Introductions to

Heritage Assets

Ships and Boats:

1840 to 1950

September 2012
 INTRODUCTION For descriptive purposes, the remains of a vessel which has
either sunk or suffered structural damage to the extent where
Historic ships of the modern period are inextricably linked
it can no longer function, and is buried and/or submerged
to industrial developments, and the period 1840-1950
either in part or in whole, will be used synonymously with the
is characterised by the progression of the marine steam
term wreck.
engine and development of steamship technology. Paddle
propulsion gradually gave way to the screw propeller, while The number of designated vessels is small but with some
the introduction of iron, and later steel, hulls eclipsed wooden 37,000 known wreck sites and recorded ship losses in the
ships and allowed the building of ever larger vessels driven English Territorial Sea (which extends up to 12 nautical
by increasingly complex and powerful steam power plants. miles from the English coast), there is a recognised need for
Today’s concept of the standard steam engine, whereby high- pragmatism in increasing the number of designated sites. This
pressure steam drives a piston within an enclosed cylinder, is introduction, which in terms of designation interest should
based upon inventions that date back no further than the end
be read alongside the selection guide on Ships and Boats
of the 18th century.
and complements the Ships and Boats: Prehistory to 1840
The transition of Great Britain towards machine-based Introduction to Heritage Assets, describes vessels from about
manufacturing from the later 18th century was made 1840 to 1950. This was a period of major change in shipbuilding
possible by the invention of the steam engine which utilised when the full impact of the industrial revolution and Britain’s
a high-pressure boiler to turn steam into mechanical action. commercial and colonial expansion was felt in the maritime
As steam-powered machines consumed vast quantities of world, particularly in relation to the Pax Britannica (the period
coal, industrialisation would never have been economic if of relative peace in Europe and the world between 1815
coal could not have been readily transported by water. The and 1914), when in little more than a hundred years sail had
Industrial Revolution drove Britain’s overseas trade in the given way to steam and nuclear propulsion and wooden hulls
19th century, and also facilitated the development of Britain’s to those made of iron and then steel. The known historic
merchant shipping industry. maritime resource in waters off England is dominated by
wrecks of the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries: 96 per cent
This overview addresses post-1840 vessels (understood
of known and dated wrecks were lost in the period between
here as being simply a general term to describe all kinds
1840 and 1950.
of craft irrespective of whether they were designed to
navigate on the surface of the water, that is ships and boats, As vessels and shipwrecks in archaeological contexts rarely
or under the water, that is submarines). Principally drawing survive in their entirety, coupled with other vessels being
from archaeological, technological and historical sources, it broken-up at the end of their working life, both museum
describes vessels used on inland waters, coastal waters and in exhibits and those vessels forming the National Historic
the open sea, as well as vessels now abandoned in Fleet within the National Register of Historic Vessels (being
those vessels of pre-eminent national or regional signiicance,
coastal areas.

Ship and boat remains have additional interest and administered by National Historic Ships UK) and the National
signiicance because their construction and contents can Small Boat Register (administered by National Maritime
provide important information about the social, economic Museum Cornwall) are also included in this narrative. It is
and political circumstances at the time of their construction, notable that ships and boats in preservation built between
use or loss especially when combined with documentary 1860 and 1913 outnumber those recorded in the known
evidence such as technical drawings or cargo manifests. archaeological resource.

DESCRIPTION AND CHRONOLOGY Great Western, was launched at Bristol. Built speciically
for passenger transport across the Atlantic, the Great
This is a rapid introductory survey of the range and chronology Western’s wooden hull design was based on those used in
of post-1840 ships, boats and submarines concentrating on the
larger types of ship. It identiies signiicant vessel types,
the line-of-battle ships of the day, but with emphasis on
longitudinal strength (that is, from end to end) to resist the
and notes where there are gaps in our understanding: it is buffeting of the Atlantic waves. The engines, built at Lambeth,
not a comprehensive review of known vessel types, museum were the largest built up to that time, and drew on steam
exhibits, marine engines, wreck sites or working boats, nor is from four iron boilers, each having three furnaces (though the
it a synthesis of 19th and early to mid 20th century British
maritime history, for which Friel (2003) and Grifiths (2001)
presence of secondary masts and sails afforded a measure of
emergency propulsion).

Brunel’s designs were based on nearly ifty years of

are recommended.

VICTORIAN (1837 – 1901) experimentation. In 1802, the Charlotte Dundas (considered

On 19 July 1837, a month after Queen Victoria acceded to the to be the irst practical steamboat) towed two 70-ton barges
throne, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s revolutionary steamship, the along part of the Forth & Clyde Canal, and by 1812 advances

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 2
Fig 1. Launched in 1812 at Port Glasgow (and wrecked in 1820), the Comet was the irst commercial steamship in Europe. A replica stands in Port Glasgow town centre.

in boiler and cylinder design had enabled the Clyde-based the minimum dimensions of a steamship able to carry suficient
paddle steamer (PS) Comet to provide the irst commercially fuel for a speciied distance. The Great Western Steamship
successful steamboat service (Figure 1) and a great number Company was formed in 1836 to build a line of steamships
of boats of this kind were built to work in river estuaries. for the Bristol-New York route with the hull of the Great
Their use was limited for they were only designed to work Western being laid down in June of that year. The mass-migration
on smooth water as well as being constrained by their high these facilitated was to play a large part in shaping the
fuel consumption. American nation.
The advantage of steam was that it provided a source of power In the 25 years that passed between the Comet and the
independent of the wind and so it was easier for steamships launching of the Great Western, and despite improvements in
to keep to a regular schedule. From 1815 the PS Margery was steamship construction, vessels belonging to this irst generation
providing a ferry service along the Thames with the irst regular had certain fundamental common features. Apart from a
cross-Channel service by steam following in 1821. As crossing few notable exceptions such as the iron-hulled Aaron Manby
times were reduced to 2¾ hours (as opposed to at least three (trialled on the Thames in 1822; broken up in 1855), their hulls
to four hours under sail), the advantage of steam power for were built of wood; they were driven by paddle wheels housed
short sea journeys was becoming indisputable, and during the in paddle boxes amidships; and their single-expansion engines
1820s new shipyards in London were building steamboats not (where steam is expanded through only one stage causing
only for the Channel service, but for other routes along the all cylinders to operate at the same pressure), also located
English coasts. amidships, exhausted steam into jet condensers (condensing
the exhaust steam at the end of a power stroke made a steam
engine more eficient) which were basically similar to the engine
Although in the course of the 1830s steam services were
beginning to extend across the Atlantic and to the Far East,
there were inherent dificulties associated with the supply of patented by James Watt in 1769. Sails continued to be carried
fuel: the historian Thomas Crump, for example, records that as a safety measure.
the Bernice spent twenty-ive days in harbour coaling out of a
The irst steam-driven ighting ship of the Royal Navy, HMS
voyage of eighty-eight days from Falmouth to Calcutta. What is
Comet, was launched in 1822 at Deptford, and although paddle
more, until the widespread introduction of surface condensers
(which allowed ships to recycle and steam indeinitely on fresh
frigates were introduced in the early 1840s there was no
fundamental change in naval policy. The historian K. T. Rowland
water, which also permitted a saving in fuel consumption) from
observed that one of the chief objections to the use of steam
1834, boilers had to be regularly descaled owing to the reliance
in warships was that the engines were considered vulnerable
on sea water to provide the necessary steam.
and could not be protected by being placed below the
Brunel realised that a substantial increase in ship size would be waterline because they were too bulky. Although the use of
necessary if it was to carry suficient coal to cross the Atlantic. steam propulsion freed warships from their dependence upon
By determining the correct ratios, it was possible to calculate the wind, early steam-driven naval vessels were simply regarded

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 3
Fig 2. Figurehead of the Thames, built in 1827 and wrecked in 1841, in Tresco Abbey Gardens, Isles of Scilly. The remains of the Thames are important as it was a very early paddle
steamer. Ship relics such as this are often of signiicance, and many are now listed.

as useful auxiliaries (to be used as tugs when there was no Although slow to recognise the potential of steam power for
wind) whose role was supplementary to the wooden line-of- the battle leet, by 1837 the Admiralty had 37 steamboats,
battle ships. The navy was still committed to completing the comprising tugs, dredgers and packets and had established a
Vanguard class of Second Rate wooden warships among others, special steam department. It was never the intention of the
launched between August 1835 and July 1848. Admiralty that steam power should be used exclusively as
designs for lifting screws and lowering funnels were adopted
It therefore seemed unlikely that steam could ever compete particularly as engines were only generally engaged for moving
economically with sail, particularly for carrying long-distance in and out of harbour and manoeuvring in conined waters.
cargoes, and this coupled with an inherent resistance against
the adoption of iron for ships’ hulls represented a radical By 1845, experimentation concerning the relative merits of
departure from traditional building techniques. However, the screw and paddle propulsion culminated in the celebrated
production of wrought iron in Britain was lowering the price towing contest between the screw-driven HMS Rattler and the
paddle frigate HMS Alecto. During the trials, Rattler towed Alecto
astern at a speed of 2.8 knots which signiied the beginning of
of iron plate, while timber was becoming scarcer and dearer.
As Britain had to import most of its shipbuilding timber by
this time, economic considerations slowly began to favour the the end of paddle-driven vessels in the Royal Navy.
construction of iron steamboats. The main changeover from paddle to screw propulsion
Although iron ships were still comparatively rare by the occurred gradually over 20 years from the 1840s. The Cunard
end of the 1830s, the construction of rolling mills able to Company, for example, continued to order paddle steamers
manufacture large iron plates, such as the scheduled complex until the early 1860s. Only two vessels are known from this
at Little Matlock, Shefield, made the possibility of building period: the Thames (wrecked 1841, Isles of Scilly) and Pegasus
an ocean-going ship in iron practicable. The directors of the (wrecked 1843, off Holy Island). The igurehead of the Dublin
packet Thames was recovered and can now be seen in the
Great Western Steamship Company therefore agreed to
Tresco Abbey Gardens, Isles of Scilly (Figure 2). An exceptional
build another ship, larger and faster than the Great
late employment of paddle-propulsion was in the Second
Western (which was to be scrapped in 1856 after serving
World War, for purpose-built minesweepers.
as a troopship during the Crimean War), and the keel
of the SS Great Britain was laid down in 1839. The Great Despite the advantages offered by steam technology, it was not
Britain (which is now on display in Bristol and part of the immediately adopted universally, and wooden brigs and snows
National Historic Fleet; see also front cover illustration) (large, two-masted, merchant ships) remained important trading
was to embody two important developments that were vessels until the early 20th century. The wreck of a snow, the
eventually universally adopted by all naval architects: the Douro (wrecked 1843 off the Isles of Scilly), is the only known
use of iron as a shipbuilding material and the incorporation wreck site of a sailing ship lost during the 1840s. From the large
of a screw propeller driven, in this case by a direct-acting number of bronze manillas (slave tokens) found on this wreck
engine which applied power directly to the crankshaft. site there is speculation that the Sunderland-registered vessel

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 4
Fig 3. The chain-operated drag-boat Bertha was built in 1844 to act as a dredger for the inland port of Bridgwater. It is the oldest operational steam vessel in Britain, and now forms
part of the International Sailing Craft Association collection and National Historic Fleet. She is on display at Eyemouth (Berwickshire).

was involved in the slave trade, and was onward-bound to later en route to Istanbul to be delivered to new Turkish owners.
Africa despite the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Only two other iron steamers from this period are known: the
wrecks Nile and Zebra.
Britain’s great supplies of iron ore and coal provided enormous
advantages during the Industrial Revolution, enabling the The Crimean War (October 1853 to February 1856), fought
to gain inluence over the territories of the declining Ottoman
Empire, is considered to be one of the irst modern wars
country to produce many metal items, including engines, more
cheaply than its competitors. A wide variety of marine steam
engines were developed over the course of the 19th century because of the tactical use of new technology like the electric
classiied by either their connection mechanism (the means telegraph and railways. Although the Allied (Britain, France,
of supplying power to a crankshaft), such as side-lever, direct Turkey and the Kingdom of Sardinia) naval campaign was a
success, the war showed that pure wooden sailing ships were
particularly vulnerable to accurate ire from modern shore-
acting, oscillating or vertical, or cylinder technology, such as
simple expansion, compound or triple expansion. As most
early marine engines had the same cylinder technology (where based artillery; the French were forced to protect their ships
with iron armour. This idea was copied by the Royal Navy and
resulted in the Aetna-class iron-armoured loating batteries of
all cylinders operate at the same pressure) they are generally
classiied according to their connection mechanism. One early
survivor of a single-cylinder engine is the drag-boat Bertha, 1855/6: most of the Navy’s sailing ships were then converted.
built in 1844 and supplied to the Port of Bridgwater (Figure 3). The inal step in the development of the ‘ironclads’ was taken
Bertha is now the oldest operational steam vessel in Britain by the Admiralty which ordered the building of the Warrior and
and forms part of the National Historic Fleet. Throughout Black Prince in 1859. Built at the Limmo Peninsula shipyard at
the 19th century, as most cylinder technologies were growing
more complex, engines began to be classiied solely according
Blackwall (London) in 1860, HMS Warrior survives as part of

to their cylinder technology (but inevitably one can ind

the National Historic Fleet in Portsmouth (Figure 4), while HMS

examples in the literature of engines which were classiied

Black Prince was hulked in 1896 and sold for scrap in 1923.
These were the irst large warships designed with iron hulls
under both methods!). and protected with iron armour. When they were built, they
were the most powerful ighting ships in the world and changed
The use of iron for shipbuilding, the adoption of the screw
the balance of naval supremacy – but rapid advances in naval
propeller and, from 1834, the introduction of surface
condensers, were signiicant stages in the development of the
technology and tactics, especially during the American Civil War
(when a submarine was irst deployed successfully), left these
steamship. These developments inluenced the thinking of any
two Warrior-class ironclads obsolete within a short time.
naval architect called upon to design a typical steamship in the
period between 1850 and 1860, like the Faith. Constructed A further example of just how far naval attitudes had changed
in Birkenhead in 1852, this iron-hulled vessel was propelled from the 1840s is exempliied by the conversion of the 120-
by both steam and sail, and had served as a Crimean War gun First Rate Ship of the Line HMS Royal William (later HMS
troopship before foundering off the Isle of Wight three years Clarence), launched in 1833, to a 72-gun screw ship in 1860. The

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 5
Fig 4. Built at Blackwall in 1860, HMS Warrior, one of the irst ironclads, is part of the National Historic Fleet in Portsmouth.

Clarence, which was accidentally burnt in the River Mersey in available in the south (whether home-grown or imported),
1899, comprises the only known wreck of a warship known to the raw materials and the necessary mechanical skills to build
have been converted from sail to screw propulsion. metal-hulled ships were in the north. The industry moved to
where there was coal, iron and sheltered waters: Clydeside,
However, many of the critical advances in naval engineering
Merseyside, Tyneside and the coast of Durham.
were pioneered by the mercantile community, where potential
proit provided a ierce driver for progress. Aware of the The volume of shipping built at this time is staggering.
tremendous increase in trade which had occurred between In 1860, for example, 178 vessels were built on the Clyde
Britain and Australia, Brunel proposed to build a vessel large alone including the paddle steamer Iona II. Built in 1863 as a
enough to sail to Australia and back without coaling. A bunker fast ferry to ply the Clyde, the Iona II was exceptionally well
capacity of 10,000 tons was required. Limitations were imposed itted out. The specially designed twin-cylinder engines were
on the ship’s draught and the resulting ship, the Leviathan (as oscillating (where the cylinders pivoted as the crankshaft
the Great Eastern was originally named) was laid down in May rotated, thus providing a reduction in engine size and weight)
1854 at Millwall on the Thames and launched three years later and itted with tubular boilers, superheaters and every
(Figure 5). The Great Eastern was to be the only steamship ever well-tried improvement. The steamer had luxury passenger
built powered by both screw and paddles. Although equipped accommodation, a 75ft dining room and 180ft saloon with
to carry 4,000 passengers, Brunel had miscalculated the velvet sofas and reputedly gave a top speed of 24 knots. Given
demand for such a ship. The Great Eastern was therefore later
converted to a cable-laying ship and subsequently a loating
this speed, the Iona II was soon acquired as a blockade runner
to run guns and supplies to the Confederate forces in the
music hall before being broken up in 1888/9 (a funnel from the American Civil War. It is probable that she was running without
vessel is on display at the SS Great Britain museum, Bristol). lights in dense fog to avoid detection when she foundered
Nevertheless, the merchant marine of the north-east continued east of Lundy Island, North Devon on her irst transatlantic
to satisfy the demands for coal in the capital. In 1844 2.5 million voyage in 1864. Following her discovery in 1976, the Iona II
tons of coal was shipped to London in 9,500 separate voyages, was designated a Protected Wreck Site in 1989 (Figure 6).

The ishing leet was also embracing the new technologies,

and every year from 1851 until the turn of the century the
and in 1877 a shipbuilder in North Shields announced the irst
volume of coal shipped increased. Vessels like the wooden
collier Rising Sun, wrecked off Garrison Point, Cleveland, in
paddle-steamer boat to pull a beam trawl. The sail-powered
1860, were already in decline and being replaced by iron screw
smack, however, remained the most numerous east coast
ishing vessel of the 19th century covering the deep-water
colliers. In 1904 the last collier brig, the Remembrance, sank in a
gale off Aldeburgh in Suffolk.
grounds from Greenland to the shoals of the Dogger Bank. In
The change to iron ships produced a shift in the location of the the 30 years from 1845, the North Sea leet had grown from
shipbuilding industry which had grown up mainly in the south 29 smacks to around 400. By 1880 there was also a leet of
of England and the Thames. While timber for shipbuilding was paddle-trawlers operating out of Scarborough, yet by 1904

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 6
Fig 5. Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship SS Great Eastern under construction at Millwall, London, in 1857. The largest ship ever built at the time of her launch, she had a chequered
career before being broken up in 1889-90.

they had all been replaced by propeller-driven trawlers, an The 1860s were the zenith of the merchant sailing ship era,
industry centred on Grimsby and Hull; several such trawlers are for while 16 British and American Clippers competed in the
recorded as wreck sites around England, such as the Dayrian, 1866 tea race to bring the annual tea crop from Foochow
built in 1906. Just a handful of smacks, such as the Ellen (built (now Fuzhou), China, to London, the opening of the Suez
in 1900 and now a Registered Historic Ship) survive but only Canal in 1869 hastened the decline of the sailing vessel for
one is recorded as a wreck: the Gwydir, wrecked in 1902 off long-distance voyages. The Suez Canal shortened the route
Liverpool. Similarly only one herring drifter (albeit a steam to India and the Far East by several thousand miles and
boat) survives from the east coast herring leets: the Lydia Eva steamships gradually came to dominate the lucrative Indian
was built in 1930 and now forms part of the National Historic
Fleet. Though the backbone of the Cornish ishing leet was the
trade as sailing ships were not adaptable for use through the
Canal (as the prevailing winds of the Mediterranean blow from
lugger (so called because of its lugsail; a four-sided sail set on a west to east) and when homeward-bound had to make the
lug, or yard), the only known survivors are a handful of vessels, journey round the Cape of Good Hope.

However, by far the most signiicant development within marine

such as the Ripple (built in St Ives in 1896), all Registered as
Historic Ships. Brixham sailing trawlers continued to be built
and used until the 20th century; a number survive. engineering that impacted directly on sailing ships was the
widespread adoption of the compound engine. These engines
By 1860, however, steam was still playing a secondary role (where steam is expanded in two, or more, stages), were strong
as far as long-distance bulk cargo carrying was concerned, enough to contain superheated steam at high pressure, and
and vessels equipped with single-expansion engines were no had been employed in Lancashire textile mills from the 1850s
match for the legendary clipper ships (which, like most sailing where they could claim fuel savings of up to 40 per cent when
vessels, had no fuel bills, smaller crews and no requirement for compared to a single-expansion engine of the same power.
machinery repairs). These vessels, like the Grade-I Listed Cutty The economy in fuel (and associated increase in cargo capacity)
Sark (built 1869 and now part of the National Historic Fleet), attracted ship owners to this type of engine for use in long-haul
were developed specially for transporting expensive cargoes cargo and passenger trafic, though it was only in the 1860s that
such as tea and wool half-way round the world from China and such engines became suficiently reliable for use in ocean-going
Australia to the London markets (Figure 7). Further, a series of
wooden ‘Blackwall frigates’ were built between 1837 and 1869,
vessels. Compound engines were later adopted for practically all
ships built for the transatlantic service, and during the ive years
following the expiry of the East India Company’s monopoly between 1870 and 1875 the number of ships itted with such
on eastern trade in 1833. These large, fast, three-masted sailing engines trebled until the total exceeded over two thousand vessels.
ships were employed on Indian trade via the Cape of Good
Hope, though none are known to survive. They do, however, Although the iron schooner Ida, built in 1849 and wrecked 1871
indicate the continued investment in building wooden sailing off Sefton, Merseyside, comprises a very early example of a
ships during the mid 19th century. steamship itted with a compound engine, the majority of known
wreck sites from this period with compound engines are the

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 7
remains of transatlantic vessels, which at this time was diversifying to allow for loading in different types of water. Subsequent
into specialist routes and trafic. Most shipping countries had legislation provided for better standards for crews, and the
‘liners’, that is passenger and freight ships sailing by ixed routes Board of Trade established a qualiication scheme for oficers.
at regular and advertised dates. While the emergence of shipping
companies carrying passengers on scheduled routes dates from Saving lives at sea around the coast of Great Britain by a
the 1840s, this business was to fall into the hands of large shipping national lifeboat service began in 1824 with the founding
companies like the Cunard and White Star Companies (which of the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from
later merged), the P&O Company on the eastern routes and Shipwreck (later the Royal National Lifeboat Institution or
RNLI). The Institution was able to create a chain of lifeboat
stations manned by volunteer sailors and isherman and their
Union Castle on the Africa run (Figure 8). Wrecks such as the
Deutschland characterise the early types of passenger ship. Sailing
from Bremerhaven with 123 emigrants bound for New York via courage is well known. Lifeboats like the Norfolk and Suffolk
Southampton in December 1875, the Deutschland ran aground Class Alfred Corry, built in 1893 in Great Yarmouth (and now
part of the National Historic Fleet on display in Southwold)
and the listed Tyne of 1833 at South Shields, link ‘terrestrial’
off Harwich in a blizzard: only 135 persons were saved out of 213
passengers and crew, inspiring Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem
The Wreck of the Deutschland. Liners, such as the SS Schiller assets like the Grade-II listed Lifeboat House and Slipway at
(built 1873 and wrecked off the Isles of Scilly in 1875) carried Birnbeck Pier, North Somerset, with their maritime rescue
passengers only, while cargo liners, such as Cunard’s SS Sromboli function. All lifeboats were driven by sail and oar until the late
(built 1856 and wrecked off the Lizard in 1878) were cargo- 1890s when a few steam lifeboats were built. Some rescue
carrying vessels with accommodation for a few passengers. independent services remain alongside the RNLI, such as the
South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade. For lifeboat buildings see
In addition, a new class of merchant vessels developed that the Maritime and Naval Buildings selection guide. See too
eventually displaced the last generation of sailing ships. Long- http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/iha-coastguard-
haul cargo tramp steamers were so-called because rather stations/coastguard-iha.pdf
than working a regular route they carried general cargo to any
The Admiralty was to show a keen interest in improvements
in thermal eficiency brought by the compound engine, mainly
destination as required, directed by the owners by telegraph
and later by radio. Other ships began to be designed for
particular purposes. From the 1880s oil tankers were built because of the diminution of coal stocks in overseas coaling
for carrying oil in bulk from the oilields of the world to the stations. An experimental programme undertaken during the
countries which began increasingly to use it. Other new types 1860s saw the conversion of several wooden corvettes, such
included coasters, grain ships, refrigeration ships, cattle ships, as HMS Clarence, to trial new engines. By the mid 1870s, the
whale factory ships and cable-laying ships. In most of these Admiralty was trialling compound engines in the larger Iris class
developments Britain played a leading part, both in construction cruisers HMS Iris and Mercury launched in 1877 and 1878.
and ownership, managing to hold the lead into the 20th century. Despite being steam ships driven by twin screws, both cruisers
were equipped with a light barque sailing rig on completion and
One survivor of the diversiication of shipping is the coaster were also the Navy’s irst all-steel ships.
SS Robin. Built at the Thames Ironworks, Orchard House Yard
in East London and launched in 1890, the Robin is the only Changes in steel production in the second half of the 19th
complete example in the world of a coastal cargo steamer and century enabled the development of an inexpensive method
is also the world’s oldest complete steamship. The Robin now for its mass-production from molten pig iron. As in warships,
forms part of the National Historic Fleet and is temporarily steel began to replace iron in merchant shipbuilding from
moored at London’s Royal Victoria Dock. the 1880s onwards following a Report on Steel for Shipbuilding
Purposes prepared for Lloyd’s Register of Shipping during
The development of such steamships put pressure on existing 1877-8. At the same time, 1876 was the irst year in which the
dock systems, many of them too small to accommodate the number of steamships built exceeded those under sail.
larger iron and steel ships. Although the modern harbour
at Dover was opened as late as 1909, the irst stones of The reduction in scantlings (the dimensions of all parts of a
Southampton’s modern docks were laid in 1838. That facility hull) provided by steel construction, combined with the Royal
Navy’s adoption of self-propelled torpedoes in the 1870s, gave
rise to new specialised light craft such as the fast ‘torpedo boat’
opened in 1843 and was heavily used by the P&O Line which
had secured a contract to run mail to India. Unsurprisingly,
Southampton, rather than London, became the major of which the wreck of HMS Landrail is the only known example
of this period. The steel-hulled Landrail was built in 1886 and
had the honour of being one of the irst ships to pass through
transoceanic passenger port, and was also the principal
embarkation port for men and material during the Boer
Wars (1880-1881 and 1899-1902). Both the White Star Line the newly opened Tower Bridge in June 1894; she sank while
under tow in Lyme Bay in 1906. To counter torpedo threats
from foreign navies, the ‘torpedo-boat destroyer’ (later to be
(operators of the future Titanic, the biggest ocean steamer ever

simply called ‘destroyer’) was developed in the 1880s, and

built) and the American Star Line relocated their transatlantic
termini from Liverpool to Southampton in 1895.
became a major new type of escort vessel. The only known
Britain also embarked on the process of raising shipping standards wreck of an early torpedo-boat destroyer is the steel-hulled
in law, led by Samuel Plimsoll (MP for Derby), beginning with the HMS Decoy which foundered in a collision off the Isles of Scilly
Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 which made the marking of a in 1904 during night exercises. Another new type of craft was
Load Line compulsory. Ships were not to be loaded so that the the submarine which was becoming a practical weapon by the
line was submerged. This was the so-called Plimsoll Line, modiied latter half of the 19th century (see separate section below).

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 8
Fig 6. Wreck of the designated Paddle Steamer Iona II (launched 1864), off Lundy, Bristol Fig 7. A detailed view (taken c.1960), of the bow and rigging of the Cutty Sark in its dry
Channel, showing paddle wheel debris. dock at Greenwich, looking up from the ground towards the foremast.

Other innovations were to follow throughout the 1870s: the boiler capable of withstanding even higher pressures. The saving
irst steamship to transport oil was built in 1872 in Tyneside, in coal made larger ships possible, signalling the beginning of
auxiliary machinery to drive steering gear, bilge pumps, feed the modern transatlantic liner. The British-built City of Paris –
pumps, evaporators, capstans and, in warships, gun turrets was the irst ship to make the crossing in under six days – and the
introduced, and in 1876, two British warships, HMS Minotaur City of New York entered service in 1888 (but were scrapped
and HMS Temeraire, were equipped with steam-driven in 1923 and 1922 respectively). Wreck sites such as the
generators for electric arc searchlights. Warships incorporated German Patria (foundered in the Downs, off Kent, in 1899)
the latest technological developments as they became available, and the steam yacht Argonaut (lost off Rye, 1908, prompting a
and electric arc searchlights were soon adopted in the itting Parliamentary Question regarding lifeboat accommodation and
out of all large warships. a subsequent Public Inquiry) offer the opportunity to investigate
such craft.
Eventually the use of sail was also recognised as seriously
impairing the ighting eficiency of the new designs. As a result, Ordered in 1889, HMS Hood was the last of eight Royal
the Devastation was commissioned in 1873 as the irst of a Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the
Royal Navy in the 1890s. Fitted with coal-ired triple expansion
engines with improvements in irepower, armour and speed,
class of ocean-going capital ship that did not carry sails; this has
since been described as the most radical design to emerge in
the 19th century, marking the beginning of end of the era of the Royal Sovereigns were the most powerful battleships in
the sailing warship. However, the Navy was not yet fully ready the world (until rendered obsolete by the Dreadnought in
to break with tradition for 1878 saw the completion of HMS 1906). The Hood was decommissioned in 1911 and was later
scuttled to act as a blockship across the southern entrance
Gannet, which is now the last surviving archetypal Victorian
‘Gunboat’ and part of the National Historic Fleet. Classed as
of Portland Harbour (Dorset) at the beginning of the First
World War.
a screw sloop and thus a clear example of the transition from
sail to steam, the Gannet was of composite construction (with The irst quadruple expansion marine engine was itted into
a wooden hull over an iron frame) itted with a compound the County of York which was built in Barrow in 1884 (later to
engine; she was deployed overseas to police the trade routes be renamed and run aground off Nexø, Denmark, in 1906). For
that served the British Empire until 1895. The Gannet was a comparatively short time this type of engine was the most
converted into a drill ship in 1902 and is now on display in powerful engine aloat but the technological limit had been
Chatham Historic Dockyard and maintained by the Historic reached: piston-driven engines were already being supplanted
Warships Volunteer Group (Figure 9). by the steam turbine.

The success of the compound engine was followed in 1874 by The British engineer Charles Parsons revolutionized marine
the even-more powerful and eficient triple-expansion engine. propulsion in the 1890s with the development of his steam
Here, a third intermediate cylinder was added to the high and turbine, which had a very much higher power to size/weight
low pressure cylinders of the compound engine necessitating a ratio than any preceding engine type. Parsons (1854-1931)

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 9
Fig 8. SS Britannic operated for the White Star Line between 1874 and 1902, before being scrapped in 1903. A steamship equipped with sails, she carried 266 Saloon (that is, First )
Class passengers, and 1,500 steerage passengers.

developed a radial low for steam, where steam is introduced deep water. Indeed, the period from 1870 until the First World
near the shaft and made to low radially outwards before being War has been called the era of the merchant schooner.
conducted back inwards towards the shaft.
Schooners like the wrecked wooden Fenna (built 1863) and the
Following successful installation of steam turbines to generate iron Alster (built 1867 and recorded as being mainly intact, off
electric power for the Newcastle and District Electric Light north Norfolk) coupled with the schooner-rigged Violette (built
Company in 1888, Parsons founded the Marine Steam Turbine 1919 and now part of the National Historic Fleet as a very
Company to produce turbines suitable for maritime use. The early example of ferro-cement build) are indicative of this period
Turbinia, built in 1894 (and now part of the National Historic from about 1860 when iron was increasingly being preferred to
Fleet with the hull on display in the Newcastle upon Tyne wood in construction and steam replacing sail for propulsion.
Discovery museum), became the world’s irst steam turbine-
driven vessel, and sea trials in 1897 saw her achieve maximum For inland waterways, the great age of British canals – generally
speeds of 31 knots (compared to 17.15 knots achieved by the accepted as being the last quarter of the 18th century – came
Cutty Sark). The engine from Turbinia is on display in the Science a generation too early for any account to be taken of the
Museum, London (Figure 10). advantages of steam power for boats. Canals were too narrow
for navigation by boats carrying the weight of a steam engine.
Though the Institution of Naval Architects was less than However, the demand for coal produced by mines close to rivers
enthusiastic about Turbinia, the Admiralty was interested in the saw the development of steamboats designed to ply Britain’s
new technology given the naval arms race with France and waterways – both natural and artiicial – to reach distant consumers
Germany. Two new destroyers, HMS Cobra and HMS Viper, as distant as the steam-driven pumps of the Cornish tin mines.
were ready for sea trials in 1899. Though their performance Vessels like the Humber Keel Pioneer, now a Registered Historic
exceeded expectation, the ships were lost in 1901 after Ship, are representative of the type of vessel employed in this work.
foundering on rocks off Cromer and Alderney in bad weather.
However, the success of the trials saw the introduction of Another link to Cornish industry is the remains of a mid-19th
turbine-driven merchant ships in the same year. century wreck off Little Ganinick, Isles of Scilly. Here, a discrete
cargo mound consisting of components of mining equipment was
Before the competition from steam-driven vessels became discovered in 2005 by local divers.The majority of the components
too intense towards the end of the 19th century, schooners appear to have been intended for use as pumping equipment
were employed in regular trade around the coastline of Britain, and it is likely that this cargo represents a consignment from a
Europe and across the Atlantic, carrying cargoes from port to Cornish foundry. The worldwide expansion of the mining
port throughout the 1860s and onwards into the 20th century. industry in the 19th century was one of the most signiicant
Schooners were merchant ships with two or more masts with periods in the history of Cornwall, and resulted in massive
sails aligned fore-and-aft; the crucial decade for these vessels migration and the spread of Cornish culture throughout the
was 1870-1880 when they had established themselves as world. As the inscription of the Cornish mining landscapes as a
economical and eficient vessels for all trades at home and on World Heritage Site lends even greater weight to any surviving

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 10
Fig 9. HMS Gannet, launched 1878. This class of warship undertook trade protection, anti-slavery and surveying duties. The Gannet was preserved in 1987 and is now part of the Core
Collection of the UK’s National Historic Fleet.

unaltered evidence of mining machinery from this period, the However, despite the progress made in marine power-plants,
wreck was Registered in 2007. the grandest type of merchant sailing ships were still rolling off
slipways. These ‘windjammers’ were the ultimate type of large
Traditional wooden barges, like the scheduled Harriett at Purton, sailing ship having a steel hull and between three and ive masts.
(Gloucestershire) and the Registered Advance, continued to be
Such cargo ships were designed for circumnavigation. Several
built as were spritsail barges like the May. Built in 1891 in Harwich,
windjammers are still in existence (such as the Russian Sedov,
the May was employed to transport grain between the London
Docks and lour mills in Ipswich and now forms part of the
built as the Magdalene Vinnen II in 1921), while the remains of
the German Preussen are visible at low spring tides in Crab Bay,
National Historic Fleet. At the same time, smaller trading vessels
Dover, where she foundered in November 1910.
like the 1898 wherry Albion were gradually being replaced by
motorised wherries like the Jester. Both wherries are Registered That said, a major transformation in the fuel burnt by powered
Historic Vessels. ocean-going ships was already taking place. From the 1870s,
the development of natural oil resources on the Caspian Sea
provided an alternative to coal because of its higher caloriic
The increase in vessels used for recreational activities, and the
rise of sailing as a hobby and then a sport (with attendant
facilities like club houses, as at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight: value which enabled vessels to attain greater ranges and higher
for these see the Sports and Recreation Buildings listing speeds than could be obtained for the same weight of coal.
selection guide) is evidenced by the number of pleasure craft in In addition, the time required for bunkering was reduced and
employment savings could be made by reducing the number
of stokers required. In 1881 a British yard itted the SS Gretzia
the National Register of Historic Vessels. These include pleasure
boats (e.g.Beatrice, 1890), yachts (e.g. Carola, 1898), saloon
launches (e.g. Donola, 1893) and passenger boats (e.g. Gaiety, to burn oil, and oil-powered ships for the Royal Navy followed
1889), as well as those on the National Small Boat Register from 1900. Although work to replace coaling stations began
(e.g. steam launch Birdie, 1899) and those curated as part of almost immediately, British destroyers built under the 1908-9
programme still burnt coal. Only by 1911 were oil-bunkering
facilities suficient; the new Acheron-class destroyers laid down
the Eyemouth International Sailing Craft Association (e.g. a
14ft canoe, 1860). The Registered narrowboat Holland, 1899,
was converted to a passenger launch with a capacity of 49 in that year all burnt oil. Some existing merchant ships were
passengers and operates daily cruises on the Regent’s Canal converted to the new fuel.

Another innovation in the irst decade of the 20th century

between Little Venice and Camden Lock.

EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY (1901 – 1932) also had consequences for world shipping. In 1898 the
The irst turbine-driven liners, the British-owned Allan Line Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, succeeded in transmitting
Virginian and Victorian, had entered service by 1904 and by 1907 radio signals across the English Channel. Ship-to-shore
sea trials of the Royal Mail Ship Mauretania (scrapped 1934/5; communications followed in 1901 when the British ship, the
Figure 11) and RMS Lusitania (torpedoed 1915) ushered in the Lake Champlain, made a wireless link to a shore station on
great age, in terms of speed, size and comfort, of ocean travel. the Isle of Wight in May 1901. By the end of the year, there

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 11
Fig 10. Radial low turbine engine of the Turbinia, launched 1894, the world’s irst steam turbine driven vessel. On display in the Marine Engineering Gallery, the Science Museum, London

were eight commercial stations in Britain. Marconi operators Admiralty pursued a policy of caution and concentrated on
were able to summon help when two liners collided off simplifying machinery layout. As the war progressed, the main
Massachusetts in 1909, while Jack Phillips and Harold Bride problem was to keep ships at sea or in a state of constant
stayed at their posts until the last moment transmitting distress readiness. Maintenance had to be reduced to a minimum
calls in the North Atlantic following the collision of the RMS and rapid repair through the use of small-scale welding was
Titanic with an iceberg in April 1912. In the aftermath of the introduced from 1917 as an alternative to the standard
disaster, the main focus was on the regulations governing safety practice of riveting hull plates together.
of ships at sea with the irst of the International Conventions
for the Safety of Life at Sea being held in 1914. In February 1915, however, Germany declared the waters
around the British Isles to be a war zone, with merchant ships
The Titanic was one of many liners transporting emigrants – Allied and neutral alike – subject to attack. By September
(and others) to North America, and the volume of required 1915, U-boats had sank 480 merchant vessels in British waters
shipping is indicated by the level of immigration; in 1907 for including the Cunard liner Lusitania, which was torpedoed off
example, 1,004,756 arrivals were counted entering the United the Irish coast in May 1915 with the loss of 1,201 men, women
States. During this great age of steam that ended with the and children. Anti-submarine measures employed by the Royal
First World War Britain retained 61 per cent of the world’s Navy initially relied on crude weapons, patrols and Q-ships
shipbuilding market, while the absence of any rival form of (armed ships disguised as merchant or ishing vessels). Convoy
transport generated unprecedented long-distance passenger systems were introduced from April 1916 as the Allies were
transport and imports to be delivered. New technologies, such losing an average of 65 merchant ships for every U-boat sunk
as refrigerated transport, affected diets at home through the (a igure which rose to 167 in April 1917).
lowering of the price of meat.
The largest naval battle of the war was fought on 31 May
The naval armaments race leading up to the First World War and 1 June 1916, some distance off the Danish Jutland coast.
led to both Britain and Germany (as well as the US, France, Italy The aim of the German leet was to bring the British Grand
and Japan) building warships of previously unknown size and Fleet to battle and to defeat it. The battle cost the lives of over
power. For the British, the race culminated in the Dreadnought, 8,000 sailors and sank 25 ships (Figure 12). In May 2006 on the
launched in February 1906, which was the irst large warship ninetieth anniversary of the battle, the remains of the fourteen
to be turbine driven. Very heavily armed and powered, she British ships lost there were designated under the Protection of
rendered all earlier battleships obsolete. Innovation continued, Military Remains Act 1986. The light cruiser HMS Caroline, the
and in 1912 HMS Bristol became the irst warship to run on sole survivor of the battle and a National Historic Fleet vessel
superheated steam from her twelve boilers, enabling even moored in Belfast, has been gifted to the National Museum of
greater speeds as well as fuel economies. the Royal Navy.

Although there was some general progress in marine Advances in marine engineering which had occurred since
engineering during the years of the First World War, the the turn of the century inluenced the tactics of the opposing

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 12
Fig 11. Composed of material retained from the RMS Mauretania, the interior of the Grade II-listed Mauretania Bar & Lounge, in Bristol, shows the luxurious accommodation afforded
by the early transatlantic liners.

Jutland leets to an appreciable extent. The use of oil in place falling into British hands following peace negotiations. Salvage
of coal, for example, gave vessels a longer cruising range of the ships commenced in 1922 but was halted by the Second
and, if need be, they could be refuelled at sea. In addition, World War. Some of the salvaged ships were lost after being
greater lexibility was afforded to the control of steam raised, either because they broke tow or were abandoned, and
pressure allowing for rapid increases of speed which was are now represented in the wreck record. In 2001, the seven
particularly useful in anti-submarine warfare. However, the main wrecks were scheduled by Historic Scotland.
greatest tactical advantage of oil-iring was the elimination
Following the end of the war in 1918 there was a need to
of smoke through oil temperature and air supply during
combustion – no longer could a leet be given away by the
replace some 7.7 million tons of British mercantile shipping
which had been lost, and this provided work for many yards
tell-tale clouds of black smoke on the horizon. Although at
Jutland there were generally suficient coal-burning ships
during the immediate post-war period. The number and size
of new warships built was limited by the 1922 Washington
on both sides, such as HMS Black Prince and SMS Von der
Tann, to nullify any degree of surprise, individual oil-ired
Treaty. Although the evolution of ship and boat design slowed,
there was a general desire to raise eficiencies of boilers and
vessels operating alone could get closer to the enemy than engines through the adoption of higher steam pressures and
had previously been possible. This strategy continued right the use of superheated steam wherever possible. Improvements
through to the Second World War when the use of air were made in boiler drum construction and in the design
power and radar gave little opportunity for tactical surprise. on combustion chambers, while innovation in the design of
While the First World War did see the irst use of air power auxiliary machinery enabled the introduction of electric drive
at sea, it was effective mainly in patrol and reconnaissance for main propulsion.
roles rather than in direct combat. The Royal Naval Air Service The irst large British turbo-electric vessel was P&O’s RMS
made use of vessels like Seaplane Lighter H21 (built 1918) to Viceroy of India which entered service in 1928.
support seaborne aircraft operations. H21 now forms part
of the National Historic Fleet and is stored at the Fleet Air However, a general decline in world trade following the end
of the war resulted in a reduced demand for shipping services,
overcapacity and a consequent signiicant reduction in the
Arm Museum, Yeovilton. Experimentation with the launching
of aircraft from ships began before 1914, and in 1918 HMS
Argus was launched, the world’s irst lat-top vessel capable of number of new builds, compounded by the Wall Street Crash
carrying military aircraft. By the Second World War the leading in 1929. The depression that followed saw consolidation and
navies operated a variety of ever-larger aircraft carrier types. the closure of a number of shipbuilding yards across the UK.
In 1921, for example, there were 15 yards on the Wear, but
Following German defeat in the First World War, 74 ships of the by 1937 this had decreased to only six. Although world trade
High Seas Fleet were interned in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands. In began to increase towards the end of 1933, it was not until
June 1919, the leet was scuttled on the orders of the German rearmament prior to the Second World War that the industry
oficer in command at Scapa Flow in order to prevent the ships became fully revived.

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 13
Fig 12. The Spithead Review of 1924, at which George V presented colours to the Royal Navy. The Royal Yacht (HMY Victoria and Albert) leads the review party. Some of the 196
warships present had fought at the Battle of Jutland (1916), the largest leet action of the First World War.

MID 20TH CENTURY (1933 – 1950) until the 1950s, state of the art marine engines could only
run on high-grade diesel oil. This oil was unable to compete
on costs with low-grade ‘residual’ oil burnt by steamships.
Following the success of P&O’s RMS Viceroy of India, Cunard
responded with the RMS Queen Mary which captured the Blue
Riband in 1938 by completing a transatlantic crossing with an The introduction of diesel marine engines designed to run on
average speed of 31.7 knots. A sister ship, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, residual oil in the 1950s destroyed any cost advantage that
was laid down in 1936 and, like the Queen Mary, spent the Second steam might have had.
World War as a troopship. Both vessels were to give 20 years’
However, the relative merits of steam and diesel power
service after the war. The Queen Mary is now permanently assumed lesser importance after 1939 as the navies of the
berthed as a hotel at Long Beach, California (Figure 13) while contesting powers had irmly adopted the steam turbine
the Queen Elizabeth caught ire in 1972 and was subsequently as propulsion units, such as that in HMS Belfast, a cruiser
partially scrapped. These were remarkable prestige vessels, but commissioned in 1939 that now forms part of the National
with the onset of feasable and much faster air transport, their Historic Fleet; the largest surviving Second World War warship
domination of the market was under severe challenge. in Europe, HMS Belfast, demonstrates how sophisticated such
vessels had become.
The economies of operating a passenger or cargo service
dictated the choice of steam engine to shipowners; passenger
vessels were largely itted with turbine engines for speed, while
Nine months into the Second World War, the Allied forces
were stranded in northern France. Tasked with getting them
the higher effeciency of triple-expansion reciprocating engines home under Operation Dynamo, the Royal Navy requisitioned
were favoured by general cargo vessels right up to the end of around 700 small craft to aid the larger warships in evacuating
the Second World War. British and French troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. Several
of the historic ‘Little Ships’, such as the New Britannic (which was
Another type of marine propulsion unit that gradually came built to carry 117 people but is credited with lifting, in several
into prominence during the inter-war period was the heavy- runs, some 3,000 men off the beaches) participated in the 2012
oil engine or diesel engine, named after Dr Rudolf Diesel who
perfected it. Although irst adpoted for marine propulsion in
Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

1902, the conversion to diesel was a process that matured Throughout the war, the Allied need to build merchant ships
rapidly during and after the First World War, and in many at a rate faster than they could be sunk led to the adoption
of standard power units such as the triple-expansion engines
itted in to the Liberty ships. These vessels were built in the
countries, the diesel engine found increasing favour with ship
owners in the 1920s and 1930s. Not only did diesel engines
enable faster speeds, they were more economic and practical USA and Canada in large numbers and include the designated
to operate than coal- or oil-ired (steam) ships. dangerous wreck SS Richard Montgomery in the Thames Estuary
(Figure 14); this still carries much of its cargo of explosives.
The advantage of diesel engines was to prove decisive in the Advanced fabrication techniques, including a greater use of
second half of the 20th century. The reason for this was that welding, reduced building time from years to months and, even

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 14
Fig 13. RMS Queen Mary at Long Beach, California. Built on the Cyde and launched in 1934, she crossed the Atlantic 1,000 times before being converted to hotel use and permanently
moored. The Queen Mary is now included on the U.S. Register of Historic Places.

though the service life of many of these vessels was brief, their There were two broad types of ishing that took place during
contribution to the inal victory of the Battle of the Atlantic was the mid 20th century. Firstly, local inshore isheries comprising
immeasurable. Over 2,700 were built. family-run businesses using oar and sail boats such as the
Boadicea and, secondly, larger offshore isheries operating
The Admiralty concentrated on reliable standardised machinery steam-driven, and increasingly mechanised, vessels. However,
layouts for all wartime construction, thus simplifying training many of the ishing vessels identiied as wreck sites were
and maintenance. British destroyer design during the war years actually requisitioned by the Admiralty for service during the
was based on that of the successful J class vessels built in 1939 two World Wars, principally as minesweepers and escorts;
(none of which survive), and smaller Hunt class vessels were ishing vessels that were too small to be requisitioned or
constructed speciically for convoy escort duties. were otherwise unsuitable are likely to be relatively poorly
The extent and range of craft available to the Allies, including represented archaeologically as wrecks.
requisitioned vessels, can be most readily seen in the planning During the latter stages of the war, the need for standardised
for Operation Neptune (the Naval component of Overlord). In construction to replace warship losses by enemy action was not
December 1943, Admiral Ramsay submitted to the Admiralty so acute; designers were able to propose changes to machinery
an initial requirement for 467 warships plus 150 vessels and layouts which took account of experience gained from
for minesweeping duties. In fact, 702 warships (comprising the U-boat war. As a result, the Weapon-class destroyers which
battleships, monitors, cruisers, destroyers, sloops, frigates, came into service in 1945 included many innovative features,
corvettes, patrol craft and motor launches but excluding 25
lotillas of minesweepers) actually participated in the Operation.
such as two engine rooms, which were incorporated into other
British post-war designs. The last of these destroyers, HMS
Representative of the Normandy landings, the remains of Crossbow, was broken up in 1972.
some Mulberry Harbour Units lie in areas of the south coast
along the River Test at Dibden (Hampshire) and in Langstone In recognition of the loss of life associated with engagements
Harbour (Hampshire), and include two Grade-II Listed Phoenix during the war, many named surface vessels and submarines
Units (reinforced concrete caissons assembled as part of the that were in military service at their time of loss – 78 in 2012
follow-up to the 1944 landings) in Portland Harbour and a – are designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act
scheduled Phoenix Unit at Shoebury Ness. Landing craft are 1986, while London’s Tower Hill Memorial commemorates men
represented in the archaeological record. and women of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who died
in both World Wars and who have no known grave (Figure 15).
Fishing was restricted during the war but did not stop: the
Hartlepool-based trawler Isabella Fowlie is recorded to have In the post-war years naval policy changed and the Admiralty
operated on a ‘ishing and return’ trip when bombed off settled irmly for frigates equipped with anti-submarine
St Abb’s Head in 1941. The ishing leets operating in the and anti-aircraft armament and with somewhat less power.
waters around England became increasingly dependent upon Advances in metallurgy saw improvements in machinery
machinery in the 20th century, with fewer but bigger vessels. components. Research devoted to the aero-engine realised

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 15
the potential for combined steam and gas turbine machinery (including France). In April 1901, the new First Lord, Viscount
by the Admiralty which was introduced in a number of vessels Selbourne, announced the purchase of ive Holland boats ‘to
laid down during the 1950s. Such an innovation had been assist the Admiralty in assessing their true value.’
proposed as early as 1912 but was halted because of the lack
The First British submarine, Holland 1, was launched on 2
October 1901, but the irst to be commissioned was the
of satisfactory diesel units.

However, the monopoly of ships and boats as cargo-carriers Holland 5, which was also the irst submarine in the Royal Navy
was soon to be eclipsed. The conversion of ex-military airframes to be itted with a periscope. The Holland class boats were
to transport people and cargo provided for long commercial primarily used by the Royal Navy as a test-bed for early British
lights as competion from the Douglas DC-3 and, from 1952, submarine design and, like the following A, B and C classes,
the de Havilland Comet saw the post-war re-introduction of were itted with a petrol engine (for surface propulsion) and an
scheduled services. From the early 1950s, transport by sea – electric motor (for submerged propulsion).
particularly of passengers – could no longer hold up for rapidity
The Holland boats served their purpose well, and even before
against the international airlines. That said, container vessels
the last of the type was launched the improved class that
– fast to load and unload – were introduced in the 1950s and
was to supersede them was already being built. Once their
function had been fulilled, the Navy quickly disposed of the
now rival crude oil tankers and bulk carriers as the largest
commercial vessels on the ocean. Both developments impacted
entire Holland class; Nos. 1 to 3 were sold to shipbreakers,
on port infrastructure, and continue to do so, in some instances
No. 4 had foundered in 1912 but was raised and expended as
rendering long-established ports like London no longer suitable
a gunnery target and the No. 5 foundered on 8 August 1912
for modern commercial use.
while under tow to the Royal Naval base at Sheerness, Kent.
SUBMARINES (1774-1950) Recovered in 1982, the Holland 1 is now on display at the Royal
Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, and is part of the National
Historic Fleet while Holland 5, the Navy’s irst commissioned
Important to navies for both offensive and defensive operations
(as well as being used for rescue, research and tourism purposes)
submarines offer the promise of invisibility, attack and escape. submarine, was discovered in 2000 and designated as a
Records of attempted submergence date from 1578; the irst, Protected Wreck Site in 2005.

The Royal Navy’s irst British-designed submarine was the

experimental, submarines were built in the 1620s, and fourteen
types of submersible craft are known to have been patented in
Holland 6 (which was later redesignated A1). Launched in
England by 1727.
1902, the A1 was notable for the addition of a conning tower.
By 1878, perhaps inspired by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Thirteen A-class submarines were built by Vickers between
1902 and 1905, and almost all were plagued by accidents and
failures. The A1 sank twice: irst in 1904 when she became the
the Sea, published eight years earlier, a Manchester curate, the

irst submarine casualty, with the loss of all hands; however,

Rev. George Garrett, had set up a company to build a hand-
powered submarine, the Resurgam. Garrett had intended to
demonstrate the 12m long vessel to the Navy at Portsmouth, she was recovered but sank again in 1911, this time when it
but the craft swamped and sank while under tow off North was unmanned. The wreck was discovered in 1989 and is now
Wales. The Resurgam was discovered in 1995 and was designated as a Protected Wreck Site. In January 1914, the A7
designated a Protected Wreck Site the following year. sank with the loss of her crew during torpedo attack training.
In 2001, the A7 was designated a Controlled Site under the
Many other submarines were built during the late 19th Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
century by various inventors, but it was not to become a fully
effective weapon until the 20th century following the invention The B- and C-classes, launched between 1904 and 1910, were
of the internal combustion engine coupled with that of the the last classes of petrol engined submarinies of the Royal Navy,
electric motor, an effective storage battery and the Whitehead and their construction marked the end of the development
locomotive torpedo. of the Holland-classes. By late 1916, the B-class submarines
were no longer deemed suitable for combat and, with the
A key date in submarine history is 1864, when the Confederate
submarine Hunley achieved the irst successful sinking of
exception of B2 which sunk following a collision in 1911 off

a surface vessel. The irst recognisably modern submarine

Dover, were sold for scrap. The only C-class submarine known
in English waters is the C11 which sank following a collision with
dates from 1888 when J. P. Holland entered two US Navy the collier Eddystone off Norfolk in 1909. The surviving boats
competitions to design a submarine torpedo boat. He went of the C-class were disposed of at the end of the war with
on to form the Holland Torpedo Company and produced and the exception of C4, which was retained for trials until being
tested several designs of Holland Class boats for the US Navy, scrapped in 1922.
leading to the Holland 7 which was to form the basis of the
Royal Navy’s irst ive submarine boats (Holland 1-5). German designers seemingly preferred to wait for
improvements to kerosene, and later diesel, engines before
Initially, the Royal Navy considered the submarine as ‘an developing submersible craft, as such engines are considerably
underhand form of warfare…and a damned un-English more economical in fuel-consumption (meaning a greater range
weapon.’ The First Lord of the Admiralty, George Goschen, is given for a ixed quantity of fuel) and, more importantly,
even commented that ‘submarines are a weapon for maritime kerosene and diesel reduced to a minimum the possibility
powers on the defensive.’ This attitude was quick to change of the build-up of a lammable fuel/air vapor in a submarine.
after submarines had entered service with foreign navies Germany’s Unterseeboote U-1 was itted with the irst kerosene

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 16
Fig 14. Multi-beam sonar image of the Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery, in the Fig15. The Tower Hill Memorial, Trinity Square, London, commemorates 35,749 men
Thames Estuary. On account of the presence of live ordnance the ship was designated a and women of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who died in both World Wars
dangerous wreck in 1973. and who have no known grave. The First World War memorial (listed Grade II) was
designed by Edwin Lutyens, and the Second World War memorial (listed Grade II*) by
Edward Maufe.

engine in 1906 but the diesel engine had become the standard by the Q-ship Cymric, 1918). In contrast, the wrecks of 41
propulsion unit of the Imperial German Navy’s submarine leet German U-boats that sank during the war are known in English
by 1910. waters, comprising both coastal and mine-laying types. Two of

The Royal Navy’s irst diesel-powered submarines followed

these U-boats are designated under the Protection of Military

in 1907. These D-class submarines were also the irst to be

Remains Act 1986: UB-65 (sunk off Padstow, 1918) and UB-81
itted with wireless transmitters and were capable of operating
(mined off the Isle of Wight, 1917). Other U-boats, such as
U-118, were surrendered to the Allies at the end of hostilities
beyond coastal waters in the overseas patrol task which was
and broken up (Figure 16).
of great importance in the defence of the UK’s imperial and
trade interests. Four were lost during the war, beyond England’s Following the end of the war, many of the surviving British boats
waters, and the remainder were paid off in July 1919. of the early classes were scrapped with attention being given
to new designs beginning with the experimental M class, or
‘Mutton Boats’, as they were nicknamed. M1 was itted with a
Steady improvements in design saw the British E-class
submarines launched in three groups between 1912 and 1916,
and these comprised the backbone of the Navy’s leet during
12-inch gun which was intended for use against surface ships,
M2 was converted into a submersible seaplane carrier while
the First World War. At the outbreak of war in 1914, Britain
had 74 submarines, initially divided in to three groups to fulill
M3 became an exprimental minelayer. Following their accidental
speciic roles: overseas patrols, surface patrol lotillas working
loss in the inter-war period during exercises off England’s south
from the principal ports and harbour defence lotillas. As the
coast, both the M1 and M2 have since become designated
under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The M3 was
war progressed, emphasis was placed almost entirely on the
irst role.
scrapped in 1932. The only other British inter-war submarine
losses in English waters were the H-class (the irst to carry a
To combat the threat of the German High Seas leet, a group bow salvo of four torpedo tubes) Stock Force, celebrated in the
of submarines was developed in 1913 to operate with the ilm ‘Q-Ships’ in 1928 in which the obsolete submarine was
Grand Fleet having steam turbines for surface propulsion. These expended by gunire off the Eddystone Lighthouse), and L24
K-class boats were to suffer numerous fatal accidents and their (sunk 1924 following a collision with the battleship Resolution
overall contribution to the war was virtually nil. They were also off Portland).

Following further experimentation, such as the itting of

the last submarines to be driven by steam until the advent of
ASDIC (the acronym supposedly recalling the possibly ictitious
the Walter submarine developed in Germany during the latter
stages of the Second World War.
Antisubmarine Detection Investigation Committee) underwater
Of seven known losses of British First World War submarines, detection devices and VLF radio into the 1920s Odin class,
the remains of only three have been located in English waters: British submarines became standardised into two main types: a
G3 (ran aground in Filey Bay, 1921), G11 (ran aground near medium size patrol type for operations in the North Sea, and a
Howick, Northumberland, 1918) and J6 (accidentally sunk larger type to replace overseas classes.

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 17
At 11:00 am on 3 September 1939, all British submarines sea trials in January 1955 though it took a further eight years for
at sea received the signal: ‘Commence hostilities with the Royal Navy to receive its irst nuclear-powered submarine:
Germany forthwith’; there was unrestricted submarine HMS Dreadnought. While nuclear-powered attack submarines
warfare from the outset (whereas in the First World War gradually replaced the Royal Naval diesel-powered leet during
that had only been waged from 1917). As in the First World the Cold War, nuclear-powered civil merchant ships have yet to
War, the most effective and dangerous part of the German develop beyond a few experimental types.
Navy was its U-boat arm, despite the Anglo-German
naval treaty of 1935 limiting the Kriegsmarine submarine Almost as an echo of the industrial past two hundred years
leet to an equivalent 45 per cent of the Royal Navy’s. earlier, steam power still survives in navies with nuclear-powered
The U-boat campaign was eventually out-fought by Allied vessels, with the heat from nuclear reactions being used to raise
naval and air forces, and out-built by Allied shipyards. steam to run a turbine. However, even when decommissioned,
these radioactive modern craft will pose challenges for future
For recorded British submarines within English waters, losses curators and conservators for, as Ian Friel has observed, such
during both World Wars were primarily accidental (for relics can never ind their way safely into any museum.
instance, due to navigational error, collision or non-hostile
ire) while German losses were principally due to Allied FURTHER READING
attack. Only four Allied submarine losses are known in English
waters from the Second World War: HMS Swordish (mined
Good introductions to the subject include P Brown, Britain’s
Historic Ships (2009); P Brown, Historic Sail: Britain’s Surviving
Working Craft (2013); D Grifiths, Steam at Sea: Two Centuries of
while on patrol off the Isle of Wight, 1940), HMS Umpire
(sunk following collision off Norfolk, 1941), HMS Unity (sunk
Steam-Powered Ships (2001); I Friel, Maritime History of Britain
following collision off Wansbeck, Northumberland, 1940)
and Ireland (2003); P Kemp, The Oxford Companion to Ships
and the French Minerve (ran aground off Chesil Beach,
1940). The Swordish and Umpire are designated under the
and the Sea (1998); J Mannering (ed.), Inshore Craft: Traditional
Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Eighteen identiied
Working Vessels of the British Isles (2008); E McKee, Working
Boats of Britain: Their Shape and Purpose (1983); K T Rowland,
German U-boats lost during the Second World War are
Steam at Sea: A History of Steam Navigation (1970) and T
recorded in English waters (of which two are designated
Crump, A Brief History Of The Age of Steam: The Power That Drove
as military maritime graves under the 1986 Act: U-1018
The Industrial Revolution (2007). Most known wrecks around
and U-1063), including the experimental U-480 (mined in
the British Isles are listed in R Larn and B Larn, Shipwreck Index
of the British Isles (1995-2000). For ixtures and ittings see M
early 1945 off the Isle of Wight) which was equipped with a
special rubber coating that made ASDIC detection dificult.
McCarthy, Ships’ Fastenings: from Sewn Boat to Steamship (2005).
The end of hostilities brought a situation similar to that in
In terms of period overviews, the following are some of the
1918 where it was necessary for the British to scrap the more recent and valuable studies.
majority of the submarine building programme. Primary
interest lay in captured German submarines and, for those VICTORIAN (1837 – 1901)
not scuttled under Operation Deadlight (where U-boats P Padield, Rule Britannia: The Victorian and Edwardian Navy (2002)
in British posession were deliberately sunk some 120 miles R Parkinson, The Late Victorian Navy: The Pre-Dreadnought Era
north-west of Ireland), extensive trials were carried out to test and the Origins of the First World War (2008)
their performance with special attention being given to the
Type XXVI Walter Boat which was propelled by a hydrogen Wessex Archaeology, Assessing Boats and Ships 1860-1914,
peroxide-driven turbine. unpublished report for English Heritage (2011)
R Woodman, A History of the British Merchant Navy Vol. Three:
While post-war development in the United States was to Masters Under God: Makers of Empire: 1816-1884 (2009)
concentrate on atomic propulsion, the British continued
to improve conventional types of submarine. HMS Alliance, EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY (1901 – 1932)
commissioned in 1947, is now on display at Gosport Submarine A Couper et al (eds.), The Conway History of Seafaring in the
Museum as a memorial to those who fought in similar boats Twentieth Century (2000)
and is also part of the National Historic Fleet. The later Porpoise D K Brown, The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development
and Oberon Classes were approved for building from the mid 1906-1922 (1999)
1950s onwards and remained in commission for the Royal Navy
until 1988 (Porpoise) and 1993 (Oberon). R Gardiner, Sail’s Last Century: The Merchant Sailing Ship 1830-
1930 (1993)
INTO THE NUCLEAR AGE (1948 AND BEYOND)
The development of nuclear-powered craft – irst submarines
Wessex Archaeology, Assessing Boats and Ships 1914-1938,
unpublished report for English Heritage (2011)
and subsequently surface vessels – has been seen as the single
greatest achievement in the advancement of marine engineering MID TWENTIETH CENTURY (1933 – 1950)
by the post-war United States Navy. The application of atomic P Dawson, The Liner: Retrospective and Renaissance (2005)
energy for marine propulsion is one of the fundamental J M Maber, The Ship: Channel Packets and Ocean Liners 1850-
advances in the history of transport. 1970 (1980)
Following construction of an atomic engine in 1948 in the US, J Thompson, The War at Sea: the Royal Navy in the Second World
the irst nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, undertook War (2003)

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 18
Fig 16. Surrendered at the end of the First World War, U-118 ran aground at Hastings in January 1919 when a towing cable snapped. It was broken-up where it lay in late 1919; some
of the keel may still lie under the sandy beach.

Wessex Archaeology, Assessing Boats and Ships 1939-1950, CREDITS

unpublished report for English Heritage (2011) Author: Mark Dunkley
Front cover: © David Noton, used with permission of the SS Great Britain Trust
SUBMARINES Figure 1: © clydesite.co.uk
P Akermann, Encyclopaedia of British Submarines 1901-1955 (2002) Figure 2: © Alasdair Moore, Tresco Abbey Gardens Valhalla

A N Harrison, The Development of HM Submarines from Holland Figure 3: © Eyemouth International Sailing Craft Association
No. 1 (1901) to Porpoise (1930) (Ministry of Defence BR3043; 1979) Figure 4: © English Heritage Photo Library
Figure 5: © English Heritage Archives
WEBSITES Figure 6: © Wessex Archaeology for English Heritage
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/historic_ Figure 7: © English Heritage Archives
environment/6258.aspx Department for Culture, Media and Figure 8: © From the collection of Björn Larsson.
Sport historic environment web pages. [Site accessed: July 2012] Figure 9: © Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
http://nationalhistoricships.org.uk National Historic Ships UK. Figure 10: © Mark Dunkley
The website includes databases on Registered Historic Ships Figure 11: © Mauretania Bar & Lounge, Bristol
and the National Historic Fleet as well as information about the Figure 12: © English Heritage. NMR Aeroilms Collection
selection process. [Site accessed: July 2012] Figure 13: © David Jones, used with permission

http://www.historicwarships.btck.co.uk/ Historic Warships Figure 14: © Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Volunteer Group, based at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. Figure 15: © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

[Site accessed: July 2012] Figure 16: © Hastings Chronicle, courtesy of Steve Peak

http://www.worldofboats.org/ Eyemouth International Sailing

Craft Association, containing the former Exeter Maritime
Museum collection of Ethnic, European coastal, Day Sailing and
other interesting craft. [Site accessed: July 2012]
http://thesaurus.english-heritage.org.uk/ National Monuments
Record Thesaurus (for Maritime Craft Types). [Site accessed:
July 2012]
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/
boatsandships_eh_2011/ Online project archives providing
guidance on the key themes and interests represented by ships
& boats of the period 1860-1950 [Site accessed: July 2012]
www.pastscape.org.uk National Record of the Historic
Environment (NRHE). [Site accessed: July 2012]

English Heritage Introductions to Heritage Assets Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 19
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