Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Co
Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited, often referred to simply as Palmers, were a British shipbuilding company established in 1852 by Charles Mark Palmer and his elder brother George in 1851. Charles was the son of a prosperous South Shields businessman and ship-owner. Charles initially worked for his father before establishing his own shipyard at Jarrow. The land for the yard was leased from Mr Carr-Ellison of Hebburn in order to build steam colliers to ship coal to London.
They were based in Jarrow, in Northeast England and also had operations in Hebburn on the River Tyne. The latter yard was later absorbed by Vickers Armstrongs and formed into Palmers Hebburn Co, a ship repair establishment with the largest graving dock in the North East of England.
1852 - Palmer Brothers & Company launched their first ship, a paddle tug called Northumberland. The Yard achieved some memorable ‘firsts’:
- 1852 - First Sea going screw collier – John Bowes launched on 30th June 1852, the yard’s second ship. It had a very long life under the Spanish flag before foundering as Villa Selgas in 1933.
- 1854 - First rolled armour plates – were produced in 1854 for warships. Terror of 1856 was built to destroy the Russian forts at Cronstadt.
- 1872 - First double bottoms for water ballast – used in Vaderland, Nederland and Switzerland between 1872 and 1874 for carrying oil.
The Yard built 25 colliers of 12,210 grt in the two years following the launch of John Bowes
1853 – Palmer starts an engineering side to the business to build engines for his vessels.
1856 – The Yard was a major builder of warships for the Royal Navy manufacturing 20 warships plus many small torpedo boat destroyers.
1860 – Output increased to 22,000 tons. Charles Palmer purchased 14 collieries to safeguard his coal supply and leased land in North Yorkshire and set up the Grindle Park Mining Company in order to mine it. He also built a harbour at Port Mulgrave near Staithes to ship the ore back to Jarrow and also had interests in the Tyne Plate Glass Company to supply ship’s fittings and the Bede Metal Company to supply copper.
1860 a yard was purchased at Howdon, last used by Charles Mitchell. The Howdon Yard was used for a high percentage of total output for the Yard.
1861 – Palmer secured a contract from the Italian Government to build mail steamers.
1863 – In August of this year, Charles Mark Palmer launched four ships in the same month, one better than the triple launch of Charles Mitchell in 1856 at Low Walker. Between 1863 and 1873 Palmer played an important part in establishing the National Line along with Thomas Ismay, founder of the White Star Line.
1865 – Palmers Shipbuilding & Iron Co. Ltd was incorporated as a limited liability company. Manchester interests held most of the shares with Palmer as Chairman and Managing Director.
1870 – Charles built Palmers Memorial Hospital for the exclusive use of shipyard employees. A bronze statue of him was placed in the hospital grounds in 1903 following his death. It was then moved to the river-front at Jarrow where it can still be seen today.
1874 – Charles Mark Palmer was elected M.P. for North Durham and made Mayor in 1875. George retired form the business and Charles carried on.
1883 – the peak year for Palmers: 15 out of 33 ships were built at Howdon
1884 – five sailing ships were built along with a number of tramps, coastal steamers and coastal liners.
1886 – Tankers figured prominently in the yard output. Up to 1906 the yard had the second highest output in the North East.
1889 – Hall Brothers paid tribute to Sir Charles Mark Palmer by naming their last tramp built by him as Lady Palmer completed in October 1889.
1893 – Charles resigned from the company, aged 71 following heavy losses of £33,000 in 189/91.
1906 – electric overhead trolley cranes on elliptical-shaped gantries were introduced on the berths. The production of tramps and cargo-liners was speeded up.
1911 – During World War One the yard made one battleship, one cruiser, three monitors and two submarines. In addition the seven-berth shipyard of Robert Stephenson at Hebburn was leased in 1911 together with their 715 foot dry dock. The Stephenson Yard was then purchased in 1912 for merchant ship production.
The Stephenson Yard produced one battleship, one cruiser, three monitors, 198 destroyers and two submarines. Merchant ship output included four cargo-liners, five standard WAR ‘Z’ tankers, five’B’ type dry-cargo ships.
1912 – The Howdon Yard was closed.
1922 - The Company had purchased the small yard of the Amble Shipbuilding Co. Ltd at Amble Northumberland during the War, a 560 feet dry-dock was operated from Swansea from 1922 After the War the Company started to manufacture cargo liners with many of these being turbine propelled with turbines built at the Amble Yard.
1923 – The large British cable-layer Faraday was completed in April having been launched in February. However tankers predominated in the post WW1 years with over fifty being made between 1921 and 1930.
1927 – the first bracketless tanker designed by Sir Joseph Isherwood, the Beaconstreet was completed in July. It had a triple expansion steam engine.
1928 - the largest warship built after WW1, the 8” gun cruiser York was launched on 17th July by the Queen Mother. It was later sunk by German dive-bombers during the invasion of Crete.
1930 - The tanker Peter Hurll was the thousandth ship launched by Palmers on 24th July.
1931 – The last merchant ship built at the yard was the tanker British Strength completed on 28th April.
1932 – The last launch took place on 19th July: the destroyer Duchess.
1933 – the complete closure of the shipyard, engine works, blast furnaces and rolling mills had a devastating impact on Jarrow as the yard had been the main employer. The yard was rescued for a further 18 months thanks to the efforts of Sir John Jarvis, High Sheriff of Surrey.
1935 - The Palmer Shipyard was acquired by National Shipbuilders Security Ltd in 1933 and demolished in 1935.
The Hebburn dry-dock was taken over by Vickers Armstrong Ltd and continued to trade as Palmers (Hebburn) Ltd.
Sources of Information
[1] Wikipedia