The Kent History Forum
Maritime History => Shipbuilding and shipyards => Topic started by: stuartwaters on September 07, 2019, 11:16:34 PM
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The Gillingham Shipyard and it's history is something which has largely been lost in the mists of time. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the larger shipyards further upstream on the River Medway at Upnor, Chatham, Rochester and Frindsbury and not forgetting the great Royal Dockyard, produced much greater numbers of larger ships, some of which went on to achieve lasting fame. Secondly, the bulk of the output from the Gillingham Shipyard was small, coastal vessels such as hoys, barges and fishing vessels. Records of such vessels have not survived the passage of time. It is only because of the involvement of one of the most famous men of his time and a small amount of much later Admiralty work (for which records do survive) that any of record of the Gillingham Shipyard survives at all.
The port of Gillingham was in existence for many hundreds of years and was a thriving port and home to many fishing vessels, from which the men of Gillingham for the most part made their living as well as cargo ships. An example of the kind of commerce carried out at the port is that in May of 1349, the ship John was loaded at Gillingham with a cargo of 16 Quarters of Wheat, 42 Quarters of Barley, 3 Quarters of Rye, 2 and a half sacks of wool, 307 fells of wool and ten cloves of lambs wool. This cargo was all going to a Jean Minchon of Nieuport, near Dunkirk. There are many more examples of Gillingham's relative prosperity as a small coasting port and it would be reasonable to assume that some kind of building or repair activity was taking place there. Unfortunately, any records of ships built at Gillingham in the period up until 1604 are long since lost.
It was in 1604 that the first recorded instance of a ship being built at Gillingham occurred. This is because of the involvement of one Phineas Pett. Phineas Pett's life is well documented because he came to be the leading naval architect of his day and because he wrote an autobiography which is preserved in the British Library. By 1604, Phineas Pett was Assistant Master Shipwright at the Royal Dockyard, Chatham and he had fallen in with David Duck, another of the Assistant Master Craftsmen at the Dockyard. Duck was able supplement his income from the Royal Dockyard because by this time, he owned the Gillingham Shipyard. Duck and Pett concocted a scheme where Pett would design a ship, which Duck would build in his shipyard. The ship was duly launched at Gillingham on 12th November 1604 and was named Resistance. It should be remembered that the Naval organisation at the time was riddled with corruption and was filled with men on the make. Pett and Duck were no exception. The Resistance had been built with timber 'liberated' from the Royal Dockyard and had been rigged using the rigging from a warship called Foresight, which had been condemmed at Chatham. Since the rigging was re-used in the Resistance, there was clearly nothing wrong with it and it had been condemmed because Pett and Duck wanted to use it in their own ship. Pett had found himself in trouble over the matter of the Foresight's rigging, but excused himself by stating to an internal inquiry at the Dockyard that "The riggings of the Foresight were found to be so ill that they stood him in little or no stead".. The fact that it had found it's way onto a brand new ship was conveniently not mentioned. Little is known of the Resistance's particulars, other than that she was a ship of 160 tons. After completion, Resistance was taken to a shipyard belonging to Phineas' elder brother Joseph, at Limehouse, where she was laid up until January 1605. Phineas sold a third share of the ship to sir Robert Mansell, Treasurer of the Navy and a third share to Sir John Trevor, Surveyor of the Navy. From these transactions, Pett received a 'builders fee' of 5 shillings a ton. By this time, Queen Elizabeth I was dead and King James I was trying to make peace with Spain. The Lord High Admiral had been ordered to go to Spain as Ambassador Extraordinary and Phineas Pett was ordered to prepare the Bear and other naval vessels to convey the Lord High Admiral and his entourage to Spain. Resistance was hired as a transport ship to carry the provisions. Pett sailed with the ship as her captain and the fleet left Queenborough on Easter Sunday 1605. After safe arrival at Corunna, Pett returned with his ship, but left her at Rye and made his way back to Chatham by road. Once more, Pett's 'entrepreneurial' nature asserted itself and Resistance was paid wages and tonnage based on being falsely declared as being a ship of 300 tons. Altogether, her voyage cost the King some £800. Pett continued to hire out the ship to various merchants and she became a commercial success, so much so that in 1610, Pett used his income from his share of the ship to buy back Sir John Trevor's third share in her. Considering that she had cost Pett next to nothing to build, it is no wonder that he regarded her as being a lucky ship. In July 1612, the ship was sold to Henry Mainwaring for £700 and he used her for piracy. Her ultimate fate is unknown. By the time of his death in 1647, Phineas Pett had risen to be the first Commissioner of the Royal Dockyard at Chatham and had designed the largest and most powerful ship ever to have been built for the Kings Navy at the time, the Sovereign of the Seas. On his death, Phineas Pett was succeeded by his son, Peter, who held the job as Commissioner at Chatham until he was sacked after being held as the scapegoat for the Dutch Raid on the Medway in 1667.
In 1660, another member of the Pett family, Peter Pett's cousin, also called Phineas, was appointed as Master Shipwright at Chatham. After Peter Pett was suspended from his role as Commissioner, Phineas Pett virtually ran the Royal Dockyard until a new Commissioner was appointed in 1669. In the December following the Dutch Raid (1667), Phineas Pett entered into an agreement with John Bowyer, Shipwright Foreman at the Royal Dockyard and they agreed to build a new shipyard in the Gillingham area. It's precise whereabouts is unknown, so it could have been anywhere in the Gillingham Parish, which at the time extended from the Copperas (now Copperhouse Marsh) to the shore of St Mary's Island opposite Upnor Castle. The pair began to build and repair small vessels, similar to the Bawley Boats. They quickly found themselves in trouble after the Admiralty found out that timber was again being taken from the Royal Dockyard and was turning up in their new shipyard in addition to various items of Naval Stores. The agreement the two men came to also allowed for the buying and selling of timber. They had been buying timber at 38 shillings a load and had been selling it to the Admiralty at a vastly inflated price through a local timber merchant, Mr John Morecock. Other than scandals relating to embezzled naval Stores, little else is known about this new Gillingham Shipyard.
The original Gillingham Shipyard fades from the records until 4th August 1756, when it was bought by Edward Muddle, shipwright of Broadstairs. He bought the shipyard and an adjoining house called Plumpstead House which stood at the bottom of Gads Hill, Gillingham, for £220 and moved into the house with his family. In the edition of the Kentish Post from 8th - 11th September 1756, a Notice was printed which read:
To be lett and enter'd upon Michaelmas next - the dwelling-house and wharf with a large Warehouse and two Hop Kilns; with or without two large Brick Kilns and lodges for making bricks; two acres of hops and about nine acres of pasture land. At Otterham in the Parish of Upchurch, now in the occupation of Thomas Ady, Hoyman. For further particulars, enquire at the said place. Also, two Hoys to be sold, one about sixty tons, the other about 28 tons. To inquire of Mr Ed. Muddel, Shipwright at Gillingham
It's not clear from the Notice whether Edward Muddle was the owner of the property at Otterham, now Otterham Quay, or whether he was just the owner and builder of the two hoys listed for sale. The property at Otterham is not mentioned in his Will and neither are there any records of his selling it, so it's likely that he was just the owner of the two Hoys.
Edward Muddle made his Will on 7th October 1758, in which he left the Gillingham Shipyard to his second son, also Edward, together with workshops, storehouses and other buildings and adjoining meadow land at Gads Hill. He died aged 59 and was buried in the churchyard at St Mary Magdalene, Gillingham, on 24th May 1761. Four months after his death, his wife Alice also died and was buried at St Mary Magdalene on 17th September 1761.
Edward Muddle Jr carried on the business at the Gillingham Shipyard, but with the exception of Admiralty contracts, there are no records of the vessels built there. In 1780, Edward Muddle was contracted to build a Hoy rigged sailing lighter for the Admiralty, intended for use as a tender at the Royal Dockyard, Deptford. The contract for this vessel was £10,10s per ton plus a 2.5 percent bonus if the vessel was completed on time. Muddle and his men achieved this objective and he was paid a total of £1195,5s,9d for the vessel. She was to be named Deptford and her keel was laid at Gillingham in August 1780. Construction took a year. She was 61ft 3in long and 20ft 4in wide across the beam. She was a vessel of 105 tons and after being fitted out at Deptford Royal Dockyard was fitted with 12 half-pounder swivel guns for self-defence. She must have been a solidly built little vessel; she lasted in service with the Royal Navy until she was sold to Mr J Farrel, agent for the Westminster Asphalt Company for £10,15s on 17th February 1863.
Lines and sheer plan of HM Hoy Hayling c.1750. HM Tender Deptford was a very similar vessel.
(https://i.imgur.com/RQzimdj.jpg?1)
Model of an un-named Naval Hoy c1759. Again, Deptford was a very similar vessel.
(https://i.imgur.com/nsiQxmA.jpg?1)
In 1780, Muddle tendered for another Admiralty contract, this time to build a mooring lighter for use in the Royal Dockyard, Chatham. Mooring Lighter No. 8 was 56ft 7.5in long, 19ft 8.5in wide across the beam and was a vessel of 93 tons. The contract price for this was £9,5s per tons and Muddle was paid £962,10s,5d on completion of the vessel. This vessel spent it's whole career at the Chatham Royal Dockyard and was broken up there in 1820.
Sheer plan and lines of a 56ft Mooring Lighter c.1756, designed by John Williams when he was Master Shipwright at Sheerness Royal Dockyard. Mooring Lighter No.8 at Chatham would have been very similar, if not identical to this vessel.
(https://i.imgur.com/24LGIjn.jpg?1)
Muddle did not tender for any more Admiralty work until 1801, when he built another 56ft Mooring Lighter, more than likely for the Royal Dockyard at Chatham. At the same time, he built the 36ft Victualling Vessel Mary, of 54 tons, for the Royal Navy.
In 1804, the government undertook an inventory of the numbers of shipwrights employed in commercial shipyards. Despite the fact that the Gillingham shipyard wasn't engaged in any work for the Admiralty at the time, Muddle is recorded as employing four shipwrights and two shipwright apprentices, which means that not only was he not dependant on Admiralty work, but that orders for hoys, barges and other small coastal vessels were keeping he and his men busy. This can be compared to Thomas and Josiah Brindley's shipyard at Frindsbury, which at the time was building the large frigates HMS Pomone and HMS Shannon. They employed no less than 51 shipwrights and apprentices.
In 1808, Muddle's shipyard built an as yet unknown 50ft Gunboat. The reason that the identity of the particular Gunboat is unknown is that the Admiralty ordered a batch 85 of these boats for the Scheldt Campaign, but that none of them were assigned names or numbers until they had been delivered. Hence, Edward Muddle knew that he had built one, he just didn't know which one. The 1808 pattern Gunboat was a vessel of 41 tons. They were 50ft 7in long and 14ft 2in wide. They were armed with 2 x 18pdr long guns, one in the bow and one in the stern.
Sheer plan and lines of an 1808 Pattern 50ft Gunboat.
(https://i.imgur.com/i7ZWwbi.jpg?1)
1808 Pattern 50ft Gunboat sail plan:
(https://i.imgur.com/n6XryFs.jpg?1)
While the Gunboat was on his slipway, Edward Muddle was contracted by the Admiralty to build another vessel - the 10 gun Cherokee Class brig-sloop HMS Opossum. Compared to the towering ships of the line being built upstream, HMS Opossum was a mere tiddler. She was 90ft long on her main deck and 24ft 6in wide across the beam. She was a vessel of 235 tons and was the biggest vessel ever built at Gillingham. Muddle received the order from the Admiralty in December 1807, her keel was laid in March 1808 and she was launched in July and towed to the Royal Dockyard Chatham to be fitted with masts guns and rigging.
Sheer plan and lines of the Cherokee Class
(https://i.imgur.com/bmgPkhV.jpg?1)
Deck plans and inboard profile of the Cherokee Class
(https://i.imgur.com/I2e8owI.jpg?1)
Cherokee Class frames
(https://i.imgur.com/JskFdhR.jpg?1)
The subsequent career of HMS Opossum is detailed here: https://www.kenthistoryforum.com/index.php?topic=68.msg124#msg124 (https://www.kenthistoryforum.com/index.php?topic=68.msg124#msg124)
After the launch of HMS Opossum, Edward Muddle did not bid for any more Admiralty work. No doubt his yard continued as it had, building and repairing hoys, fishing vessels and other coastal merchant ships. Unfortunately, we will never know. By 1874, the site had been sold to the Gillingham Portland Cement Company Ltd. They had demolished the shipyard and built a large cement works on the site.
The site of the shipyard is now covered with houses, built in the early 2000s on the site of a former Startrite Engineering Works.
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Stuart - You may wish to amend the link near the end, it points to the old forum :(
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Corrected, thank you.... :D
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Are the houses the ones along Waterside Lane? I notice that there are two slips (blocked off as per usual council practice). If you go down Waterside Lane and keep going down the gennel to the coast there is the remains of one slip starting about 6' below the footpath. Further along, where Waterside Lane turn back up the hill into a cul-de-sac there is another slipway, gated and padlocked.
OT: Why does Medway spend so much time and money stopping people from accessing the Medway?
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The Medway Archive has the plans of the shipyard dating from when Edward Muddle bought it back in 1756. Its on the to-do list to get a copy of the plans and publish them on here.
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Hi Stuart,I once worked with a gentalman(now long gone)who worked in a ship yard in Gillingham in ww2,think it was named 'fair mile' or similar,he to.d me Thay built high speed costal craft,he did in fact pass on to me several admiralty blue prints ref construction of these craft ,long since lost,unfortunatly ,another interesting point was he had in his position a fair amount of navigation equipment ,charts ,and tools from the ww2 German navy,recovered fromE boats decommissioned at Gillingham after the war,?my interest is model boat building(still is) ,sounds as if there may be an interesting story hear,any information Stuart ?
PS reserch shows a fair mile marine owned by an ex Admiral but no further information,
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Fairmile Wharf or Quay was on the site formerly occupied by Steelfields at Lower Gillingham, a few hundred yards downstream from the Gillingham Shipyard.
Fairmile produced a number of types of coastal vessel for the Royal Navy in WW2. The clever thing about their craft was that they were prefabricated in a factory then, in kit form, were transported by lorry or train to boat builders all over the country and assembled. The Quay at Gillingham was on the site of the Gillingham Portland Cement Works, which had closed just before the war started. It probably got its name from the Fairmile craft assembled there.
Fairmile designs were:
A Type - Motor Launch (mostly transferred to the RAF for use as Rescue Launches). There was one at Rye until recently.
B Type - another Motor Launch. This was fitted with rails on the deck to allow the boats to be converted from one role to another in hours rather than weeks. B Type Motor Launches served as Motor Torpedo Boats, Motor Gunboats, Inshore Patrol Boats, Inshore Minesweepers and Coastal Anti-Submarine Vessels and over 600 were built over the course of the war. Extraordinarily seaworthy for their size, they could accompany convoys as far as Gibraltar.
C Type - fast Motor Gunboats
D Type - the famous 'dog' boats, the most numerous of the Royal Navy Motor Torpedo Boats.
F Type - fast Landing Craft, used by the Commandos.
All of these designs were very similar, all 110ft long and were able to be built by any kind of boat building yard. It allowed many former yacht builders to stay in business during the war.
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Stuart,once again you have naild it,I found loads of information on the Internet,ref boats ,there use and history,but nothing on the Gillingham angle,thank you
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Stuart. Most interesting about Fairmile Marine. When I was evacuated to Shepperton in 1940, close by on the Thames was Walton Yacht Works which changed its name to Fairmile Marine & built the lovely looking ML's. In 1953-60, I worked for Napiers & a colleague & his 6 brothers bought an ex RN ML which had 2 Napier half Deltics( 9 cylinders). He said when out to sea with full throttle, "it would drink fuel faster than you could pour fuel from a 5 gallon Jerry can"! I remember well Gillingham cement works with its enormous chimney, for in the 1930's we regularly went to the Strand, via the riverside pathway alongside the cement works; it was never very busy.
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Further to my post ref Fairmile marine,records show that it allso had a slipway at Rochester on blue bore warf in my time it was universally known as"the old iron dump",
After the German surrender in 1945 some KriegsMarina costal boats were disarmed and decommissioned at the Gilingham facility ,probably one of the last jobs prior to closure,any other information great fully received
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I knew someone who was involved with the scrap business at Fairmile Wharf in Gillingham. They broke up ex-Kreigsmarine S-Boats (also known as E-Boats) there. He did tell me that they also broke up an ex-Royal Navy submarine there HMS Sentinel.
The German boats had two major advantages over the British ones in that they were diesel powered and steel built, whereas the British ones were powered by aviation fuel (being powered as they were by Rolls Royce Merlin engines) and were constructed from wood.
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I put an account on the old site.
My mother took in lodgers after the war. I remember a young man. He had come to look a two
small boats at Gillingham They were ex wartime inshore craft. He went out in the morning to
view them. away all day, then he asked me `can you use a `blow torch `. I said `no`. then he
explained. I have been `breaking down ` one boat, when a man watching said `will you sell
the other boat, to me `. `Quote your price ` the lodger said. They agreed on a price.
A day later, the lodger paid my mother, `I am away ` he said. Sold the first one as scrap metal `.
The other ` sold that one too `. He was gone.
Who was he, he said when he came, he was ----- ----- son. His father was the man who bought
the battleship `Warspite `for scrap.
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I put an account on the old site.
My mother took in lodgers after the war. I remember a young man. He had come to look a two
small boats at Gillingham They were ex wartime inshore craft. He went out in the morning to
view them. away all day, then he asked me `can you use a `blow torch `. I said `no`. then he
explained. I have been `breaking down ` one boat, when a man watching said `will you sell
the other boat, to me `. `Quote your price ` the lodger said. They agreed on a price.
A day later, the lodger paid my mother, `I am away ` he said. Sold the first one as scrap metal `.
The other ` sold that one too `. He was gone.
Who was he, he said when he came, he was ----- ----- son. His father was the man who bought
the battleship `Warspite `for scrap.
That didn't go too well for him. HMS Warspite ran aground on The Lizard on her way to the breakers yard and had to be broken up where she lay. Her remains are still visible on the low spring tides.
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The chap who gave me most of my information reguarding fair mile marine ,was an Irish gent,he was a very skilled electrician ,involved in the installation of early radar equipment in coastal craft.
He owned a fish& chip shop in Borstal high st, lived there for years, he once showed me his collection of artifacts "liberated" from the e boats he helped scrap,because some of the electrical stuff on board the e boats was still considerd secret,along with a Naval team he was often the first civilian allowed on board,I remember he told me most of the boats were just as Thay came in,binoculars and biniculs(is that how you spell it) having been removed by the Navy,so he had a large collection of navigation equipment,books ,and other stuff,mostly bearing the swastica stamp.even crockery marked " kriegs marina heer".will I ever find out what a"stroy winkkal schriber "is .
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Not sure if you were joking about "stroy winkkal schriber"?
I believe schriber is German for scribe and can also be a surname. Not knowing the context of where the words are could it be a blokes name?
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Winkel may be one of the other words, meaning "angle" or something related. Schreiber can mean a writer or clerk but schriber translates as "scratch". No idea what stroy could mean.
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Google translate came up with angle recorder system so navigation kit or rangefinder?
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Peat Smiffy,sorry for my German ,it's some forty years since I set eyes on the article,however in the light of your answers, I m to have a chat with a gent who was a navigator in the Merchant Marine for many years,including German ships out of Hamburg,so I will report back ASAP perhaps he can confirm what is was,though I think what you two came up with sounds about rite to me.thanks
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Nothing really but just to say i was involved with Fibre Glass boat building between 1968 and 1971.
At Hoo St. Werburgh i was involved with Edward Heaths "Morning Cloud" but in 1970 worked at Intermarine at Gads Hill and i am sure our warehouse was the first one on the left inside Steelfields gate as is today.
Steelfields was there then but a smaller company.
We produced fibre glass canoes... Kayaks etc.
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I have spoken to the chap ref my German navigation instruments,as referd to previously ,
1/he decided the word winklelm translated to ANGLE,he said my German was as good as his Chinees
any way from my discription he guessed it was a circular slide rule ,probably used in conjunction with a sextant to navigate at night ,used to convert seasonal star readings to a usable standard.