Bartram & Sons

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Bartram & Sons was a shipyard based in South Docks , Sunderland on the River Wear in north east England .

history

The beginnings

The company was founded in 1837 by George Bartram with his partner John Lister. The actual shipyard opened in Hylton am Wear in 1838 after the company's founder had previously been managing director of the Dryden, Reay shipyards in Biddick Ford and Hylton. On July 7, 1838, took place launching of the Crown , the first ship of the shipyard. This was followed, to taking in the Son Robert Appleby Bartram in the business and the separation from partner John Lister in the years 1852-1854, a further 40 wooden sailing ships of various types, of which the largest, the John and Mary a survey of about 400 BRT would have.

The company relocated to South Docks in 1871, directly on the open North Sea coast . This made Bartram, Haswell and Co., as it called itself after the company's founder left and George Haswell took over as a new partner, the only shipyard from whose slipways the ships built were launched into the open North Sea. At the same time as the move, shipbuilding was converted to the construction of iron ships. The first ship launched on June 6, 1872, was the Ardmore . Sailing ships continued to be constructed until 1876. The last sailor built by Bartram, Haswell and Co. was the four-masted barque Mercia . After John Haswell left the company in 1890, Bartram's two sons, George and William, joined the company and the shipyard became Bartram & Sons. Between 1902 and 1914 around ten cargo ships with clipper stems were built for the Ben Line shipping company from Leith . Over 20 other tramp ships went to various other shipping companies during this time. The shipyard, which also carries out repairs, had around 600 employees at the beginning of the First World War .

First to Second World War

During the First World War, Bartrams built 12 ships with 41,658 GRT for private clients. Ten standard "B" freighters will also be built as part of the "WAR" building program. The last Bartrams ship in this series was the Stonewall . After the end of the war, they return to building tried and tested Tramp freight steamers. The only exception was the tanker Malistan . In 1921 Robert Bartram, who outlived his two sons and only died in 1925 at the age of 90, was knighted . In 1922 the company was transformed into a limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (Germany) | GmbH). Until the takeover by Austin & Pickersgill in 1968, the company was managed by the founder's great-grandchildren, Robert (Colonel RA Bartram) and George Bartram. Another 17 Tramp freight steamers are built in the 1920s. From 1930 to 1936, due to the global economic crisis, only one ship was built and delivered on its own account. This was the Eskdene , completed in October 1934 , which was able to sail with a particularly small crew due to increased use of technology. In 1935 a shipping company succeeded in getting two regular construction contracts and four more through the state scrapping program. Up to the Second World War , a further eleven Tramp freight steamers were delivered and the shipyard was then briefly closed due to a lack of orders.

After the reopening, 29 different conventional freighters, five Empire "B" and four Empire "C" standard freighters, and four conversions were carried out by the end of the war. During the war, to meet the demand, a new slipway was built and the rest of the shipyard was modernized. Until the end of the war, Mrs. Collard, the first woman, was also employed as a welder. At the end of the war, Bartrams had construction contracts from Argentina , Denmark , Greece , Norway , Poland , Portugal and Sweden in the order book.

post war period

From 1952 the shipyard area was enlarged by 20 percent, a slipway was widened by ten meters and various new techniques such as x-raying of welds , optical positioning of ship parts or sandblasting followed by the application of shop primer were introduced. On July 3, 1958, the shipyard's first ship, the Marea , was delivered with an aft superstructure and an aft engine.

In 1961 Bartrams had 1,200 employees and in 1964 the Short Brothers' equipment pier in Pallion was taken over, making it possible to build larger ships. A year later, the Geddes Report recommended that the company be merged with another in order to grow it. In 1967 they started a cooperation with Austin & Pickersgill, whose promising SD-14 freighter they wanted to offer as a Liberty Replacement ship. Bartrams ' first SD-14 ship was the Mimis N. Papalios , which was almost completed even faster than the Austin & Pickersgill type ship. In November 1968 the shipyard was finally taken over by the Austin & Pickersgill shipyard, also located in Sunderland. Bartram & Sons built an average of four ships per year from 1946 to 1967, a total of 85 ships, 30 of which were cargo ships for liner shipping companies. Colonel RA Bartram left the company in 1971 and died ten years later. When he died in 1981, he was one of the last previous owners of a Sunderlander family shipyard.

After the Australind was launched on March 23, 1978, the shipyard was finally closed. Austin & Pickersgill took over all employees. The traditional shipyard operation was completely abandoned and a container storage area for the port of Sunderland was set up on it.

See also

Web links

literature

  • Lingwood, John: SD14. The Great British Shipbuilding Success Story . World Ship Society, Kendal 1976, ISBN 0-9500044-8-0 .
  • H. Clarkson & Co. Ltd. (Ed.): The Clarkson Chronicle. 1852-1952 . Harley Publishing, London 1952.