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Hearts of Oak
Coaling Depot
Ships
Swan Hunter
& Wigham Richardson
The Times -
Engineering Supplement; 27th October 1909
The
shipbuilding and engineering enterprises at Walker and Wallsend-on-the-Tyne,
which have been amalgamated under the style of Swan, Hunter, and Wigham
Richardson, constitute one of our most valuable resources for the constructive
work of the Navy: In the actual building of warships, the company, it is true,
has so far taken but a small part, and, the intelligence that it was to
construct one of the destroyers of the 1909 programme caused a certain amount
of surprise, but it has for years been engaged in work upon most important
fleet auxiliaries and the equipment of naval bases.
At
Wallsend was built the first great floating coal depot for the Navy, having a
storage capacity of 12,000 tons, which is furnished with 12 Temperley
transporters, and provided with an ingenious arrangement of shoots for filling
sacks without shovelling. At this depot ships can coal on both sides and there
is the equivalent of 1,000 yards of quay frontage. The Wallsend yard
constructed the floating dock for Bermuda, which has a lifting capacity of
13,500 tons, end it has built floating docks for the Spanish, Japanese, and
Natal Governments. More recently a large floating dock has been completed for
Collao, which was safely towed thither from Wallsend, the voyage including the
difficult navigation of the Straits of Magellan. At the present time the
company is building one of the huge floating docks for Dreadnoughts, which are
to have & lifting capacity of over 30,000 tons. But the operations of the
Wallsend yard have not been confined to work of this class only. The
magnificent turbine-driven Cunarder Mauretania was built there, which vessel
was splendidly engined by the neighbouring Wallsend Slipway Company, and has
made such surprising steaming records. The Cunarders Ivernia, Carpathia, and
Ultonia were also built at the same establishment, where have been constructed
a large number of mail and passenger steamers, yachts, cargo vessels,
cable-layers, ferries for railway trains, floating workshops, oil tank
steamers, and other classes of vessels. There is not a yard in the kingdom that
has done more varied work or gained more useful experience than these Tyne
establishments.
The
Neptune Works were founded at Walker by Mr. John Wigham Richardson in 1860, the
area being then four acres, and the river frontage 107 yards, and there were
three shipbuilding berths, of which the longest measured 320ft. Messrs. C. S. Swan and Hunter's shipyard
dates from 1872, and the Tyne Pontoons and Dry Dock Company from 1882. These
three concerns were amalgamated in 1903. Their premises lie adjacent to one
another on the deep bend of the Tyne on its north bank, about three miles east
of Newcastle. They have now together an area of 78 acres, with a river frontage
of some 4,000ft, the shipyard and engine and boiler shops of the Neptune works
being nearest to Newcastle, the dry docks department at Wallend east and north
of them, and the Wallsend Shipyard at the end of the bend nearest to the sea.
Branches of the North-Eastern Railway run into and through the whole of the
works, and bring them into communication with the numerous local collieries and
steel works. Modern machinery has been laid down for the rapid execution of
work, and in addition to the shipyard the premises comprise the yard for
constructing floating docks; the engine and boiler works, which have together
an annual output capacity of 60,000 ihp; a dry dock, 550ft. long, 76ft. wide at
the entrance, and with a depth of water over the sill of 26.5ft; and two
floating docks lifting vessels up to a length of 350ft.
Perhaps
it will be more useful, instead of describing the plant and equipment of the
company's establishments, to give an account of the great variety of the work
undertaken, which will suggest the efficiency of its resources. In the first
place, reference may be made to the repairing and docking of ships. Ships have
been docked for the British, United States, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese,
Norwegian, Argentine, Chilean, Brazilian and Chinese Governments. The
Wittekind, of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, and one or two other vessels, have been
cut in two and lengthened. The Russian icebreaker Ermack was fitted with a new
bow. The Australian steamship Miowera, which was stranded at Honolulu, was
brought to be repaired at Wallsend, and the work was executed, including the
voyage of 14,000 miles, at a smaller cost than would nave been possible at the
American port. Many other repairs and alterations to ships of various classes
nave been executed at these works. Evidently to the British Navy the existence
of such a well-provided establishment for building ships and fleet auxiliaries
and undertaking large repairs must be of the utmost value and importance in
case of fighting in the North Sea.
The
great variety of ships built at the yard has been indicated. The magnificence
of the Mauretania, her great size, and the splendid success of her turbine
machinery, will not be described here. All that need be said is that the
concerns which can execute such work must be capable of doing the most
important shipbuilding for the Navy. The building of the great coal depot is
further proof of the resources and capacity of these establishments, and the
skill and experience that directs them. A notable feature of the works is the
array of four class covered shipbuilding berths, equipped with overhead
travelling electric cranes, of which one is 740ft, long, with a clear width
inside of 100ft, and a height of 140ft, and is capable of being lengthened to
900ft. On this berth the Mauretania was built. Twelve other building slips for
vessels of various sizes make a total of 16. The platers' sheds are supplied
with the most modern equipment for rolling, bending, shearing, and punching,
and the reheating furnaces, operated by a gas-producer plant, are adjacent. A
very valuable feature is the great floating crane, capable of lifting 150 tons
and tested to much more, which has its own propelling machinery, and can
facilitate work enormously. In case of a ship arriving at the mouth of the Tyne
with compartments flooded and deep in the water, this crane could lift her guns
or other heavy weights out of her, so that she could be docked for repair. A
crane of similar power is now being completed by German firms for the Germania
yard at Kiel It may be of interest to add that Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham
Richardson have the English rights of the Schlick gyroscope, the object of which
is to prevent the rolling of vessels in a seaway.
It
is perhaps improbable that floating docks will ever entirely displace masonry
graving docks, but that they have a large field of utility before them no one
can doubt. Two of the largest in the world are to be built for the reception of
British Dreadnoughts, and the floating dock has established its favour abroad.
There is practically no limit to the
lifting capacity of these docks; they can also be constructed very rapidly and
comparatively cheaply, and, besides several other merits, they have the great
advantage that they con be moved from place to place. The majority of the
floating docks existing in this country, and some abroad, have been constructed
at the Wallsend yard of Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson. Docks of
this class have been built up to 36,000 tons and they will probably be built up
to 40,000 tons or more. That to be constructed for the Admiralty will embody
the fruit of unrivalled experience, and will be of the most efficient "self-docking"
character, and presumably of the "bolted sectional" type. The
efficiency with which the construction of floating docks proceeds at Wallsend
is shown by the rapidity with which they are completed. The dock for the Vulcan
Company was completed with all its machinery, and was moored at its berth at
Stettin ready to receive a ship, within eight and a half months from the
inception of the project. A dock for Rotterdam, with a lifting capacity of
7,600 tons, was built and completed within six months.
It
will be seen that Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, while building
liners and passenger, mail, and cargo boats, have so far been occupied largely
with those fleet auxiliaries which are of such supreme importance to the Navy -
the floating coal depot, floating docks, floating workshops, and oil-tank
steamers. The Mauretania and other liners are, however, capable of being used
as auxiliary cruisers. Thus the new Cunardar is fitted for an armament of 12
six-inch guns, while the coal bunkers are a protection to the engine and boiler
rooms, and the rudder and both sets of steering gear are below the water-line.
Possibly the Wallsend yard will yet be seen building larger vessels than
destroyers for the British Navy.
Transcribed from
The Times
Raymond
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