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Authors: Philip MacDougall
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the dockyard and be dismasted before they can be taken into the dock. 21
At that time, Rennie could see no real solution to the problem and favoured construction of an alternative yard at Northfleet, this to replace not just Chatham but also the yards of Woolwich and Deptford. 22 The only drawback, however, was that of the likely cost of such a project, with Rennie suggesting a sum of £6 million. Others disputed this figure, with the Admiralty suggesting that this sum might well double upon construction work getting underway. The project got as far as having outline plans drawn up and the appropriate land purchased. Indeed, the entire Northfleet complex might have been constructed, and Chatham dockyard closed, if it had not been for Samuel Bentham developing a super-efficient dredger through the adoption of steam power. A dramatic improvement on the hand dredgers previously used and operated by dockyard scavelmen, its use resulted in the rapid clearing of many of the problematic shoals. Those hand dredgers had been hopelessly inefficient, removing from the bed of the river no more than a few tons of mud each day. In contrast, a steam-powered dredger based on Bentham’s original design was removing, by 1823, as much as 175 tons of mud per day.
Inevitably, it was Bentham’s development of the steam dredger that saved Chatham from an ignominious closure during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Instead this valuable military complex was not only to continue in its important shipbuilding and repair role but was to enter into a new period of supremacy. Within forty years of those closure threats, Chatham had been earmarked for a programme of expansion that was so massive in scale that it actually quadrupled the land area of the existing yard. Furthermore, it took on its very own specialism through the building of ironclads. Not only was Chatham the first royal dockyard to build an ironclad, but it also became the lead yard when any new class of ironclad battleship was laid down. Although his name is rarely spoken in Chatham, Samuel Bentham was the man who saved Chatham Dockyard – that is, until Margaret Thatcher arrived on the scene some 140 years later.
While Nelson’s original Victory is dry-docked at Portsmouth, Chatham can at least lay claim to this model of the same vessel and one which itself has an interesting history having been originally constructed for the Alexander Korda film, That Hamilton Woman (1941).
6
T HE E RA OF R EFORM
The dockyard at Chatham had a much rosier future in the 1820s than it had possessed at any point during the previous fifty or so years. In that earlier period, the yard had even found itself under threat of closure, this a result of the increasing difficulty faced by larger ships attempting to navigate the Medway. With this problem now solved through the introduction of steam dredging, a series of further improvements were under consideration, these designed to allow the yard to both operate more effectively and also to expand upon the work undertaken.
One such project, although dating to the final years of the Napoleonic Wars, was put forward by George Parkin, the Master Shipwright at Chatham. This was in 1813, with Parkin wishing to see a general improvement to the yard’s river frontage, including the various dry docks that occupied this same area. At the time Parkin was concerned with the markedly decayed state of the river wall and a general need to improve and lengthen all of the existing docks. In essence, he suggested a complete rebuilding of the central section of the yard’s river frontage, with part of the wall moved forward several yards and onto an area of land that would be reclaimed from the Medway for this purpose. This would not only have the advantage of increasing the acreage of land within the dockyard, but would allow, at little additional cost, for the lengthening of the two most northerly docks.
The Navy Board appears to have been favourably
At that time, Rennie could see no real solution to the problem and favoured construction of an alternative yard at Northfleet, this to replace not just Chatham but also the yards of Woolwich and Deptford. 22 The only drawback, however, was that of the likely cost of such a project, with Rennie suggesting a sum of £6 million. Others disputed this figure, with the Admiralty suggesting that this sum might well double upon construction work getting underway. The project got as far as having outline plans drawn up and the appropriate land purchased. Indeed, the entire Northfleet complex might have been constructed, and Chatham dockyard closed, if it had not been for Samuel Bentham developing a super-efficient dredger through the adoption of steam power. A dramatic improvement on the hand dredgers previously used and operated by dockyard scavelmen, its use resulted in the rapid clearing of many of the problematic shoals. Those hand dredgers had been hopelessly inefficient, removing from the bed of the river no more than a few tons of mud each day. In contrast, a steam-powered dredger based on Bentham’s original design was removing, by 1823, as much as 175 tons of mud per day.
Inevitably, it was Bentham’s development of the steam dredger that saved Chatham from an ignominious closure during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Instead this valuable military complex was not only to continue in its important shipbuilding and repair role but was to enter into a new period of supremacy. Within forty years of those closure threats, Chatham had been earmarked for a programme of expansion that was so massive in scale that it actually quadrupled the land area of the existing yard. Furthermore, it took on its very own specialism through the building of ironclads. Not only was Chatham the first royal dockyard to build an ironclad, but it also became the lead yard when any new class of ironclad battleship was laid down. Although his name is rarely spoken in Chatham, Samuel Bentham was the man who saved Chatham Dockyard – that is, until Margaret Thatcher arrived on the scene some 140 years later.
While Nelson’s original Victory is dry-docked at Portsmouth, Chatham can at least lay claim to this model of the same vessel and one which itself has an interesting history having been originally constructed for the Alexander Korda film, That Hamilton Woman (1941).
6
T HE E RA OF R EFORM
The dockyard at Chatham had a much rosier future in the 1820s than it had possessed at any point during the previous fifty or so years. In that earlier period, the yard had even found itself under threat of closure, this a result of the increasing difficulty faced by larger ships attempting to navigate the Medway. With this problem now solved through the introduction of steam dredging, a series of further improvements were under consideration, these designed to allow the yard to both operate more effectively and also to expand upon the work undertaken.
One such project, although dating to the final years of the Napoleonic Wars, was put forward by George Parkin, the Master Shipwright at Chatham. This was in 1813, with Parkin wishing to see a general improvement to the yard’s river frontage, including the various dry docks that occupied this same area. At the time Parkin was concerned with the markedly decayed state of the river wall and a general need to improve and lengthen all of the existing docks. In essence, he suggested a complete rebuilding of the central section of the yard’s river frontage, with part of the wall moved forward several yards and onto an area of land that would be reclaimed from the Medway for this purpose. This would not only have the advantage of increasing the acreage of land within the dockyard, but would allow, at little additional cost, for the lengthening of the two most northerly docks.
The Navy Board appears to have been favourably
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