Scotland and the Sea. Nick Robins
Frontispiece: Ellerman’s City Line City of Exeter (1914) proudly showing off her graceful cruiser stern and port of registry, Glasgow: a press photo, “The specially chartered City of Exeter leaving Tilbury with the Anglo-French Mission for Moscow,” August 1939. (Central Press Photos, London)
Copyright © Nick Robins 2014
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Seaforth Publishing
An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street, Barnsley
S. Yorkshire S70 2AS
The right of Nick Robins to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published and distributed in the United States of America and Canada by
Naval Institute Press
291 Wood Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034
This edition is authorized for sale only in the United States of America, its territories and possessions and Canada.
First Naval Institute Press eBook edition published in 2015.
ISBN 978-1-61251-937-1 (eBook)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP data record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher.
All illustrations, unless otherwise indicated in the credits, come from the author’s collection.
Typeset and designed by JCS Publishing Services Ltd, www.jcs-publishing.co.uk Print edition by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY (Great Britain)
Contents
Preface
1 An Important Role in a National Service
2 The Start of the Steamship Era
3 The Emigrant – Fuel for Trade and Empire
4 In the Service of Empire
5 London Scottish
6 Wood to Iron, Iron to Steel, Sail to Steam: The Shipbuilders and Engineers
7 Clyde-Built
8 Innovators, Investors and Entrepreneurs
9 Missionaries, Explorers and Traders
10 The Making of the Sailors and Some of their Stories
11 Disasters and Lessons Learnt
12 The Atlantic Crossing
13 Bens and Clans – Cargo Liners to the Orient
14 Tramps, Bulkers, Other Specialists and the Jute Trade
15 A Heritage to be Proud of
References
Index
THE BRITISH MERCHANT NAVY was supreme from the close of the Napoleonic Wars until the era of cheaper operating costs that emerged under selected foreign flags some 150 years later. Scottish engineering, shipowning and operating, as well as business and entrepreneurial skills, all played a big part in the success of the Merchant Navy. Scottish emigrants took skills with them to the ends of Empire that promoted trade and wealth creation both overseas and at home. In terms of engineering, ‘Clyde-built’, was the one time ‘Kitemark’ for the shipbuilding industry the world over. Scottish shipowners included household names such as Allan, Anchor, Donaldson and Henderson, while Scotsmen were also instrumental in founding, and for much of the time managing, Cunard, British India, P&O, Orient, Glen and many other well known ‘English’ companies.
The story is traced from a variety of angles, even from the role of people such as David Livingstone in developing trade. The school of the ‘Honest Scot’ working in the City of London includes the iconic tale of the takeover ‘merger’ of P&O by British India.
This book aims to stir the memory and rekindle interest in this fascinating part of the history of the British Merchant Navy. The author is grateful to a number of people who have supported this endeavour; valuable discussion with Donald Meek helped to formulate the project, Ian Ramsay kindly provided detailed critical review of the text, while Iain Hope provided detail regarding a number of incidents including the sinking of Athenia. As always, the publisher, Julian Mannering, has provided valuable guidance during the preparation of the book.
Dr Nick Robins
Crowmarsh, Oxon
An Important Role in a National Service
It is surprising how often the historian seeking out the beginnings of famous British shipping companies discovers that the success which attended the pioneering work was largely due to the co-operation and harmonious relationship between brothers. Names which spring to mind are the Allan brothers – the five sons of Hugh Allan, founder of the Allan Line, the four Henderson brothers, linked with the origins of the Anchor Line, the brothers David and Charles MacIver who did so much to set Cunard on its feet … John and William F Donaldson, etc.
From an article which first appeared in Sea Breezes, May 1967, by T E Hughes.
WHICH WAS THE LONGEST serving steamship company in the world? According to the Scots, it was the Clyde Shipping Company, while the English would have it that it was the General Steam Navigation Company of London. Neither company survives to this day, although they both traded vigorously for many decades; the Clyde Shipping Company was only deleted from the Companies Register in 1995. The foundation of the Clyde Shipping Company occurred at the very inception of steam power at sea, quickly following the successful trials of Henry Bell’s pioneering little steamship Comet. Two early steamers, Industry and Trusty, entered the trade between the Broomielaw and Greenock in 1814, to form the nucleus of the new Clyde Shipping Company. This was ten years before Thomas Brockelbank floated the General Steam Navigation Company in London.
This Anglo/Scots argument demonstrates that the steamship was established commercially in the inshore trades early in the nineteenth century. The benefits of steam navigation greatly outweighed the vagaries of sail and oar on the river and estuary services, even though the early steamships were unreliable and prone to breakdown, and despite the hostility to the new technology vented by the watermen, most notably on the Thames. The steamer was here to stay, and Clydeside engineers readily took to building wooden-hulled paddle steamers – while the Thames shipbuilders remained steadfast in their commitment to yet more wooden-walled sailing ships for the Honourable East India Company. The birth of the steamship lay firmly at the door of Scottish inventors, engineers, boilermakers and shipbuilders, and the initial success of the steamship was keenly demonstrated by innovative shipowning