PALMERS SHIPBUILDING AND IRON COMPANY, LIMITED,
JARROW-ON-TYNE.
Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Limited, have their works at Jarrow-on-Tyne, about four miles from the sea. The works embrace both banks of the river Tyne, cover nearly 100 acres of land, and employ about 7,000 persons. They were first commenced in 1851 by Mr Charles Mark Palmer, the present M.P. for North Durham, distinguished for the active part he has taken and continues to take in merchant shipping legislation. In 1865 the works were made into a limited company, Mr Palmer becoming chairman. It is a saying in Jarrow, with reference to these gigantic works, that the raw ironstone is taken in at the one end and launched from the other in the form of iron steamships, fitted complete with all their machinery, to carry on a large share of the world’s commerce. However much this may appear the exaggerated utterance of native pride, it must be declared to be a literal truth. The works include within themselves the entire range of operations, from the raising and smelting of the ironstone to the complete equipment of iron, steam and sailing vessels of all sizes. The ore itself, raised at the rate of 1,000 tons per day, is brought round by sea from the Company’s own mines at Port Mulgrave, near Whitby, in Yorkshire, and is lifted from the river wharf at the works up to the railway level, along an inclined plane worked by a stationary engine. Coke and coal come into the works from Marley Hill and other collieries in Durham and Northumberland, by the Pontop and Jarrow Railway. The coke is discharged into a hopper capable of holding about 1,500 tons, from the bottom of which the blast furnace barrows are filled through sliding doors, dispensing with manual labour. The four blast furnaces are 85 feet high, 24 feet diameter at the boshes, and 10 feet in the hearth. They are capable of producing over 2,000 tons of pig per week, of which more than one-half is used in the Company’s works. The blast is heated to about 1,500° Fahr. in eight “Whitewell” hot air fire-brick stoves of the newest pattern, and there are eighteen kilns for calcining the Cleveland ironstone. The rolling mill forge comprises eighty puddling furnaces, producing over 1,000 tons of puddled bars weekly; which, again, are rolled into plates and angle bars of the largest and smallest sizes used in the trade. There are two forge engines with 36-inch cylinders, one of 4 feet and the other of 5 feet stroke, each driving a roll train and four pairs of 22-inch rolls. There are two plate mills and ten mill furnaces, producing about 1,200 tons of finished boiler and ship plates weekly. Each mill has two pairs of 24-in. rolls, reversed by clutch and crabs; a bar mill with two pairs of rolls, driven by a 24-inch cylinder, produces 120 tons per week; a fourth mill, with four pairs of rolls, driven by two 30-inch cylinders, with 4 feet stroke, produces about 300 tons per week of plates; also a large angle and bar mill, driven by a single engine, having 36-inch cylinder and 4 feet stroke, capable of rolling the very largest angles used in the trade. There is also a sheet mill in the forge. Attached to the rolling mills are shears, circular saws, punching, and straightening presses, all of the newest patterns.
The adjoining department is that of the engine works, which is on the same gigantic scale, and is capable of finishing about forty pairs of marine engines with their boilers, annually, besides a proportionate share of replace boilers and repairs. The department produces its own iron and brass castings and forgings. In the boiler shop of this department vertical rolls for rolling long boiler shell plates were first used, and may be seen in operation. In the year 1882-83, June to June, thirty-six pairs of engines, of 7,300 nominal and 39,240 indicated horse-power, were turned out.
The next department, occupying the east end of the Company’s works, is that of shipbuilding. The shops of this department are fitted up with all the newest machines for quick and efficient production of work. It contains the largest graving dock on the coast, also a very fine patent slip, fitted with hydraulic hauling gear. The building slips are suitable for every kind of vessel up to 500 feet in length, and are capable, with those in the Howdon branch of the works on the opposite side of the river, of launching 70,000 tons of shipping annually. There are nine building slips at Jarrow, and six at Howdon. In the year 1882-83, June to June, 35 vessels of the aggregate tonnage of 68,000 tons were built and delivered to their owners. For transporting material throughout the works, three steam travelling cranes and eleven locomotive engines are employed. For discharging ore, two fixed and two travelling steam cranes, also two hydraulic cranes, are in use. At the engine works are sheer-legs 100 feet high, capable of lifting 100 tons—used for lifting engines and boilers, and for masting the vessels.
The output of tonnage by Palmers’ Company for 1882 and that for 1883 were severally about double the amount turned out by any other one firm in existence for these years. The following statement of the yearly amount of tonnage turned out by the firm since the commencement of iron shipbuilding on the Tyne in 1852, will be interesting, as showing the gradual strides by which the firm have risen from 920 tons thirty years ago to the wonderful return of 61,113 tons in 1883:—
| Year. | Ton. | Year. | Ton. | Year. | Ton. | Year. | Ton. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1852, | 920 | 1860, | 4,653 | 1868, | 15,842 | 1876, | 8,635 |
| 1853, | 3,539 | 1861, | 4,751 | 1869, | 11,900 | 1877, | 16,235 |
| 1854, | 7,469 | 1862, | 21,493 | 1870, | 26,129 | 1878, | 23,470 |
| 1855, | 5,169 | 1863, | 17,096 | 1871, | 19,267 | 1879, | 36,080 |
| 1856, | 7,531 | 1864, | 22,896 | 1872, | 12,810 | 1880, | 38,117 |
| 1857, | 6,816 | 1865, | 31,111 | 1873, | 21,017 | 1881, | 50,192 |
| 1858, | 7,625 | 1866, | 18,973 | 1874, | 25,057 | 1882, | 60,379 |
| 1859, | 11,804 | 1867, | 16,555 | 1875, | 15,819 | 1883, | 61,113 |
The first screw-steamer built by the firm, namely, the “John Bowes,” well known as the pioneer of water ballast steam colliers, is still in existence, has recently had her engines renewed for the third time, and is now busily employed in her customary service, carrying coals from Newcastle to London.
The general manager of the gigantic works is Mr John Price, formerly one of the surveyors and a leading spirit in the Underwriter’s Registry for Iron Vessels. The following are the other responsible officials:—Assistant general manager and manager of rolling mills, Mr F. W. Stoker; secretary, Mr Hew Steele; shipyard manager, Mr A. Adamson; engine works manager, Mr J. P. Hall; blast furnaces manager, Mr P. A. Berkeley; blast furnaces assistant manager, Mr H. T. Allison; mining engineer, Mr A. S. Palmer.
SIR WM. ARMSTRONG, MITCHELL & CO.’S SHIPBUILDING WORKS,
LOW WALKER AND ELSWICK-ON-TYNE.
The Low Walker yard of this firm was commenced upwards of thirty years ago by Messrs C. Mitchell & Co., who up to 1883 (when they amalgamated with Sir W. G. Armstrong & Co., the notable firm of engineers and artillerists), had built as many as 450 vessels, or an average of 15 vessels per annum, the average tonnage produced during the last ten years being 23,000 tons. The yard is situated about four miles down the Tyne from Newcastle. It consists of about fifteen acres of ground, and has nine launching berths, but their arrangement is such that at times there have been as many as fourteen vessels on the stocks. The establishment is laid out in a most modern manner. The space occupied by the building slips has a uniform gradient, and, being perfectly flat laterally, gives the greatest facility in the movement of bogies. The yard is served by two complete systems of railways, respectively on the 4 feet 8-in. and 2 feet 3-in. gauge. The former is in connection with a siding from the North Eastern Railway, whereby materials and goods can be brought from all parts of the kingdom, and two locomotives are constantly employed working the trucks into the yard, one of them being of very special construction, on Brown’s patent principle, manufactured by Messrs R. & W. Hawthorn, Newcastle. This locomotive is combined with a steam crane, the jib of which acts as a lever with fulcrum, thus dispensing with chains, and which readily swings right round, depositing the plates on edge into racks arranged on either side of the railway, from which they can be taken with great facility by the workmen at the appropriate time.