John Priestman & Company

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John Priestman & Company was a shipyard based in Southwick , Sunderland on the River Wear in north east England , UK . The shipyard was known for its tower deckers .

history

John Priestman was born in 1854 and began his apprenticeship at John Blumer and Company at the age of 14 . He later worked in the development department of the W. Pickersgill & Sons shipyard , where in 1880 he constructed their first iron- built steamship .

In 1882, west of Pickersgill Shipyard, he founded his shipyard named John Priestman & Company . Until 1883 he built five wooden ships and ten iron ships, but then initially closed the company again.

After reopening in 1888, the shipyard produced around 120 steel ships up to the First World War . Starting with the Gemini , an average of four ships were built per year. Constructed in its basic features similar to the Ropner's trunk decker and the turret decker from the William Doxford & Sons shipyard, the Priestman tower decker , built since 1897, became the shipyard's trademark. In contrast to the two competing designs, here was the inclined transition from the tower deck to the outer skin of the ships. The first ship of this type was the Enfield .

During the First World War, the shipyard, trading as John Priestman and Co., Iron Ship Builders of Castletown Yard, Southwick, Sunderland from 1914 onwards, built 15 Priestman "Towers" as well as 2 tramp ships and six units of the standard war types A and C , which, however, only started after the end of the war Completed in 1920. After that, there were no new construction orders to be received for some time.

John Priestman was knighted in 1921 and the shipyard built twelve large tramp ships under the management of Sir John Morrison for its own account. Sir John, for his part, invested money from the shipyard in South African gold mines , which was very profitable for him. This was used to finance the twelve tramp ships. One of these ships was named after Sir John's only daughter, Barbara Marie . These ships were used for trips between Swedish Baltic ports to South Africa. They had five holds, of which hold 3 between the bridge superstructures and the superstructures for the machine personnel could be used as an additional coal bunker for long journeys to South Africa.

By 1930 another dozen tramp ships had been built for different owners. In 1930 two more ships were completed and then the shipyard workers were paid off. The last two orders were the Glenlea and the Finland . Another ship was not accepted and put up for auction. However, it was withdrawn when only £ 20,000 was offered. Finally, it wasn't launched until May 1933. Sir John Priestman was often seen playing tennis with his manager at the shipyard during this idle period . The shipyard's last ship, the Rio Novo , was sold in September 1934. In the same year Sir John Priestman was made a baronet .

Although the shipyard closed its doors in 1933, operations continued with the assistance of the British Admiralty and in 1944 it was taken over by William Pickersgill & Sons as the "West Yard" to build new ships for the Navy. In 1939 Priestmann donated the University of Sunderland's new "Priestman Library" . Sir John Priestman died in 1941 at the age of 87, leaving £ 1.5million, much of which he bequeathed to charitable causes.

See also

Web links

literature

  • Rolf Schönknecht, Uwe Laue: Ocean freighters of world shipping . Volume 2. transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-344-00282-1 .
  • Alfred Dudzus, Alfred Köpcke: The great book of ship types . Licensed edition by transpress, Berlin. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-831-7 .