Oswald, Mordaunt and Co
of Woolston, Southampton
Shipbuilders.
The yard was opened in 1876 by Thomas Ridley Oswald, a Sunderland shipbuilder.
The first ship built there was the 191 ft. barque Aberfoyle, constructed with frames which had been bent to shape in Sunderland.
1877 Became Oswald, Mordaunt and Co.
Established a reputation for building large iron bulk-carrying sailing ships, some of which were very long-lived. The Monterey, for example, was built in 1878 and was sold to the breakers after 56 years service. Their largest vessel was a steamship, Bitterne, of 9250 tons displacement.
1886 'On June 19th there was successfully launched from the shipbuilding and engineering works of Messrs. Oswald, Mordaunt, and Co., at Southampton, a fine iron screw steamer named the Siddons, of about 2000 tons net register, and of the following dimensions : Length, 329 ft. ; breadth, 38 ft. 9 in. ; depth of hold, 27 ft. The vessel has been built to the order of Messrs. Lamport and Holt, Liverpool. The engines and boilers are by the same firm. The engines are compound surface-condensing having cylinders 35 in. and 72 in. in diameter, with a stroke of 48 in. Steam is generated by two large multitubular doubleended steel boilers, each having four furnaces, at a pressure of 1001b. per square inch. The vessel has been built under the superintendence of Mr. John Russell.[1]
1889 The Ville de Dieppe, a steel and iron oil tanker, was the last ship built before T. R. Oswald moved on to Milford Haven.
1891 'At Southampton the event of the shipbuilding year has been the opening of the yard there, long occupied by Messrs. Oswald, Mordaunt, and Co., who in 1883 launched into the River Itchen fifteen vessels aggregating 33,000 tons. For several years the yard has been vacant, but at the beginning of the year a new company was formed under the style of the Southampton Naval Works, Limited, with Mr. J. H. Biles as general manager. To this company and the equipment of the works we have referred in previous articles, and now we have only to deal with production. The firm have completed three vessels, one a sailing ship of 2250 tons for Norway owners and two steamers for the Nile to carry 300 passengers on a draught of 22 in. These steamers have engines of 300 and 64 horse-power respectively. In the works there are ten vessels building, affording employment to 1200 men.'[2]
104 ships were built in a period of 13 years.
The yard was taken over by the Southampton Naval Works Co.
See Also
Sources of Information
- '100 Years of Specialized Shipbuilding & Engineering' by K. C. Barnaby, 1964, Hutchinson