converted in various ways here including
landing craft and anti aircraft ships
After the war
vessels continued to be built at Deptford where there was still a staff of
about 300. And of course there was the Daffodil taking jolly crowds on day
trips to France.
This ended in the
mid-1960s and men were laid off from 1967 and then became a lorry depot.
General Steam was swallowed up into P&O in 1972, and then the last remains
of the Deptford Yard closed.
[1]
Philpott,Christopher. MS of
study carried out for Faircharm developers. (Location not known–partial copy in
my possession. Understand copy at the
Creekside Centre.
[2]
ttps://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/13352.html; Excavation.
Deptford on site of East India Co. dockyards & Trinity House almshouses,
Post-Medieval Archaeology 38 Jan. 2004
[4] Excavation. Deptford on site of East India Co.
[5] The name is said to come from ‘Storage’ – ie the East India Company’s storehouse. However it is much older than this, first being noted from 1397
[6] Phillpotts.
[8] https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781529234497/ch003.xm
[9] ‘Deptford Creek. Surviving Regeneration’.
[10] Excavation. Deptford on site of East India Co.
[11] Survey of Woolwich
[12] National Maritime Museum
[13] Peter was a common name in the Pett family! The famous Peter Pett who had built Sovereign of the Seas at Woolwich was by 1649 the Navy Commissioner at Chatham Dockyard. Another Peter Pett, a master shipwright at Deptford Yard died in 1652. He too had a son called Peter. Whoever – clearly they were setting up a private business while employed by the Government.
[14] Barnard. Building Britain’s Wooden Walls.
[15] Barnard .
[16] Elmers.Deptford’s private shipbuilders. Trans. Naval Dockyards Soc. Vol 11 Jan 2019
[17] Barnard
[18] Elmers.Deptford’s private shipbuilders. Trans. Naval Dockyards Soc. Vol 11 Jan 2019
[19] http://castlesshipbreaking.co.uk/shipbuilding/
[20] http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D763949
[21]
Banbury, Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway
[22] Banbury
[23] http://castlesshipbreaking.co.uk/shipbuilding/
[24] Banbury,
[25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredrik_Henrik_af_Chapman
[26] Banbury
[28] Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal 24th November 1835
[29] Banbury
[30] Kentish Mercury 5th December 1835
[31] Ellmers. This Great National Object - the Story of the Paddle Steamer Enterprise'. Shipbuilding and Ships on the Thames' Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium 28th February 2009.
[32] Pitt Papers
[33] Arnold. Iron shipbuilding on the Thames
[34] Arnold says Lungley bought the Deptford Green Yard – but this is not clear. The yard was highly rated by P.Barry in “Dockyard Economy and Naval Power’ and described as ‘the most complete works on the Thames’.
[35] Banbury says that there was an earlier Lungley yard on the Thames. A family history correspondent to the Greenwich Industrial History blog in 2009 suggested a brother James shipbuilding in Southampton.
[36] Banbury
[37] Banbury
[38] Barry Barry visited the yard in 1863.
[39] Banbury
[40] Arnold
[41] Banbury
[42] Barry
[43] Banbury
[44] http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D715635
[45] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-environs/vol4/pp359-385
[46] Winfield. British Warships in the Age of Sail
[47] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol28/cdxxv-cdxxx
[48] I hope not to confused Deptford in Sunderland where many ships were built, with our own Deptford.
[49] : Shipping and Mercantile Gazette 24th September 1881
[51] Bell's Weekly Messenger 19th March 1883
[52] http://www.shippingandshipbuilding.uk/view.php?a1Page=1027&ref=222340&vessel=FURY
[53] http://www.shippingandshipbuilding.uk/view.php?a1Page=1027&ref=208729&vessel=LONDON
[54] Shipping and Mercantile Gazette18th December 1882
[55] Eastern Morning News 6th October 1882
[56] https://poheritage.com/collections/ac525e7c-feca-3a60-b9f2-27c3ab62bc1f/?s%3D%26view%3Dgrid%26oldsite%3DPhotographs%252FShips%252FBAMORA-in-port%26filter%5Bsubject.summary.title.keyword%5D%5B%5D%3DGENERAL%2BSTEAM%2BNAVIGATION%2BCOMPANY%26sort%3Ddate_asc&pos=3
[57] Elmers.Deptford’s private shipbuilders. Trans. Naval Dockyards Soc. Vol 11 Jan 2019
[58] Banbury
[59] Peter Gurnett (history of GSN) who knew Deptford well was unable to identify either Brocklebank’s shipyard or his Deptford timber business.
[60] This Thomas Brocklebank is apparently no connection with the family from Liverpool, who eventually founded Cunard. On the web a number of family historians detail their attempts to link them. They do point out however that there is a distinctive spelling for each of them – although, to be honest, both spellings seem to be used indiscriminately. Brocklebank lived at Westcombe House in Blackheath (Rhind. Blackheath Village and Environs) although some web sources say that this was the Cunard Brocklebank.
[61] Gurnett. A brief history of the General Steam Navigation Company.
[62] Banbury. There seems to be scant information about any of these vessels – most such boats have several dedicated web sites, but these just seem to consist of information copied from other sources (as this is!)
[63] Gurnett.
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