By 1850, due to the expansion of railways, NE England began to lose its status as the key supplier of coal to London & SE England. Rail-borne Midlands & Yorkshire coal vied by cost & speed, while collier sailing brigs made coal transport relatively expensive & slow.
As mentioned previously on this blog, Palmers at Jarrow re-established NE predominance by building iron screw colliers, which lowered costs, increased speed, and reduced dependence on weather. (It took a few more years for the advent of the TIC to improve navigability & port facilities on the River Tyne, but that's another story.)
I had thought that Palmers built the first iron steam screw collier in 1852, but I am proven wrong by at least two previous ships .....
The first iron steam screw collier appears to have been the Bedlington, built in 1842 by Marshalls of South Shields. This was also the first rail ferry, carrying loaded waggons on rails in its hold, from Blyth to the Tyne, where the waggons were lifted & emptied into waiting collier brigs. The complexity of this transport must have become less cost effective very quickly as railways spread. While the Bedlington could have loaded several brigs per month, it was only intended for short trips along the NE coast.
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| The QED - Newcastle Journal 20 July 1844 |
Coutts built the iron screw collier QED at Low Walker in 1844; but it was also a fully rigged barque. The engines were intended for speed, increased manoeuvrability & reduced port costs by making the ship self reliant in port. It used sail for the main part of the journey, so would not have much reduced overall journey time.
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| The John Bowes (Tyne & Wear Archives) |
While the John Bowes wasn't the first iron screw collier, it was the first fully capable of speeding up & reducing the cost of transporting coal to SE England, retaining the economic viability of the north east coalfield. (Photographed because it was afloat over 80 years, whereas the Bedlington & QED each sank after about 12 years,)
In a letter to John Bowes (the man), William Hutt (Liberal MP for Gateshead for 30 years) referred briefly to the new collier's successful maiden voyage. "Well! the John Bowes performed her voyage to London quite to Palmer's satisfaction. She left the Tyne on Wednesday night (28 July), discharged her cargo in London, and was back again at Jarrow on Monday. The Shields folk were all ébahis." (John Bowes by CE Hardy, Frank Graham 1970)
The John Bowes and Palmer-built sister ships were versatile - they also worked as cable layers & general cargo carriers.
2 comments:
The Bedlington was ordered by the Bedlington Colliery in 1842 it was twin screw steamer of special construction built to carry 40 chaldrons taken on board at Netherton staiths then sailed to the Tyne and then the coal was discharged by derriks it was sold in 1851 and used as a ferry across the Forth then used as a transport in the Baltic during the Crimean war and lost at sea.The Netherton staiths were built in around 1818 and are four miles from the river Blyth the embankment can still be seen where the Sleekburn gut meets the river Blyth as time went on the Bedlington Colliery and Barrington Colliery used them the Barrington Colliery being owned by Longridge he relayed it with iron rail's in 1841 it is not known if some of the products of the Bedlington iron works were shipped from there as the works were busy at that time
Neil Morgan
The Bedlington was ordered by the Bedlington Colliery in 1842 it was twin screw steamer of special construction built to carry 40 chaldrons taken on board at Netherton staiths then sailed to the Tyne and then the coal was discharged by derriks it was sold in 1851 and used as a ferry across the Forth then used as a transport in the Baltic during the Crimean war and lost at sea.The Netherton staiths were built in around 1818 and are four miles from the river Blyth the embankment can still be seen where the Sleekburn gut meets the river Blyth as time went on the Bedlington Colliery and Barrington Colliery used them the Barrington Colliery being owned by Longridge he relayed it with iron rail's in 1841 it is not known if some of the products of the Bedlington iron works were shipped from there as the works were busy at that time
Neil Morgan
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