1837–46 The company originated in 1837 as the Ditchburn and Mare Shipbuilding Company, founded by
shipwright Thomas J. Ditchburn and the engineer and
naval architect Charles John Mare. Originally located at
Deptford, after a fire destroyed their yard the company moved to
Orchard Place in 1838, between the
East India Dock Basin and
Bow Creek in
Blackwall. There they took over the premises of the defunct shipbuilders William and Benjamin Wallis. The firm did well and within a few years occupied three sites covering an area of over . Ditchburn and Mare were among the first builders of iron ships in the area; their partnership commenced with the construction of small
paddle steamers of between 50 and 100 tons, before progressing to cross-
Channel vessels and by 1840 were building ships of more than 300 tons. The company's early customers included the
Iron Steamboat Company and the
Blackwall Railway Company, several paddle steamers being constructed for the latter, including the
Meteor and the
Prince of Wales, which operated between
Gravesend and the company's station on
Brunswick Wharf. In this period the company was also awarded several contracts by the
Admiralty, including
HMS Recruit (a 12-gun
brig) which was one of the first iron warships built. They also constructed the
P & O Company's steamers
Ariel and
Erin, along with the paddle steamer for
Prussia.
1847–56 Thomas Ditchburn retired in 1847 and the business was carried on by Charles Mare, under the name of C.J. Mare and Company. He was joined by naval architect James Ash, who later began his own shipyard at
Cubitt Town. From 1847 the company grew considerably and Mare purchased land in
Canning Town on the
Essex side of the
River Lea, a ferry service being established between the two sites. Mare constructed a yard with
furnaces and
rolling mills that could construct vessels of 4,000 tons; because of the narrowness of the
spit at the mouth of the River Lea, the Orchard Place site was limited to the construction of vessels of less than 1,000 tons. In 1853 the company launched the '
SS Himalaya
' for the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, briefly the world's largest passenger ship before becoming a naval
troopship. In 1855, the company which by now had more than 3000 employees, was threatened with closure following Mare's
bankruptcy. It is thought by some that his financial difficulties arose from delays in payment for completed work or, alternatively, that the company had miscalculated the cost of building vessels for the Royal Navy. The business did not lack orders, having in hand six contracts for gunboats and the contract for
Westminster Bridge (which was built in 1862).
1857–1912 ,
Bow Creek and the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company The company's chief
creditors moved to keep the company in operation, and two employees, Joseph Westwood and Robert Baillie were appointed works managers. The main figure in saving the company was
Peter Rolt, Mare's father-in-law and
Conservative MP for
Greenwich. Rolt was also a timber merchant and a descendant of the
Pett shipbuilding family. He was supported in the venture by another company director,
Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill. Rolt took control of the company's assets and in 1857 transferred them to a new
limited company, named the
Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd.. It had a capital of £100,000 in 20
shares of £5000 each, five of which were held by Rolt who was the main shareholder and also
chairman of the board. The new company was the largest shipbuilder on the Thames, its premises described by the
Mechanics' Magazine in 1861 as "Leviathan Workshops". Large scale
Ordnance Survey maps of the 1860s show the yard occupying a large triangular site in a right-angled bend on the east bank of Bow Creek with the railway to Thames Wharf on the third side, and with a smaller site on the west bank. The main yard had a quay 1,050 feet (320m) long. To the south-east the yard occupied the north bank of the Thames east of Bow Creek, with two slips giving direct access to the main river. Today the site is crossed by the
A1020 Lower Lea Crossing and the
Docklands Light Railway south of
Canning Town station. By 1863 the company had the capacity to build 25,000 tons of warships and 10,000 tons of
mail steamers simultaneously. One of its first
Admiralty contracts was for
HMS Warrior, launched in 1860, at the time the world's largest warship and the first iron-hulled armoured
frigate.
HMS Minotaur followed in 1863, long and 10,690 tons displacement. Work on vessels such as
Minotaur was performed on the Canning Town side of the Lea, and this is where the Thames Ironworks expanded from less than in 1856 to by 1891. While the old site at Orchard Place was still the company's official address until 1909, its presence there was minimal, by the late 1860s the company having only a site there. General shipbuilding on the Thames came under great pressure due to the cost advantages of northern yards with closer supplies of coal and iron, and many yards closed following the
1866 financial crisis. Of the survivors, those like the Thames Ironworks were specialised in warships and liners. Following the success of HMS
Warrior and HMS
Minotaur, orders were placed by navies all over the world, and vessels were built for
Denmark,
Greece,
Portugal,
Russia, Spain and the
Ottoman Empire. The yard also built the
Prussian Navy's first iron-hulled warship, the
SMS König Wilhelm in 1868 and the
cruiser Afonso de Albuquerque for Portugal in 1884. A multitude of mostly small warships were also built for the
Romanian Navy, most notably the
brig Mircea. Also notable was the tiny minelayer
Alexandru cel Bun. The Iron Works also produced for the Romanian Navy a class of three small 45-ton gunboats, a class of three medium 116-ton gunboats and a class of
eight 50-ton torpedo boats. In the 1890s
philanthropist Arnold Hills became the managing director. He had originally joined the board of directors in 1880 at the age of 23. Hills was one of the first business directors voluntarily to introduce an
eight-hour day for his workers at a time when 10- and 12-hour shifts were more common in industrial work. In 1895 Hills helped to set up a football club for the Works' employees,
Thames Ironworks F.C. and within their first two years they had entered the
FA Cup and the London League. As a result of the committee's desire to employ professional players, the Thames Ironworks F.C. was wound up in June 1900 and
West Ham United F.C. was formed a month later. Merged with the engine builder
John Penn and Sons in 1899 as the Thames Iron Works, Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. During its lifetime the yard produced 144 warships and numerous other vessels. In 1911 Hills petitioned
Winston Churchill, then
First Lord of the Admiralty, regarding the lack of new orders. He was unsuccessful, and the yard was forced to shut in 1912. The premises of the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, Greenwich, were subsequently acquired in 1915, by the
Royal Flying Corps (created in 1912) for the storage of aeroplanes. ==Archaeology==