Famous Thames Ships.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 March 1911, Page 4

Famous Thames Ships.

« SOME PREDECESSORS OF Til 10 THUXDRRIOIL (London Daily Express). .Many of the most famous 'of British warships were horn cm the banks of the Thames. The Thunderer, viewed from any but the local standpoint, is not a particularly noteworthy ship in thesq days of superDreadnoughts, for she lias a prototype in the Orion, launched iast - ugrst, and i.s one of a class ol eight. What she may mean fur London it .•eniaius for the future and her builders to decide, for if the Admiralty is satisfied with the progress made with the ship there is little reason to doubt that one of next year's armoured ships all ol which, it is beieved, will be a subtle combination >f the battleship with the cruiser will be built at Blackball. The Thunderer is the twenty-sixth i'hames-built British ironaad—a.n ihsolete word, 'but it will serve. The first of all our armoured ships was built at Rlackwall. This was The Warrior, remarkable, at -once for 'ier size, her sirengfch, and her beauty on the water, Her launch took lilace just' over half a century ago— on December 2!) th, .I8'i(); and almost i hundred and iifty years ago. on July 17th. 17(11, the first of all Britsh Thunderers had fought* her first 'ight, taking the French liille by the board. ' The .successful construction of the "Warrior -roiight- a lood of prosperity to the '1 hanios, uid practically every European 1 latiou placed orders with her 'bui.ld•rs for ironclad ships, with the result that the early armoured fleets of Europe were largely Thames-built. The flood tide did not. however, ast very lung. From I8(i0 to IS<O hirteen armoured ships were competed for the British Xavv on the Thames. For the period 1R7.1 to '880 the number fell to five: ami in he ensuing thirty years only eight irnioured ships have been launched mi the Thames for our Fleet. The •eason, of bourse, is that'the north 'ins asserted its supremacy—an iu'vitable thing, seeing that the north 's the home of coal and iron. WOODEN WALLS. "Wooden walls and flowing sails 'irought more work to the river of :he capital than steel shipbuilding is iver likely to do. For probably iiiore than two hundred years it ■ould he boasted by London that half of the nTore important ships in the Fleet wore built on its river. That, of course, was in the days when "Woolwich and Deptford were flourishing dockyards, and when—for it least one century—the proximity of the Royal Palace at Greenwich 'ed to an intimate interest being taken by the Sovereign in the two neighbouring yards.

In this period the most famous of nil Hritish sailing ships were built —ami built on the Thames. Woolwich naturally took priority, not only as the senior yard, but because, liein<>; lower down the river, larger ships could be built there: I'or even in the sailing days there was some difficulty in constructing the larger types of ships in the Thames, and more than one vessel built at Wcolwich had to be taken down to Krith to be fitted out. It was. too. long before the coining of steam and iron that the doom of Woolwi-h and Deptfordi as constructing yards was heralded, for in 1803 .Mr Ronnie had reported- to the Admiralty that the water at both places was insufficient for the liitildin»' of la rue ships. It was not until 1860 that the yards were closed for building purposes ind the Th-ames, unfortunately, has not vet achieved Mr Hennic's pro. posed alternative of a nia'jnifr-ont new dockyard at North fleet. IX 1512. The first of the famous Tha-mes .ships was the Henri Grace a Rieti, built at Woolwich iu loll!, and fitted out at Erith. She was a splendid ship in her day, if we eliminate her inclination towards top-heavi-ness, which was one of the almo.st permanent features of the early sailing warships. She was about iD'JO tons, and carried eighty gun.?, of practically every calibre then in existence, differing in this respect from the .new Thunderer, whioh will have no more than two calibres of guns on her 22,080 tons. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1010, came the famous Prince Royal built also at Woolwich, by one of that famous Pett family, who are said bo have been connected with shipbuilding from the beginniiur of the fifteenth century, who certainly managed most of the nation's shipbuilding concerns from the time of IClizabeth to that of Charles IT., and one of whose descendants was chairman of the Thames Ironworks in 1870. The Prince Royal was not a happy ship for Peter Pett. Three times during her construction lie was called upo.i to answer charges of incompetence and malpractice, but each time, mainly, perhaps, because of the favour with which James I. and Prince Henry regarded him, he emerged triumphant. The ship was of 1100 tons, and cost no less than €20,000, which was' very high for a ship of those days. When she was completed it was seen that she was both badly designed and badly built, and in 1(321 - only eleven years after her launch—if, was reported that- .£(3000 would .have to he spent to make her lit for service. Over £1800 was spent for carvings and gilding alone.

IN 1637

The Sovereign of the Seas, another of the Pett ships, was launched at Woolwich in 1(537. She was the first real throe-decker, and the show ship of hc»r (lav. mid she continued in service until 1099 (seeing muci!!' fighting in the Dutch wars, whore she earned for herself the epithet of " Golden Devil." A careless cook left a lighted candle below, and the ship caught fire and was destroyed. 'Jhe Constant Warwick, the first British frigate, was built at Rato.liflf in 1640. Another famous TlVamosbuilt ship was the Royal George, which capsized at Spithead in 1782. She was launched at Woolwich in 1705. Two previous Thunderers have been built on the One, a sevent.v-four-gun ship, lai.h -bed in 17(30, wa rthe first t:i !:; u- t'--• name, and was lost in a Wet 1 hurricane twenty years late! The other was an eighty-four gin > "iP, launched in 1831, which to;ik r iii the bombardment of St. -L« u d in 1840.