Joseph L. Thompson and Sons

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The Joseph L. Thompson and Sons Shipyard in North Sands, Sunderland was one of the city's best known operations. The company existed from 1846 to 1966 as an independent company and operated shipbuilding until 1986.

history

From the foundation to 1900

In 1846 Robert Thompson founded a shipyard in North Sands, where he and his three sons built the sailing ship Pearl in their first year . In 1854, Thompson's son of the same name left the family business to open his own shipyard, which later became known as Robert Thompson and Sons . After the death of Robert Senior in 1860, his son Joseph Lowes Thompson took over the management of the company, which from February 1871 traded as Joseph L. Thompson . Joseph Thompson retired in 1875, after which his three sons Robert, Joseph Lowes and Charles continued the shipyard operations.

As early as 1882, the shipyard had developed into the operation with the highest new construction tonnage on the River Wear. In the following year, 16 new ships with a volume of 30,495 tons left the shipyard, which expanded considerably in these years and soon extended in an arch to the north dock of the River Wear. In 1885 half of all new buildings were made of steel. The entry into the construction of higher quality ships such as line freighters also succeeded in these years. The shipyard's first steel-built ship, the Rubens , was rammed by a necklace in 1887 while lying at the pier and sank on its lines. It was later lifted and set off after repairs. In 1888 the shipyard stopped building iron ships and only used steel. When Joseph L. Thompson (II) retired in 1893, the largest shipyard on Wear was already the fourth largest in the world. The yard was continued by his brother Robert, who converted the company into the Limited company Joseph L. Thompson & Sons Ltd. on July 12, 1894 . converted. James Marr and Peter Phorson have been named as directors. The first ship under the new name was the Amyl . At the world exhibition in Antwerp in 1894, the company exhibited a model ship of the Coogee steamer .

From 1900 to the First World War

In 1900 Thompson lost its position as the most productive shipyard on Wear to its competitor Sir James Laing and Sons . From 1901 Sir James Marr was appointed chairman and managing director of the shipyard and from 1909 also joined the board of directors of the shipyard Sir James Laing and Sons. At the beginning of the new century Thompson built almost exclusively ships for the transatlantic service. For the New York & Pacific Steamship Co. Ltd (Grace Line) alone, 15 units were built between 1898 and 1912. The shipyard's average output in the years 1904 to 1907 was 46,226 space tonnes per year, with 1907 being a pre-war high point with twelve ships and 48,178 tonnes, before the volume of deliveries fell again from 1910 onwards.

After Robert Thompson died in 1908, his sons Norman Thompson and Cyril Thompson joined the company. The following year, the London shipping and brokerage company Harris and Dixon Ltd. the Brinkburn , her first ship at Thompson. In the following ten years alone ten further orders for trampers from this shipping company followed. The predecessor shipping company Rederi A / B Lulea-Ofoten of the heavy industry company Trafik AB Grängesberg-Oxelösund (TGO) received the four ore steamers Murjek , Kiruna , Boden and Narvik from Thompson in 1913/14 .

During the First World War , the shipyard delivered 17 ships with 91,486 space tons.

Years of crisis and war

After the shipyard had made good profits in the first post-war years, orders from 1920 collapsed completely due to the economic crisis and the strikes from 1920 to 1922, after which there was almost no activity at the shipyard by 1923. After 1924 Thompson was able to take in first orders for some small ships, two tramp steamers and four motor liner carriers for Silver Line Ltd. Silver Lines Managers, Stanley and John Thompson, belonged to the Thompson family and continued to take care of orders until 1930. After the stock market crash on Wall Street in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression , work at the shipyard came to a complete standstill from 1930 to 1933, whereupon Robert Thompson Junior closed the shipyard completely from 1933 to 1935.

In 1935 work was resumed and the two Silver Line ships Silverlarch and Silverpine, originally built by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, were provided with new machinery, new Maierform- Stevens and new aft sections with streamlined oars. Such extensive reconstruction work on floating ships, in which the stern area was cut off above the waterline, was a novelty at the time. The years 1936 to 1939 saw the shipyard mainly working on 18 Thompson Economy trampers, which were characterized by significantly reduced coal consumption. In 1938 the largest ships since 1914, the motor tankers Sandanger and Eidanger, ran for the Westfal-Larsen shipping company from Bergen vom Helgen; these later formed the basis for the standard tankers of the Norway type built during the war . In the same year, Sir Norman Thompson, faced with empty order books and the last ships nearing completion, demanded government aid for the shipyards on Wear and received this in 1939 in the form of the Shipping Loan Scheme .

Thompson delivered 40 ships during the Second World War . Starting with the Empire Liberty , the construction of a series of 23 "Empire" standard tramp ships began in 1941 . These standard ships had a carrying capacity of 10,000 tons and had a relatively small engine with 2500 hp, which enabled a speed of around eleven knots. The plans of this type "Y" called design were submitted in 1940 by the British Merchant Shipbuilding Mission to US and Canadian shipyards and served there as the basis for the development of the Ocean type .

In the spring of 1943 the shipyard was badly hit by a bomb attack. King George VI. and Queen Elizabeth visited the shipyard on March 14, 1943. After the reconstruction, Thompson built three Standard Fast Cargo Liners in 1944/45, each with two steam turbines.

Post-war years

From 1946 the shipyard took over the neighboring shipbuilding company from John Crown and Sons and began regular shipbuilding again. Thompson put the focus in the following two decades on the construction of tankers, of which 38 steadily growing units were built by 1966.

In 1954 the shipyard became a subsidiary of Sunderland Shipbuilding, Dry Dock and Engineering Company . This was previously formed by the merger of the Thompson, Sir James Laing and Sons , John Crown and ship repair company T. W. Greenwell and Co. In 1960 the shipyard in North Sands was reorganized and a large new slipway for the construction of super tankers and large bulk carriers up to 100,000 GRT was created on the former site of the Crown shipyard. After the additional entry of William Doxford & Sons , the shipyard group was renamed Doxford and Sunderland Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in 1961 .

As part of the Doxford and Sunderland Group

On April 1, 1966, the shipyards merged into a single company, the Doxford and Sunderland Group . Thompson's became the North Sands shipyard within the group. Between 1966 and 1971, the North Sands shipyard delivered eleven bulk carriers with capacities between 32,300 dwt and the Panamax size of around 70,000 dwt.

From 1971 the shipyard worked on the construction of four large bulk carriers. The first of the ships, the Orenda , was launched on November 3, 1971. They were the largest ships that still fit in Sunderland's inland port, and the slipway was extended especially for their construction. The ships were powered by the largest Doxford diesel engines ever built. On June 25, 1975, the launch of the Aurora for the shipping company P&O Bulk Carriers with 154,500 tons of load capacity decided to build the series.

End with delays

On May 24, 1979, the Badagry Palm of the Palm Line was launched when the shipyard was last launched. After the completion of the multi-purpose liner, which at the same time received the last Doxford four-cylinder "J" engine for a British ship, J. L. Thompson was initially closed, but the shipyard's steel processing continued and the equipment pier continued to be used by Doxford's and Laing's.

In 1986 the shipyard was reactivated to construct a crane barge with a lifting capacity of 2000 tons for use in the North Sea oil fields. After the crane island called ITM Challenger was launched in November 1986, the client went bankrupt. After that, a US company bought the barge and renamed it the McDermott DB50 . The shipyard was then permanently closed, the buildings demolished and the site in North Sands converted into a residential area.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. List of ships from Rederi A / B Lulea-Ofoten, Trafik AB Grängesberg-Oxelösund near Faktaomfartyg (Swedish)
  2. Page about the Palm Line (English)
  3. Image of the Badagry Palm  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.photoship.co.uk