England's Historic Seascapes: Scarborough to Hartlepool
Cornwall Council, 2007. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000201. How to cite using this DOI
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- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000201
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Introduction | Seascapes Character Types
Shipping Industry
- Introduction: defining/distinguishing attributes and principal locations
- Historical processes; components, features and variability
- Values and perceptions
- Research, amenity and education
- Condition & forces for change
- Rarity and vulnerability
- Sources
Introduction: defining/distinguishing attributes and principal locations
The Type shipping industry includes the following sub-types:
- Dockyards;
- Shipyards;
- Boatyards.
Components of this Type include:
- docks (wet and dry):
- basins;
- wrecks;
- wharfs, quays, jetties and slipways;
- warehouses, offices, depots and travelling cranes;
- dockworkers cottages;
- associated transport systems (such as railways, roads, tramways).
Principal dock and basin locations today include Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Haverton Hill, Teesside and Seaton Carew. There is a dry dock still in operation at Teesside. There is also a boatyard at Middleton, although this is generally used for boat storage and maintenance rather than shipbuilding.
Historically shipbuilding yards and dockyards were located at Scarborough, Whitby, Stockton-on-Tees, Thornaby-on-Tees, Middleton and Hartlepool.
Historical processes; components, features and variability
Evidence for prehistoric and early medieval vessels in the British Isles is sparse, due primarily to the perishable nature of the materials from which they were constructed. But it is probable that log boats (canoes made from hollowed out tree trunks) and skin boats were common, and were used in these period, as ferries, fishing boats, trading vessels and even for war (Friel 2003, 22). A number of log boats have been found in the north east region, such as that found in 1926, dating from about 1,600 - 1,400 B.C., located in mud under 8 feet (2.4m) of water opposite Thornaby High Wood (NMR site 26887).
Ships and boats made from wooden planks leave more archaeological remains, but few early medieval examples have been found in the British Isles. The most famous is undoubtedly the Sutton Hoo ship, discovered in an Anglo-Saxon burial mound near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Investigation has shown that it was double-ended and clinker built, the hull built up from a shell of overlapping planks, fastened at the edges by nails (Friel 2003, 24). 'Double-ended hulls, in which stem and stern resemble each other, were commonplace until the later medieval period. Old English (the language of the Anglo-Saxons) had over thirty different words for different types (or uses) of ships or boats, plus fifty more that may have been poetic in character' (Friel 2003, 24).
It is difficult to find evidence of established shipyards in medieval England. The location of shipbuilding sites seems to have been rather haphazard and the sites themselves were rudimentary, although it is known that ships were being built in simple docks by at least the 1330s. These were holes dug in the ground by a waterway, with the water kept out by an earthen dam. The ship was built inside. When completed, the dam was broken down and the ship was floated out at high tide.
Accounts from between the late 13th and early 15th centuries make it clear that shipbuilding was still based on clinker construction. Seagoing ships of any size in Britain were clinker-built until the late 15th or early 16th century. The ancient double-ended hull form was widespread until the 14th century, when vessels that were asymmetrical, with stems and sterns of different shape, gradually supplanted it. This change appears to have followed the introduction of the stern rudder, which first appeared in the 12th century and eventually supplanted the side or quarter rudder and, more importantly, was probably better suited to deep-hulled merchant ships.
As well as shipwright and smith craftsmen, a number of other kinds of worker were also involved in shipbuilding. 'These included clenchers and holders, and from the 1340's there were caulkers, who filled the gaps between planks with waterproofing materials. In earlier periods this job seems to have been done by shipwrights and it is not clear why a separate trade should have emerged. However it was to remain a part of the shipbuilding trade for as long as wooden sea-going vessels were built' (Friel 2003, 77-78).
'During the Viking era there is very little evidence for specific types of ships used in England. In some areas local wooden shipbuilding traditions may have been completely replaced by Scandinavian ones. As late as the 1290s the technical terminology used by shipwrights in Newcastle and York had a distinctively Scandinavian flavour when compared with that used in East Anglia or further south. The basic type of Viking ship had a clinker-built, double-ended hull with a deep keel. It was steered by a rudder and carried a single square sail' (Friel 2003, 45).
Changes in European shipping during the 15th century owed much to the influence of the skeleton-built Portuguese caravels. Skeleton construction involved nailing hull planks to a pre-erected skeleton of strong frames; the planks did not overlap, but were laid against each other, giving the hull a smooth exterior.
'Other 15th century shipping changes included the introduction of two- and three-masted ships and a sharp decline in the numbers of large ships. The latter may have been due to the cessation of the Gascon wine trade while the export of cloth, England's other main sea trade, only required small vessels. Merchant ships of more than 100 tons were not common again in England until the late 16th century, when they were constructed for long-distance bulk trade and for war' (Friel 2003, 80-82).
Shipbuilding on the Tees dates back to the Medieval period, but it was in the second half of the 19th century that the industry first achieved a position of significance (Le Guillou 1975, 85). In 1837 the first ship was launched from Hartlepool. The original yard was at the headland and sections of each ship had to be transported across town, lifted over the town wall and assembled on Middleton Sands where a yard was eventually established. There were various other early 19th century shipbuilding businesses in Middleton, such as Bloomers Yard and John Winspear's Yard, and at Jackson and Swainson Dock. The 1860s saw the establishment of a shipyard at Hartlepool's West Harbour, known locally as 'the Harbour Yard' (Rowe 2000, 20).
In the 1870s, shipbuilding provided a market for manufactured iron and by 1883 promised 'to be one of the most prosperous trades in the district' (Le Guillou 1975, 85). At this time, between the Wear and Esk (which includes the ports of Sunderland, West Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough and Whitby) there were over 90 vessels in construction. The total tonnage built on the Tees remained between 40-50,000 tons annually, and when it is realised that 35 vessels went to make up the figure of 43,953 tons in 1896 it can be appreciated just how small the ships were. Conditions in the industry greatly improved at the turn of the century when, once again, the trade press spoke of the prospects of the district depending largely on shipbuilding (Le Guillou 1975, 85-6). In 1920 work began on the construction of a new village and dock facility at Graythorpe, which ultimately took the work away from the existing yards at West Hartlepool and Middleton. The last ship to be built in Hartlepool was William Gray and Co.'s steel liner 'The Blanchland' which left port in 1961 (Rowe 2000, 20).
Whitby also has a long history of shipbuilding. 'On the foreshore on both sides of the River Esk, and on staithes and mudflats from Dock End to Larpool, a steady stream of ships were built and launched from the 17th century onwards (Figure 9.15). Sizes varied from fishing vessels and trading sloops of 20-30 tons up to ship-rigged vessels of 500-600 tons, limited only by the width of the bridge which divided the harbour into two parts. In a peak year more than a dozen ships might be up on the stocks at the same time. In the 18th century a dry docks was built at Green Lane on the east side of the harbour' (White 2004, 95).
'Probably the best known of Whitby's shipbuilders was Thomas Fishburn, who built the Endeavour, Resolution and Adventure, which were acquired by the British Admiralty and used by Captain Cook on his voyages of discovery. These were by no means exceptional vessels, but were chosen because they were of rugged construction, capable of being beached and relatively new. Cook himself was of course familiar with their qualities, having served his apprenticeship in Whitby vessels' (White 2004, 92).
Many were sturdy coal vessels in which Whitby specialised. 'They were 'coal cats' or 'collier brigs', bluff in the bow and flat in the floors for maximum capacity and designed to take the ground safely while unloading their cargos on exposed beaches. Others were timber ships, bringing back a cargo of shipbuilding timber and tar from the Baltic. As demands changed so did the ships. Whalers, specially strengthened for battles with Artic ice; privateers, armed against French and American ships; transports, built for maximum load capacity in the wars with France; convict ships, off to New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk Island; emigrant ships, with quarters for the hungry and penniless families leaving to start a new life in the colonies of Australia, New Zealand or Canada; all these had their turn and Whitby could build them all. When steam propulsion became established paddle steamers were added to the repertoire. The shipbuilding industry also made a successful transition to iron when that replaced wood and again when steel replaced iron' (White 2004, 89).
Figure 9.15. Barbara, Whitby (1860) (© Whitby Museum)
But Whitby's shipbuilding days eventually became numbered because of the size limitations placed on it by the bridge. A dramatic reduction in the number of shipyards took place in the 1830s with a downturn in trade and again in the 1860s when the market for wooden vessels dried up. Screw steamers were built in Whitby in 1864 and became the stock in trade of Turnbull's Yard until the last was launched in 1902. During the last few years of large shipbuilding several vessels in excess of 5,600 tons were launched at Whitby. Eventually large shipbuilding ceased altogether at Whitby because the County Council would not widen the bridge (White 2004, 89-90). Smaller shipbuilding continued until the 1980s before closing for a few years. One company has subsequently re-started small shipbuilding. There has been a continuity of coble building with one producer remaining (Pybus Pers Com).
As well as places to load and unload goods and supplies, docks are also areas where ship repair and maintenance take place. Wooden ships required frequent attention to the caulking between the planks, and, in the days before wire rigging, the heavy hemp rope needed regular adjustment and replacement. When ships were in harbour for any length of time it was usual to 'rig down' - to send down the topmasts and spars and to renew standing rigging. Dry docks are particularly suitable for the purpose of ship repair, as ships can be floated in on a high tide and propped. When the tide falls the dock gates can be closed and the ship left dry for work to be carried out on the hull. Winter was the usual time for such work, when much shipping was laid up and necessary repairs could be carried out. Constant wear and tear on wooden hulls meant a steady demand for dry dock facilities (White 2004, 96). Supplying the shipbuilding and repair industry was a large body of specialist producers - block, mast and pump makers, ships carpenters, riggers, rope and twine manufactures, sailcloth manufacturers, painters, sail-makers, and timber and raff merchants (White 2004, 94).
Shipping was important along the northeast coast of England in the medieval period when it supplied the domestic needs of villages, towns and abbeys with goods such as coal, fish and probably heavier goods that were difficult to bring by road. The development of the alum trade acted as a major spur to growth in the shipping industry (Frank 2002, 4). Alum production required large quantities of fuel and every year vast fleets of colliers sailed from the Tyne and Wear to the Thames bearing the produce of the coalfields of Northumberland and County Durham. Much of this collier fleet was owned at Whitby and Scarborough. Whitby's share grew steadily throughout the 18th century due mainly to the fact that at high tide it possessed one of the best harbours of refuge on the East Coast. The emergence of Whitby as a highly skilled shipbuilding town was another factor which contributed to Whitby's dominance of the shipping industry in this area. Many of the builders were also owners, and the careers of many Whitby seamen led them into eventual ownership as well. In times of war Whitby ship owners found another valuable source of income by hiring out their vessels to the state or to serve as transport for troops and equipment (White 2004, 103).
In the 19th century steamships gradually replaced sailing ships for commercial shipping. This was a time of great industrial and economic development in north east England. Many new demands on transport were made, and these could be more readily met by steam-powered vessels, especially from the 1840s when iron hulls and the screw propeller were introduced. As numbers of routes and sailings across the North Sea increased, so too did the size of the ships and ports which served them. By 1914 ships had become larger, faster, more comfortable, and more efficient, using only a quarter of the fuel of a ship in the 1840s, and sailing more frequently and with more passengers and more cargo (Pearsall 1985, 200).
In the first decade of the 20th century 'one quarter of the global output of the shipbuilding industry was produced on the banks of the north east region's three principal rivers, the Tyne, Wear and Tees' (Hudson, 1989). World War One saw shipbuilding geared to building and repairing warships and merchantmen. Trade inevitably declined, however, as did demands for shipping services and new ships. The onset of rearmament before World War Two helped to revive the industry for a while, but the shipping and shipbuilding industries were severly damaged by bombing during the war itself. Many shipyards needed extensive overhauling, as did numerous ports and inland waterways, and merchant fleets suffered heavy losses. Reconstruction after World War Two fundamentally changed the traditional economic and transport patterns of the North Sea region. The transition from steam to motor propulsion, increasing competition and growing demands for efficiency, specialisation and cost reductions in North Sea trade were particularly noticable after 1945.
With a shortage of many of the essential raw materials required for shipbuilding, especially steel, very few new ships designed for North Sea trade were made in the early post-war years. Gradually the situation in the shipbuilding industry improved. Shipping of traditional North Sea cargos, such as coal, ores, fish and timber, resumed, although certain changes of a quantitative nature took place. Transport of coal declined due to a drastic fall in production; a consequence of increased domestic and industrial use of oil and gas. Expansion in the iron and metal industries, however, led to an increased demand for transport of aluminium and ferro-products. The fishing industry was modernised and made more efficient. In addition came the transport of general cargo and products like cars and agricultural machinery. Nevertheless, coal and timber remained the most important North Sea cargoes well into the 1950s.
During the 1950s, competitive problems in the shipbuilding industry were becoming evident in Britain and it was brought under state control. As a result shipbuilding industries in the north east contracted. Shipping became more specialised, demanding special types of ships, cargo handling, and regularity which only liners or long-term charters could offer. A tonnage limit was gradually imposed and in response to this Paragraph ships, which had specified tonnages but whose loading capacities were as great as possible, were introduced in 1951 (Thowsen 1985, 247-55). This decline was further fuelled by competition from cheaper vessels built in German and Asian shipyards and, although dry-cargo ships, tankers and ferries still play a significant part in the shipping industry of north east England, few traces now remain of the shipbuilding industry that once thrived here (Thowsen 1985, 258). Six shipyards closed in the 1960s, including the William Grey at Hartlepool (1961) and five in the 1970s, including the Furness Yard at Haverton Hill near Stockton in 1979 (Figure 9.16). The regions last remaining shipyard closed in 1993.
Figure 9.16. Haverton Hill Shipyard (©Hartlepool Arts & Museum Service)
In November 2003, four redundant US Naval ships arrived in England without some of the permissions necessary for their dismantling, and were docked in Hartlepool. There was significant interest in their arrival from media and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs). Friends of the Earth publicised the event, portraying the ships as placing the environment and public at risk and decisions made by a number of regulators were challenged in the Courts and the media. The Environment Agency imposed licence conditions to prevent their dismantling and to ensure that their presence does not cause pollution to the environment. Hartlepool Borough Council eventually rejected the application for dismantling here in October 2006.
Values and Perceptions
With very few surviving features from the once thriving shipbuilding yards, shipbuilding seems to be regarded as a 'lost' or 'forgotten' industry. Dockyards are still significant components of ports in this area and for many they are reminders of past employment and great days in North Yorkshire's history. In some cases docks are adopting new roles as recreational facilities such as marinas or as coastal and maritime heritage centres (e.g. Hartlepool's Historic Quay).
In view of its heavy involvement with shipping it is not surprising that this stretch of the northeast coast produced a number of important marine artists. One of the most notable family of painters was the Weatherhill family from Whitby. Henry Redmore of Hull (1820-87) painted marine scenes along the East Coast including some very fine paintings of ships off Whitby. In later days the photographs of Frank Sutcliffe show the period of changeover from sail to steam, including many veterans of the age of sail. Carvings on the backs, seats and book-rests of the box pews in Whitby Parish Church also show over forty representations of ships, from small sloops to brigantines and steamships, serving to illustrate the range of shipping to be seen in Whitby in the 18th and 19th centuries. They also show the large part shipping played in Whitby's communal consciousness, since graffiti of other subjects in the parish church are few in comparison (White 2004, 109).
Research, amenity and education
Whereas coalmining has become the focus for community history, there has been less interest in the history and surviving remains of the region's shipyards (Petts and Gerrard 2006, 191).
Documentation of the shipbuilding industry in this area is relatively good, with many surviving historic maps, charts and photographs and numerous publications and TV documentaries having been produced on the industry. Further study of this industry is urgently required and this abundance of information will help inform it.
There are also depictions of boats aplenty in medieval art - on the Bayeux Tapestry, for example, and in stained glass and manuscript illuminations. The Bayeux Tapestry contains a particularly telling shipbuilding scene in which trees are felled and planks selected, the shipwright checks the lines of the ship by eye and other craftsmen set to work with axes and augers. Often, though, contemporary images of ships are hard to interpret. They can be out of scale and biased towards the depiction of planked ships. Contemporary documentary records of shipbuilding are also rare, with little written evidence for the construction of the bulk of the private merchant and fishing fleet. Archaeology is now therefore the main way we can build up an accurate picture of this most essential feature of medieval life (Milne, 2001).
Condition & forces for change
The Hartlepool shipbuilding industry no longer has surviving features on the ground. The docks where ships were once built have now become a marina, attracting small sailing vessels from all over the world. A funfair now stands where the shipyard used to be on the sands at the foot of the castle mound at Scarborough.
Rarity and vulnerability
The shipbuilding industry in this area was of national, indeed international importance, and the ships from the north east were integral to the international trade links of the British Empire and other globalising institutions (Petts and Gerrard 2006, 191).
Because the industry has now almost completely disappeared, any surviving elements are rare.
Recommendations
Further archaeological research into all surviving remains of shipbuilding in the north east is recommended. This should include not just a record of shipyards themselves, but associated industries and facilities, such as engine makers and design and testing facilities. There is still also a surviving, but inevitably diminishing, workforce who used to be directly involved in the ship-construction industry, and there is scope to combine research into the historic remains of shipbuilding with a detailed programme of oral history (Petts and Gerrard 2006, 191).
Further study of the products of these shipyards is also required and may be facilitated by researching the many 19th and 20th century wrecks along the coast of this region. The research potential offered by the regular diving of well-preserved steel wrecks should be harnessed and 'the retrieval of artefacts from them better regulated and recorded' (Petts and Gerrard 2006, 191).
This region's distinctive ship types, such as cobles, smacks and colliers, should be further researched, using sources such as early pictures, graffiti and tombstones in addition to any archaeological remains that are found (Petts and Gerrard 2006, 201).
Further archaeological research into this type is recommended. Archaeological surveys have the potential to yield important information on above and below-ground archaeological features. The conservation of any remains recovered is also important. Additionally there is great potential for the presentation of the history of the shipping industry together with any surviving remains.
Sources
Publications:
Friel, I, 2003. Maritime History of Britain and Ireland c.400 - 2001. British Museum Press
Frank, P, 2002. Yorkshire Fisherfolk, Phillimore, Bodmin
Le Guillou, M, 1975. A History of the River Tees.
Milne, G, 2001. Joining the medieval fleet. In British Archaeology, issue 62, December 2001.
Pearsall, A, 1985. Steam enters the North Sea, in A Bang-Andersen et al 1985, The North Sea. A highway of economic and cultural exchange. Character-history. Norwegian University Press, 195-216
Petts, D and Gerrard, C, 2006. Shared Vision. The North-East Regional Research Framework for the Historic Environment. Durham County Council.
Rowe, P, 2000. The 19th Century Industrial Heritage of Hartlepool. Tees Archaeology.
Thowsen, A, 1985. New trends in North Sea shipping, in in A Bang-Andersen et al 1985, 245-266
White, A, 2004. A History of Whitby Phillimore, Bodmin
Websites:
http://www.thornaby.com/acatalog/thornaby_websites.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/ship-building/
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