Chatham Dockyard (40 page)
Authors: Philip MacDougall
19
The Naval and Military Record
, 3 October 1895.
20
Waters (1983), p169.
21
In 1906, as a result of the influence of the newly emergent Amalgamated Society of Shipwrights in Chatham, John Jenkins, an important ASS activist, was elected to represent the Chatham constituency.
Chapter 9
1
Chatham News
, 20 August 1908.
2
Ibid.
, 17 September 1908. A further eight submarines were to be built at Chatham prior to the outbreak of war in August 1914 together with construction of several cruisers and the continuance of a great deal of maintenance and refit work. Among the cruisers was C
hatham
, name ship of her class, and launched in November 1911.
3
Chatham News
, 19 December 1914. The General Labourers Union was one of several unions that represented those employed in the munitions factories or the dockyards.
4
Lockyer (1997). Mr Lockyer was employed in the dockyard from 1916 to 1919 and the essay was originally written for a Local Studies course taught at Chatham Technical High School.
5
Ibid
.
Chapter 10
1
The cause of the collision was primarily the low silhouette of the submarine and so making her difficult to be seen but confusion over the lights being carried by
Divinia
on this dark night was a further factor.
2
Originally those employed in the joinery worked exclusively in wood. As furniture built from laminated plastics and metal became increasingly common, those in the joiners’ shop adapted their skills to making furniture in these materials. The joiners also had a responsibility for the upholstery work on ships. The work of a draughtsman was to design ships or parts of ships and draw the plans, while the tracers were women who traced multiple copies of the original plans.
3
Chatham Observer
, 17 June 1955.
4
Chatham Observer
, 5 August 1955.
5
At this time, the school was probably located in one of the storehouses, with a permanent school constructed in 1847 and located in the sail field that adjoined the sail loft. Here it remained (although a separate Lower School building was established at the south end of the painters’ shop) until September 1960 when the whole of what was then known as the Dockyard Technical College was relocated in the West and North Wing of the former Collingwood Barracks. See Crawshaw (1963), p10.
6
Crawshaw (1963), p59.
7
Chatham Observer
, 14 January 1955.
8
Ibid
.
9
Chatham Observer
, 8 October 1965.
10
The last Navy Days, held in May 1981, attracted, despite bad weather, a total of 47,000 visitors.
11
TNA ADM1/19056, 17 August 1945.
12
Chatham News
, 4 October 1959.
13
In the event only four were built, as the newly elected Labour government of 1964 chose to cancel the fifth vessel.
14
Whitley Committee, 12 June 1963, re-quoted from Haxhaj (2005), p563. In the event,
Onyx
was not the last submarine to be built, this for two reasons. First,
Onyx
was renamed
Ojibwa
shortly before her launch in February 1964 while two other ‘Oberons’,
Onondaga
and
Okanagan
, were also to be built at Chatham. All three vessels were commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy.
15
HM Dockyard Chatham, Nuclear Submarine Refitting (no date, Rolls-Royce and Associates Ltd), p18.
16
Hansard, 27 October 1997 col. 667–9. Maiden speech of Jonathan Shaw, MP for Chatham and Aylesford.
17
BBC
Panorama
, 26 January 1998.
18
www.hearinglossadvice.co.uk/former-ministry-of-defence-employee-in-a-successful-claim-for-noise-induced-hearing-loss
. Accessed 30 July 2011.
19
www.asbestosvictimadvice.com/asbestos-a-deadly-dockyard-secret.
20
www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk
Accessed on 30 July 2011 with quoted comment added 17 May 2011.
Chapter 11
1
Hansard col. 148, 6 August 1980.
2
Speed (1982), p92.
3
Coad (2011), p326.
4
Ibid.
, p329.
5
www.medwayports.com
.
| Admiralty, Board of | A body appointed directly by the government and with authority over all matters relating to the Navy, including dockyards. |
| Anchor | A large heavy iron instrument dropped from the side of a ship to hold her in position. Anchors, during the age of sail, came in various forms and were often manufactured in the dockyard smitheries. Falconer (1780) refers to the following: |
| Bower anchor – carried on the bows of a ship. | |
| Kedge anchor – the smallest of all anchors, used while a ship rides in harbour or to move a ship from one part of a harbour to another. | |
| Sheet anchor – the largest and strongest anchor, used only under extreme conditions. | |
| Stream anchor – a relatively small anchor. | |
| Ballast | Additional weight added to a vessel in order to achieve stability. |
| Basin | An enclosed area of water that can be used for fitting, supplying or preparing a ship for sea under safe and controlled conditions. |
| Black Yarn House | A building in the ropery used for storing tarred yarn. |
| Breaming | Clearing from the hull of a ship the various accretions (grass, ooze, seaweed and shells) that have become attached during a period at sea or in harbour. By heating the pitch that formerly covered the hull, the accretions are loosened and then scraped or brushed off. Grounding the ship on a suitable shore, introducing the vessel to a careening wharf or taking her into dry dock allowed the operation to be performed. |
| Caisson | A sealed floating chest that can be used to seal the entrance of a dry dock. |
| Captain Superintendent | Following extensive managerial reforms in June 1832, the post of Commissioner in the dockyards was replaced by a Superintendent who also possessed naval rank. In the case of Chatham, the appointed Superintendent held the rank of Captain and possessed greater powers over that of a Commissioner. As with the Commissioner, he was accommodated in the dockyard, with the house of the Commissioner becoming the Admiral Superintendent’s House (now Medway House). |
| Careening | The operation of heaving a ship down on one side through the attachment of cables to her masts so as to allow one side of her hull to be suitably exposed for cleaning. |
| Cathead | Two beams of short timber that project over a ship’s bow and used to suspend the anchor clear of the bow. |
| Caulker | An artisan of the yard who carried out the specialised task of caulking. |
| Caulking | Driving of quantities of oakum (old rope twisted and pulled apart) into the seams of planks in the ship’s deck or side to prevent the entrance of water. |
| Classification | A short-lived system introduced during the 1830s and used to divide the workforce into different classes for the purpose of determining levels of payment. |
| Dry Dock | A broad and deep trench into which vessels can be floated and, with its entrance sealed, pumped free of water so that work can ensue on the underside of the ship’s hull. |
| Establishment | The agreed dimensions that governed the design of British warships during the age of sail. The first establishment, that of 1677, had standardised design and subsequent changes could only be made with difficulty. |
| Extraordinary | The area of the dockyard administered by the Master Shipwright and devoted to the building, repairing and maintaining of warships. |
| Galley | Shallow-drafted lightweight vessel propelled by oar and most frequently used in the Mediterranean. |
| Grappling Iron | Small anchor-like device fitted with four or five flukes and used to secure one vessel to another. It was a product frequently manufactured in the dockyard smithery. |
| Graving | The process of cleaning a ship’s bottom when she is laid aground during the recess of the tide. In later years, with the development of dry docks, the process of graving was more normally carried out in dock. |
| Hatchelling | The process of combing the tangled hemp fibres prior to their introduction to the spinning floor of the ropery. |
| Hatcheller | A semi-skilled labourer in the ropery who was employed in hatchelling the hemp fibres. |
| Hogging | The distortion of a ship’s keel, with the two ends lying lower than the middle and resulting from the action of waves while at sea. |
| Job | Payment by results when repair work was involved. |
| Keel | The principal timber of any vessel, laid down prior to its construction. Used to hold the bottom of a ship together. |
| Knees | A piece of knee-shaped timber used to connect the beams of a ship with her sides. |
| Mast Pond | A pond of water specifically designed for the storage of masts fully immersed in water. Converted from fir trees grown in northern Europe, it was necessary that these timbers were kept underwater so as to ensure that they did not dry out and so become unusable when taken on board a ship. |
| Mast House | A workshop used for the making of masts and their storage immediately prior to being stepped on board ship. |
| Mast Maker | A skilled artisan of the dockyard who made and shaped the masts for warships. |
| Navy Board | Appointed by the Board of Admiralty, those who composed this body directly oversaw, on behalf of the Admiralty, all matters relating to the civil affairs of the Navy including the dockyards. Abolished in June 1832, the Board was replaced by a number of individual principal officers who were not expected to confer but simply report directly to a designated member of the Board of Admiralty. |
| Oakum | Old hemp rope picked loose and used by caulkers to fill the seams of a ship’s hull to make it watertight. |
| Oakum Boys | Responsible for picking old hemp rope into the oakum used by caulkers. |
| Ordinary | The moorings of a naval dockyard harbour set aside for ships laid up when out of commission and placed under the authority of the Master Attendant. |
| Ordnance Board | A British government body which, until its abolition in 1855, was responsible for the supply of armaments and munitions to the Royal Navy. |
| Ordnance Wharf | A wharf and working area operated by the Ordnance Board for the receiving and supply of guns and other ordnance to naval warships and also for the maintenance and repair of these items. An Ordnance Wharf was sited immediately to the south of the dockyard at Chatham. |
| Resident Commissioner | The senior officer in the dockyard and a member of the Navy Board. The office was abolished on 11 June 1832 and at Chatham replaced by a Captain Superintendent. |
| Rigger | A semi-skilled artisan who worked with the ropes for hoisting the sails and securing the masts. When employed in a naval dockyard, no training was offered as former seamen in the Navy frequently possessed the necessary skills. |
| Rigging | The ropes used to operate the sails of a ship (running rigging) or secure the masts (standing rigging). |
| Ropeyard | The area of dockyard that, at one time, was placed under the charge of the Clerk of the Ropeyard and which undertook all work connected with the manufacture and storage of rope. |
| Sawyer | A dockyard labourer skilled in cutting timbers. |
| Scavelman | A promoted labourer of the yard who was responsible for the cleaning of the yard, including the dry docks, and manning the pumping machinery and caissons that were also attached to the dry docks. |
| Shipwright | A skilled dockyard artisan who could undertake most tasks required for construction of a warship. |
| Smithery | A forge or workshop in a naval dockyard and primarily used for the manufacture of anchors. |
| Spinners | A skilled artisan of the ropery who performed the various tasks associated with the spinning and laying of yarn into rope. |
| Task | Payment by results when new work undertaken. |
| Treenail | Wooden nail used in shipbuilding during the age of fighting sail and timber hulls. |
| Treenail Mooter | A semi-skilled artisan employed in the treenail mooting house (which at Chatham was located in the central part of the yard), mooting or making treenails. |
| Wet Dock | An alternative name for a basin and the term favoured during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |
| While Yarn House | Located in the ropery and reserved for the storage of white yarn (that is yarn that had yet to be tarred). |
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