Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company

Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company
	Launch of Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist. beneath the distinctive gantry cranes of Palmers' yard
Type	Public
Industry	Shipbuilding
Fate	Collapsed 1933
Successor	Armstrong Whitworth
Founded	1852
Headquarters	Jarrow, United Kingdom

Short description: British shipbuilding company (1852–1933)

Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited, often referred to simply as "Palmers", was a British shipbuilding company. The Company was based in Jarrow, County Durham, in north-eastern England, and also had operations in Hebburn and Willington Quay on the River Tyne.

History

Early history and growth

The company was established in 1852 by Charles Mark Palmer as Palmer Brothers & Co. in Jarrow.^[1] Later that year it launched the John Bowes, the first iron screw collier.^[1]^[2] By 1900 the business was known as Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company.^[3]^{[Fn 1]} At that time, besides building ships, it manufactured and processed its own steel and other metals, and its products included Reed water tube boilers and marine steam engines.^[6]^{[Fn 2]} By 1902 Palmers' base at Jarrow occupied about 100 acres (41 hectares) and included 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometres) of the southern bank of the River Tyne, and employed about 10,000 men and boys.^[8] In 1910 Sir Charles Palmer's interest in the business was acquired by Lord Furness who, as Chairman, expanded the business by acquiring a lease over a new graving dock at Hebburn from Robert Stephenson and Company.^[9] In 1919 Palmers laid down the Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist., which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, causing the loss of 84 lives and 200 long tons (203 tonnes) of silver.^[10]^[11]

Depression and collapse

The Great Depression, which began in 1929, all but destroyed the shipbuilding industry, which would not rebound until the Second World War. In 1931, Palmers posted a loss of £88,867 (equivalent to £6,083,000 in 2023). The company received a moratorium from its creditors in order to extend repayment. In January 1933, the majority of the company's unsecured creditors met in London and agreed to extend the moratorium a further six months.^[12]

However, Palmers' was unable to survive and collapsed by the end of the year. The company's blast furnaces and steel works—which covered 37 acres—were put up for auction.^[13] The Jarrow yard was sold to National Shipbuilders Securities, which closed it down in order to sell it, causing much unemployment and leading to the Jarrow March.^[14] After the shipyard closed, following support from the industrialist, Sir John Jarvis, the site was used the engine shop as a steel foundry for another 18 months.^[15]

The company retained the yard at Hebburn and was subsequently acquired by Armstrong Whitworth, becoming Palmers Hebburn Company.^[16] In 1973, Vickers-Armstrongs, successor to Armstrong Whitworth, sold the Palmers Dock at Hebburn to Swan Hunter and developed it as the Hebburn Shipbuilding Dock.^[17] This facility was acquired in turn from the receivers of Swan Hunter by Tyne Tees Dockyard in 1994, which sold it to Cammell Laird in 1995. When the latter entered receivership in 2001, the dock was acquired by A&P Group.^[18]^[19] The yard remains in use as a ship repair and refurbishment facility.^[20]

Ships built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company

Ships built by Palmers included:

Naval

Battlecruisers

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Battleships

refer to caption — Battleship **Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist.** of 1915, as seen in the 1930s

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Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist. Royal Navy (1910)
Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist. Royal Navy (1906)
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Cruisers

the cruiser HMS Orlando of 1886 — Cruiser **Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist.** of 1886, as seen in the 1890s

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missing name Royal Canadian Navy (1891)
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Destroyers

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missing name Royal Canadian Navy (1932)
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Monitors

HMS Marshal Ney in 1915 — Monitor **Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist.** in 1915

missing name Victorian Navy (1868)
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River gunboats

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Merchant and leisure

Cable ships

missing name Atlantic Telegraph Company (1923)

Cargo ships

Anne Thomas Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1882)
Anthony Radcliffe Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1893)
Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist. Alfred Holt and Company (1922)
Clarrisa Radcliffe Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1889)
Douglas Hill Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1890)
Script error: The function "ship_prefix_templates" does not exist. British-India Steam Navigation Company (1919)
Gwenllian Thomas Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1882)
Iolo Morganwg Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1882)
John Bowes Charles Palmer (1852)^[21]
Kate Thomas Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1884)
Lady Palmer Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1889)
Mary Thomas Evan Thomas Radcliffe (1889)
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Slavic Prince (Prince Line Ltd, Newcastle) (1918)

Oil tankers

British Ardour British Tanker Company (1928)
British Aviator British Tanker Company (1924)
British Captain British Tanker Company (1923)
British Chemist British Tanker Company (1925)
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British Freedom British Tanker Company (1928)
British General British Tanker Company (1922)
British Honour British Tanker Company (1928)
British Industry British Tanker Company (1927)
British Inventor British Tanker Company (1926)^[22]
British Justice British Tanker Company (1928)
British Light British Tanker Company (1917)
British Loyalty British Tanker Company (1928)
British Mariner British Tanker Company (1922)
British Officer British Tanker Company (1922)
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British Science British Tanker Company (1931)
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British Splendour British Tanker Company (1931)
British Strength British Tanker Company (1931)
British Yeoman British Tanker Company (1923)

Passenger ships

missing name (1860)
missing name (1896)
missing name (1868)^[23]

Steam yachts

Xantha Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey (1867)

Tugs

PT Northumberland G. Wascoe, Shields, 1852 Yard number 1^[24]^[25]

Cargo vessels

S.S. Socotra, 1897

References

Footnotes

↑ Some 19th-century and later sources refer to the company as "Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company", with an apostrophe, but in Some Account of the Works of Palmers Shipbuilding & Iron Company Limited, which was compiled by the business's company secretary Malcom Dillon and published in 1900, the name is given throughout as "Palmers ...", without the apostrophe.^[4]^[5]^[3]
↑ "A speciality of [Palmers' engine works] is the manufacture of the 'Reed' water-tube boiler, the invention of Mr J. W. Reed, manager of the engine works department, which has been adopted with well-known results in ... high-speed [torpedo boat destroyers] ..., and also in vessels constructed for the Admiralty on the Clyde. It may be observed that nearly 25 miles [40 km] of tubes are used in the manufacture of the boilers and machinery of each 30-knot destroyer."^[7]

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 "Building for the world". The Journal. 22 May 2007. http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/newcastle-campaigns/st-oswalds-hospice/2007/05/22/building-for-the-world-61634-19266366/.
↑ Dillon 1900, pp. 16–7.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Dillon 1900.
↑ Gibbs 1896, p. 8.
↑ Anon. 1899, p. 475.
↑ Dillon 1900, pp. 28–50.
↑ Dillon 1900, pp. 33–4.
↑ Anon. 1902, pp. 613, 616.
↑ "Christopher Furness, Obituary". The Times. 11 November 1912. http://www.dmm.org.uk/archives/a_obit16.htm.
↑ "Shipwreck of SS Gairsoppa reveals £150m silver haul". BBC News. 26 September 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15061868.
↑ C. Michael Hogan (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor) (21 May 2012). Cleveland, Cutler J. ed. "SS Gairsoppa recovery". Encyclopedia of Earth (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). http://www.eoearth.org/article/SS_Gairsoppa_recovery?topic=49523. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
↑ "Palmers' Moratorium". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 14 January 1933. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000640/19330114/126/0004.
↑ "Steel Works to be Sold at Auction". The Times: p. 11. 10 July 1934.
↑ Charles Palmer
↑ "Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company". Grace's Guide. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Co.
↑ Crockett, Margaret; Foster, Janet (October 2005). "Report on the Access to Shipbuilding Collections in North East England (ARK) Project". Tyne & Wear Archives. http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/pdf/arkrep.pdf.
↑ "Swan Hunter History: Naval ships". swanhunter.com. 2010. http://www.swanhunter.com/history_p6.html.
↑ "Shipbuilder: Palmers Hebburn Co Ltd, Hebburn (1934 – 1973)". Tyne Built Ships. n.d.. http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/PalmerDD.html.
↑ "UK north east yards extend dock capacity". Motor Ship. 1995. http://www.readabstracts.com/Transportation-industry/Western-yards-go-it-alone-Conversions-and-coatings-keep-yards-busy.html.
↑ "New owner for A&P Tyne shipyard". The Journal. 2 March 2011. http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/new-owner-ap-tyne-shipyard-4435816.
↑ "Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Co - Graces Guide". https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Co.
↑ "Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Co - Graces Guide". https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Co.
↑ SS Nevada
↑ "Palmer Tyne shipbuilder Jarrow Willington Quay". http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/Palmer.html.
↑ "Tyne tug Northumberland 1852". http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/northumberland1852.html.

Bibliography

Anon. (1899), "Launches and Trial Trips", The Marine Engineer 20: 474–6, OCLC 10460390, https://archive.org/stream/marineengineera09unkngoog#page/n512/mode/2up
Anon. (1902), "Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow-on-Tyne", Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers: 613–6, OCLC 863604422, https://archive.org/stream/proceedings190235inst#page/612/mode/2up
Cuthbert, Jim; Smith, Ken (2004). Palmers of Jarrow 1851–1933. ISBN 1-85795-196-4.
Dillon, Malcolm (1900), Some Account of the Works of Palmers Shipbuilding & Iron Company Limited, Franklin, OCLC 68103311, https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030901890#page/n7/mode/2up
Gibbs, Frederick T. M. (1896), The Illustrated Guide to the Royal Navy and Foreign Navies; Also Mercantile Marine Steamers Available as Armed Cruisers and Transports, &c., Waterlow Bros. & Layton, OCLC 12714917, https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030753614#page/n23/mode/2up
Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9.
Johnston, Ian; Buxton, Ian (2013). The Battleship Builders – Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships (Hardback). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-027-6.
Wilkinson, Ellen (1939). The Town That Was Murdered, The Life-Story of Jarrow. Victor Gollancz Ltd.

External links

{{UK National Archives ID}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company. Read more

[6] Some 19th-century and later sources refer to the company as "Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company", with an apostrophe, but in Some Account of the Works of Palmers Shipbuilding & Iron Company Limited, which was compiled by the business's company secretary Malcom Dillon and published in 1900, the name is given throughout as "Palmers ...", without the apostrophe.^[4]^[5]^[3]

[9] "A speciality of [Palmers' engine works] is the manufacture of the 'Reed' water-tube boiler, the invention of Mr J. W. Reed, manager of the engine works department, which has been adopted with well-known results in ... high-speed [torpedo boat destroyers] ..., and also in vessels constructed for the Admiralty on the Clyde. It may be observed that nearly 25 miles [40 km] of tubes are used in the manufacture of the boilers and machinery of each 30-knot destroyer."^[7]

[history-1] 1.0 ^1.1 "Building for the world". The Journal. 22 May 2007. http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/newcastle-campaigns/st-oswalds-hospice/2007/05/22/building-for-the-world-61634-19266366/.

[FOOTNOTEDillon190016–7-2] Dillon 1900, pp. 16–7.

[FOOTNOTEDillon1900-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Dillon 1900.

[FOOTNOTEGibbs18968-4] Gibbs 1896, p. 8.

[FOOTNOTEAnon.1899475-5] Anon. 1899, p. 475.

[FOOTNOTEDillon190028–50-7] Dillon 1900, pp. 28–50.

[FOOTNOTEDillon190033–4-8] Dillon 1900, pp. 33–4.

[FOOTNOTEAnon.1902613,_616-10] Anon. 1902, pp. 613, 616.

[11] "Christopher Furness, Obituary". The Times. 11 November 1912. http://www.dmm.org.uk/archives/a_obit16.htm.

[12] "Shipwreck of SS Gairsoppa reveals £150m silver haul". BBC News. 26 September 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15061868.

[13] C. Michael Hogan (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor) (21 May 2012). Cleveland, Cutler J. ed. "SS Gairsoppa recovery". Encyclopedia of Earth (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). http://www.eoearth.org/article/SS_Gairsoppa_recovery?topic=49523. Retrieved 10 February 2017.

[14] "Palmers' Moratorium". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 14 January 1933. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000640/19330114/126/0004.

[15] "Steel Works to be Sold at Auction". The Times: p. 11. 10 July 1934.

[16] Charles Palmer

[17] "Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company". Grace's Guide. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Co.

[18] Crockett, Margaret; Foster, Janet (October 2005). "Report on the Access to Shipbuilding Collections in North East England (ARK) Project". Tyne & Wear Archives. http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/pdf/arkrep.pdf.

[19] "Swan Hunter History: Naval ships". swanhunter.com. 2010. http://www.swanhunter.com/history_p6.html.

[20] "Shipbuilder: Palmers Hebburn Co Ltd, Hebburn (1934 – 1973)". Tyne Built Ships. n.d.. http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/PalmerDD.html.

[21] "UK north east yards extend dock capacity". Motor Ship. 1995. http://www.readabstracts.com/Transportation-industry/Western-yards-go-it-alone-Conversions-and-coatings-keep-yards-busy.html.

[22] "New owner for A&P Tyne shipyard". The Journal. 2 March 2011. http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/new-owner-ap-tyne-shipyard-4435816.

[23] "Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Co - Graces Guide". https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Co.

[24] "Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Co - Graces Guide". https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Co.

[25] SS Nevada

[26] "Palmer Tyne shipbuilder Jarrow Willington Quay". http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/Palmer.html.

[27] "Tyne tug Northumberland 1852". http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/northumberland1852.html.

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