The marine engineering department of the business is conducted in an imposing pile of buildings about 300 feet square. This immense shop is 50 feet high, and is divided into four bays, or compartments, by three spacious galleries of two floors, each 30 feet wide, and extending the entire length of the building. These galleries serve the double purpose of supporting powerful travelling cranes (two of which are capable of lifting loads of 40 tons, and the other two lesser weights), and providing convenient retreats where boilermaking, copperwork, and other operations are conducted. It is doubtful if a similar collection of ponderous tools is to be found anywhere else in Great Britain. Notable among the heavy tools seen here in operation is one of enormous proportions for planing and trimming armour plates, being capable of smoothing a surface 20 feet by 6 feet. There are three self-acting screw-cutting lathes, two slotting machines of great power, a universal radial drilling machine, with a radius of 18 feet, capable of boring a hole 4 inches in diameter, through a 9 inch plate in half-an-hour; a turning lathe having a 10-ft. spindle with a diameter of 20-ins.; a planing machine which cuts either horizontally or vertically, and has a traverse of 15 feet by 12 feet; two vertical boring machines, each with a travel of 5 feet; a turning lathe 8½ feet in diameter, with a 34 feet shaft; and a terrible and mysterious-looking machine, with a metallic disc 18 feet in diameter, armed with powerful steel cutters fixed round its circumference, which takes a shaving of 2½ inches off the mass of iron upon which it is operating. This machine was the invention of the late Mr Elder’s father, and is one of the most wonderful tools in existence. Adjoining this engine shop is the forge, which, with its 50 fires, 16 steam hammers, and all the necessary appurtenances to produce forgings with despatch, is an exceedingly busy section of the works. It is 300 feet long and 100 feet wide; and being lofty, excellent ventilation is obtained.
There are three smithies of large dimensions—one being retained for heavy work, and the others for light work. In connection with the engine shop is a pattern shop which, like all the other wood-working departments of the premises, is fully provided with tools having the most modern improvements. The brass foundry is well appointed, and is arranged in two sections—one for light, and the other for heavy work. Manganese bronze propellers, of which the firm make a speciality, are made here in great numbers; the monthly output of this department amounts to 45 tons, all of which is used up in the yard, with the exception of a number of propellers which the firm supply to other shipbuilders.
The capabilities of the Fairfield establishment, it may readily be believed, are of the highest order. Scarcely anything need be said in substantiation of this, as the past few years have witnessed the continuous production from its stocks of very many steamships of the highest class, whose names have already become “household words.” Of these it may be sufficient to instance the Arizona, the Alaska, the Austral, the Stirling Castle, and the Oregon. Apart from these, and perhaps no less worthy examples of Fairfield work, vessels of war have been turned out to a goodly extent, as well as vessels for a great variety of trades, but it is for the fast mail and passenger steamships that the establishment is chiefly famed. Its reputation in this respect bids fair to be augmented by the production of the two powerful Cunard steamers already referred to in this work, and which are now nearing completion.
The following tabulated form shows the amount of tonnage built, and the horse-power of engines fitted, by Messrs Elder & Co. during the past fourteen years:—
| Years. | Tonnage. | H.P. | Years. | Tonnage. | H.P. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross. | Indicated. | Gross. | Indicated. | ||
| 1870 | 22,795 | 18,139 | 1877 | 7,704 | 9,550 |
| 1871 | 31,889 | 29,000 | 1878 | 18,247 | 11,750 |
| 1872 | 24,510 | 22,450 | 1879 | 16,895 | 15,510 |
| 1873 | 24,829 | 18,300 | 1880 | 32,775 | 38,024 |
| 1874 | 31,016 | 16,110 | 1881 | 26,575 | 43,728 |
| 1875 | 17,818 | 12,040 | 1882 | 31,686 | 41,192 |
| 1876 | 13,533 | 16,550 | 1883 | 40,115 | 56,995 |
During ordinarily busy periods the number of operatives employed by Messrs Elder & Co. reaches six thousand. The united earnings of this great army of workmen amount to over £33,000 per month. As a further indication of the stupendousness of the works, it may be mentioned that on board a single vessel—the Umbria—as many as 1,200 workmen have been employed at one time. The supervision of affairs in this great establishment is, as may readily be understood, a matter necessitating numerous “heads,” “sub-heads,” and departments. The general manager in the shipyard is Mr J. W. Shepherd, a naval architect of well-approved ability.
The second of the three Clyde establishments selected for notice, and one in many ways specially noteworthy is:—
MESSRS WILLIAM DENNY & BROTHERS’ LEVEN SHIPYARD,
DUMBARTON.
The firm of William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, began the business of iron shipbuilding in the year 1844, in a small yard situated on the east bank of the river Leven. To this they subsequently added the “Woodyard” on the opposite side of the river, which had been occupied for a considerable period by William Denny the elder, builder of the “Marjory,” “Rob Roy,” and many other notable craft, during the infancy of steam navigation. The composition of the firm at the outset comprised William, Alexander, and Peter, sons of the builder of the “Marjory,” but it was augmented after a time by the assumption of two other brothers, James and Archibald. The co-partnery some time after again underwent change when the two brothers Alexander and Archibald seceded, and formed small yards of their own. In 1854 the firm sustained an almost irreparable loss in the death of William, the original promoter of the concern, to whose energy and surpassing skill most of the success then attained was due. His decease was deeply lamented, not only as an irreparable family bereavement, but as a public loss. When he first devoted his energies to the formation of an iron shipbuilding concern, it was at a time of great industrial gloom in the community. With its successful establishment began a brighter era in the industrial and social history of the burgh—one which has never once been seriously interrupted, and seems only now to be approaching the “high noon” of its prosperity. Sometime subsequent to the decease of William, the co-partnery was further reduced through the death of James. For a considerable time thereafter the business was carried on by Peter alone, until in 1868 he was joined by his eldest son William, and 1871 by Mr Walter Brock—co-partner in the firm of Denny & Coy.: a distinct marine engineering business established by Peter Denny and others in 1851. Within the past three years farther accessions to the firm have been made in Mr James Denny, son of James of the original firm, and in Messrs Peter Denny, John M. Denny, and Archibald Denny, sons of Peter, and younger brothers of William, who for some time has been managing partner of the shipbuilding firm, as Mr Brock is of the engine works.