Mr Laing was born at Deptford House, Sunderland, on 11th January, 1823, and is the only son of Mr Philip Laing, who, as early as 1793, in partnership with his brother John, commenced the business of shipbuilding which, nearly a century later, is still carried on, under greatly transformed conditions, by his son. Mr Laing’s earliest impressions and associations were connected with what was afterwards to become his life’s vocation, his boyhood having been spent in a home contiguous to his father’s yard. While a youth, he served as an ordinary workman in the shipyard, and in 1843, his father, on launching the “Cressy,” signalised the jubilee of a singularly successful career by handing over to him the care and titles of the business. Mr Laing continued to build wooden vessels until 1853, in which year the “Amity,” his first iron ship, was launched. In 1866 he entirely ceased building in wood, and since then has built a very large number of iron vessels for various owners, amongst others for such well-known companies as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the Royal Mail Company, the Union Steamship Company of Southampton, etc. In 1883, he built for the last-mentioned company the Mail Steamer “Mexican,” of 4669 tons. Besides the shipyard, he is the owner of graving docks connected therewith, as well as extensive copper and brass works, and is principal proprietor of the Ayres Quay Bottle Works, which are capable of turning out 33,000 bottles per day. For upwards of thirty years Mr Laing has served as a member of the River Wear Commission, and as chairman since 1868. For years he has taken a leading position among shipbuilders and shipowners, not only in his own district, but throughout the country. In 1883 he was chosen President of the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom, and as official representative of that interest has performed signal service, both with reference to the Shipping Bill introduced to Parliament by Mr Chamberlain and the recent agreement come to between the shipowners and the Suez Canal Company, of which company he has since been appointed a Director. For twenty years Mr Laing has acted as a member of the Board of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, and at present is Vice-President of the Load Line Committee, appointed by the Board of Trade for the settlement of a most important and intricate question. In the shipbuilding and other cognate businesses Mr Laing is now ably assisted by his three sons, Philip, Arthur, and James.
James Laing (signature)
INK-PHOTO, SPRAGUE & Co. LONDON.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Since the above was written, the Aurania and the Oregon have resumed their services on the Atlantic, the results in the case of the latter vessel being extraordinarily successful. On Saturday, the 5th April, she arrived at Queenstown, having left New York on Saturday, the 29th March, making the trip in 7 days, 2 hours, 18 minutes, her daily runs being:—45, 407, 396, 400, 302, 410, 384, 412, and 60; total, 2816 knots. Leaving Queenstown on Sunday, the 13th April, she arrived at New York on Saturday, the 19th April, in the unprecedentedly short period of 6 days, 9 hours, 22 minutes.
[2] While these sheets were passing through the press, the America was tried unofficially on the Clyde, and attained a speed of 17 knots, with about 6,500 indicated horse-power. On her passage from the Clyde to the Mersey she maintained, it is stated, 18¼ knots over the whole distance.
[3] This list with those which follow other chapters, have been compiled at considerable trouble in the hope that they may be of use to technical readers in directing them at once to accurate and detailed information. In this connection also, the excellent work by Mr A. S. Seaton, “Manual of Marine Engineering,” and that by Mr W. H. White, “Manual of Naval Architecture,” may be referred to with every satisfaction.
[4] For full and excellent treatment of this subject, see the paper on “Causes of Unseaworthiness in Merchant Steamers,” by Mr Benjamin Martell, Chief Surveyor to Lloyd’s Register, with the ensuing discussion: Trans. Inst., N.A., vol. xxi., 1880.
Several of the causes above named it is doubtless the province of the scientific shipbuilder, and the duty of the shipowner, to obviate by furnishing the captain and officers—especially in the case of entirely new vessels—with particulars and data of the vessel’s technical character, such as are now left to be found out by slow and sometimes bitter experience. Of these it may be sufficient to instance:—Stability, steadiness, trim, carrying capability, and steaming powers. Mr William Denny, of Dumbarton, has recently publicly declared his firm’s intention of supplying such particulars to the vessels built by them. It is to be hoped this worthy example may be extensively followed.
[5] In this, as in other matters dealt with, the full appreciation of which involves careful technical study, readers are referred to the papers enumerated at the end of chapter, as well as to the “Manuals” already referred to in this work.