Thames steamers
Steamboat services started on the
The early lead in practical steamboats established by William Symington in 1803 with the Charlotte Dundas in Scotland was not maintained, and the first steamboat passenger service was established in the United States in 1807 by Robert Fulton with his North River Steamboat on the Hudson River, using an engine manufactured in Birmingham. The first service on the Thames that can be established properly is the Margery in 1815, though the Richmond may have started taking passengers in 1813.
Early paddle steamers
One of the earliest records is of a vessel Margery which was launched at Dumbarton in June 1814 and having run for a few months on the
These three major Thames routes had been established since at least the seventeenth century, using a mixture of sailing boats (
The Margate Steam Packet Company was the first new company to set up to exploit the new technology in 1815, followed by the Gravesend Steam Packet Company in 1817. But major accidents were soon being recorded. The Regent caught fire near Whitstable on 2 July 1817 and was totally destroyed, mercifully with no loss of life. The cause was a lack of fireproof lining between the funnel and the wooden deck beams. Boiler explosions were not uncommon, happening, for example, on the Richmond in 1817. Consequently, in 1817 a Select Committee was established to enquire into the matter, leading to the Steamboat Act of 1819, which made it compulsory for all passenger-carrying steam vessels to be registered and inspected annually by a competent engineer.[8]
The General Steam Navigation Company, initially established in 1821 and incorporated in 1824, was founded by a syndicate of London businessmen including William J Hall, a shipowner, and brothers Thomas and John Brockelbank, who had timber and shipyard interests in Deptford. The Brockelbanks' paddle steamer Eagle provided a service between London and Margate.[9][10][11] By 1825 the GSNC was operating a fleet of 15 Deptford-built steamers, maintained from a yard at the Stowage, Deptford (a former East India Company depot).[9][12]
Other vessels of this time were the Majestic and Defiance. The Hero of 1821 was built locally and put to work. By 1822, the Margate SP Co. alone carried over 27,000 passengers to and from Margate and competition was brisk. The biggest boom came in the 1830s with the creation of the Star, Diamond and Woolwich SP Companies which added many more new boats. By 1834, when they were fighting the establishment of the Great Western Railway, the Thames Commissioners boasted that they "had made the Thames navigation one of the most perfect in the Kingdom". In 1835, the Diamond SP Company reported that it had carried over 250,000 passengers in the year.[13]
Iron boats were introduced in 1845 by the City Steamboat Company with their Citizen boats built by the Thames Ironworks.
The first steam ferry to cross the tidal Thames was the
Cargo tugs and steamers
The first steam tug on the Thames was the Majestic in 1816.[17] The use of tugs to guide sailing boats bringing passengers and cargo up the London river increased the efficiency of operations enormously and the paddle wheel showed off its maximum advantage. Paddle tugs could apply full power quickly in either direction and by having separate engines for each paddle wheel could virtually turn on the spot.[18]
The Port of London, which was handling 12,000 coastal vessels and over 3,000 overseas vessels annually by the end of the eighteenth century, quickly became dependent on steamers. Previously, gangs of men in rowboats drew the sailing vessels to port against wind and tide. By 1830, the use of steam tugs became part of the battleground between the competing dock companies as the London and St Katharine dock companies used steamships to tow vessels up-river past the West India Docks.[19] By 1860, screw tugs were beginning to appear, but paddle tugs continued to be constructed throughout the nineteenth century and only finally disappeared in the 1920s with the advent of diesel propulsion. One steam tug survives at West India Docks, the ST Portway.[20] Another, the ST Challenge, is due to return to the Thames in 2018. She will be berthed at Trinity Buoy Wharf.[21]
Pleasure steamers
The arrival of the
The Upper Thames
Richmond or Twickenham long remained the practical upper limit of steamboats on the Thames, though the competition through London was keen, with the fare dropping to 1/2d each way on shorter trips. Paddle Steamers found it difficult to pass through the narrow locks and as late as 1843 steam boats were prohibited from passing
Boats were modified to maximise the number of passengers and minimize the air draught to get under the low bridges and the service entered a period of prosperity it was to keep for the next fifty years. Diesel engines did not take over until after the second world war.
Steamers of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Flotilla
Numerous steamers took part in the 1000 boat float past for HM Queen Elizabeth II—a steam pinnace No. 438, SS Elizabethan, SS Edwardian, and the Fellowes, Morton, and Clayton narrow boat President.[24] Salters steamers also took part. The tug Portwey was stationary near HMS Belfast and regaled the royal party with her whistle. Other steamers involved were the Yarmouth Belle, Alaska, Kennet, Kariat, Ursula, and Sabrina of Gloucester.
See also
- John I. Thornycroft & Company
- Ramsgate tug
- William Watkins Ltd
- Yarrow Shipbuilders and Yarrows Boiler
- Gravesend–Tilbury Ferry
- Woolwich Free Ferry
- SS Wandle
- SS Cervia
- Salters Steamers
Gallery
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SissonsScotch boiler, as installed in SL Nuneham
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SS Robin September 2010, ready to leave Lowestoft
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ST Portwey in West India Docks
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Tug Challenge, last steam tug to work on the Thames
External links
References
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 53
- ^ CHELSEA WATERWORKS COMPANY: PROPERTY RECORDS, London Metropolitan Archives, retrieved 6 April 2012
- ^ Dix, Frank L. (1985), Royal River Highway, A History of the Passenger Boats and Services on the Thames, David & Charles, p. 50
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 51
- ISBN 9781445620107.
- ^ Clements, Paul (2006) [1970]. Marc Isambard Brunel. Wiltshire, England: Cromwell Press. pp. 62–63.
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 39
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 53
- ^ a b "General Steam Navigation Co". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ Burtt, Frank (1949) Steamers of the Thames and Medway, London, pp.82-83.
- ISBN 9781841508016.
- ^ "General Steam Navigation Company". P&O Heritage. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- ^ Dix 1985, pp. 60–63
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 229
- ^ Bennett, Alfred Rosling (1924), "XII", Londoners in the Eighteen-Fifties and Sixties, T. Fisher Unwin
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 101
- ^ Body, Geoffrey (1971), British Paddle Steamers, David & Charles: Newton Abbot, p. 145
- ^ Body 1971, p. 148
- ^ The Historical Development of the West India Docks, British History Online, retrieved 21 April 2012
- ^ "Steam Tug Portway". Steam Tug Portway. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- ^ "New Home for Challenge". ST Challenge. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 86
- ^ Dix 1985, p. 92
- ^ President Departs For River Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, retrieved 7 June 2012