Beyond the machine shop are the slip-ways, twelve in number, where vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 40,000 tons have frequently been seen at one time in various stages of construction. On these slip-ways have been built the well-known mail steamer City of Rome and the steamship Normandie, the largest vessel of the French mail service. Here also were built for the Anchor Line the Anchoria, the Devonia, the Circassia, and the Furnessia; for the Ducal Line, the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Duke of Lancaster, the Duke of Buckingham, and the Duke of Westminster. From these slip-ways also emanated the Ganges and the Sutlej for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company as well as the Eden and the Esk for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. For the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, the Ben my Chree, the Fenella, and the Peveril. For the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belge Américaine, the s.s. Belgenland and Rhyhland. For the Castle Line, the s.s. Pembroke Castle, and for the Société Générale de Transports Maritimes à Vapeur of Marseilles, the s.s. Navarre and Bearn. Here were also produced the Kow Shing for the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, and the Takapuna for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, besides many other vessels well known to the mercantile world. For the Admiralty this yard has turned out seven gun-boats, namely, the Foxhound, the Forward, the Grappler, the Wrangler, the Wasp, the Banterer, and the Espoir, as well as four torpedo mooring ships.
Leaving the shipbuilding department, the visitor passes through the afore-mentioned sub-way to the engine works, which occupies an area of ground equal to that of the shipyard proper. To the left may be noticed the coppersmith’s shop, the brass foundry, and the engineer’s smithy. The Foundry has seven ordinary pot furnaces, and one large reverberatory air furnace for castings of the heaviest class. The smithy is well fitted up with hammers suitable for the work. On the opposite side of the ground are two buildings, the one to the left containing the iron foundry and boiler shop. The foundry, 250 ft. by 150 ft., provided with overhead travellers, is capable of turning out the largest castings required for the monster marine engines of the present day. The boiler shop is the same size, and possesses the most modern contrivances for the skilful and economical execution of work, and it contains a complete equipment of hydraulic riveting machines, both fixed and portable, the largest having a gap of 10 feet and a pressure of 90-lbs.
In the space between the boiler shop and the machine shop there are situated a well-arranged furnace for heating, and the vertical rolls for bending the large plates forming the shells of the marine boilers. In the furnace just mentioned the plates are heated while standing on their edge, and as the top of the furnace is level with the ground, they are readily lifted out by a portable crane and deposited on the bed-plate adjoining the vertical rolls. In this vacant space is also situated the water tower for the accumulator for the 100-ton crane, constructed by Sir Wm. G. Armstrong and erected at the side of the Devonshire Dock, where the machinery is placed on board and fixed for new ships.
The engine shop, although 420 ft. long by 100 ft. wide, is scarcely large enough for the pressure of work oftentimes concentrated there. This shop is unsurpassed in the completeness of its fittings and the perfection of its tools. It, like most of the other shops in the establishment, is fitted up with the electric light.
The foregoing descriptive notes of individual yards may fittingly be supplemented by the following table, which shows the number and relative positions of firms throughout all the districts whose total output of tonnage during the year 1883 exceeded 20,000 tons:—
| Firm’s Name. | District. | Number of | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vessels. | Tonnage. | ||
| 1. Palmer Shipbuilding Co. | Tyne | 36 | 61,113 |
| 2. John Elder & Co. | Clyde | 13 | 40,115 |
| 3. Wm. Gray & Co. | Hartlepool | 21 | 37,597 |
| 4. Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. | Southampton | 15 | 33,981 |
| 5. Raylton, Dixon & Co. | Tees | 17 | 31,017 |
| 6. Harland & Wolff | Belfast | 13 | 30,714 |
| 7. Russell & Co. | Clyde | 28 | 30,610 |
| 8. Jos. L. Thomson & Sons | Wear | 16 | 30,520 |
| 9. Short Bros. | Wear | 14 | 25,531 |
| 10. R. Napier & Sons | Clyde | 6 | 23,877 |
| 11. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. | Tyne | 17 | 23,584 |
| 12. A. Stephen & Sons | Clyde | 11 | 23,020 |
| 13. James Laing | Wear | 9 | 22,877 |
| 14. Pearse & Co. | Tees | 9 | 22,671 |
| 15. Wm. Denny & Bros. | Clyde | 10 | 22,240 |
| 16. Richardson, Duck & Co. | Tees | 12 | 21,413 |
| 17. Edward Withy & Co. | Hartlepool | 12 | 21,197 |
| 18. Swan & Hunter | Tyne | 15 | 20,080 |
CHAPTER VII.
OUTPUT OF TONNAGE IN THE PRINCIPAL DISTRICTS.
With the change from wood to iron shipbuilding, and with the development of propulsion by steam instead of sails, the shipbuilding industry has become localised and concentrated in those districts which, besides possessing the sine qua non of ready outlet to the vast ocean, are specially favoured in being the repositories of immense natural wealth in the form of coal and ores. What may now fairly be considered the great centres of shipbuilding are the valleys of the Clyde, Tyne, Wear, and Tees, and also the Thames and Mersey, although these latter rivers have for a considerable number of years been overshadowed as building centres by the immensity of their shipping. In several other districts, of course, shipbuilding is carried on to a considerable extent, and some of these may yet attain much greater importance than they at present possess. Barrow-in-Furness, notwithstanding the remarkable progress of recent years, is still advancing. Belfast occupies a prominent position, not alone because of the large annual output of tonnage, but by reason of the number of high-class ocean steamships which have been, and continue to be, built there. Dundee, Leith, Hull, Southampton, and other places throughout the United Kingdom, are not without claims to recognition on account of the shipbuilding carried on.