John Payne Ltd
Encyclopedia
John Payne Ltd was a shipbuilder in Bristol
, England, who built coastal colliers
and cargo ship
s, and small craft such as tugs
, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
, engineer
, iron founder
and steam boiler maker, inland from the River Avon at Tower Hill in Bristol. In 1859 he branched out into shipbuilding, a natural expansion of his marine business, firstly completing the Jane, a small wooden steam tug. This had to be launched into Bristol Harbour
after transportation by truck, and she was used by the company to tow barge
s with machinery from the wharf near the workshops. Her small size once enabled her to save the crew of a stricken barque
in Bristol Harbour. The company built three wooden tugs at Tower Hill, likely including the dimunative 11t Merrimac, and later built up the towing fleet over a number of years.
in Tower Hill. The first iron tug was the Emma of 1862, and several new construction orders followed for several iron-hulled vessels for local operators. In 1864 the company moved away from the traditional tug building business and built the first coastal collier, the Isca a sloop
-rigged steamer of 65 t.
Having built in iron for some years, an experimental composite
-hulled design was built in 1865, the 77 feet (23.5 m) Cardiff Castle, a paddle steamer
tug of 62 t, later converted to a yacht in 1880 with an unusual dandy
rig and wrecked
on Cardiff Grounds on 15 April 1897. The same year the Kate was completed, and these were the first paddle vessels built at the Acraman's Yard by John Payne. The Kate was a double-ended design which later operated from Penarth
beach.
The Harlequin of 1868 was the first tug design with twin screws, which provided superior towage control and had advanced engine arrangements for their day. The same year, John Payne completed two river steamers
for Brazil, the Corruipe and Mondahu, steel twin-screw
vessels of 200 t and the largest vessels yet built by the yard. These appear to have been the companies only exports. The steamer Henry Allen, completed in 1874, was even larger at 225t.
hulled vessel was built, the steamer Teal of 131 t and launched in 1889, although the company continued to also build in iron until 1893. Under John Payne Jnr.'s leadership the company continued to build a steady stream of cargo ships, tugs and a barge Bristol Safe, later rebuilt in 1912 to be the 129 t twin-screw ketch-rigged steamer Garthavon.
, when three of the company's tugs were requisitioned by the Port Examination Service, with the larger John Payne seeing service in the Dardanelles
in Turkey
.
A large tug of 134t was ordered by the Admiralty
late in the war, and was completed after the armistice
as the West Winch and bought by the company. Both the John Payne and West Winch were later sold to C.J. Kings, who operated a fleet of tugs from Avonmouth
.
Unfortunately the new owners joined the industry at the wrong time, as the post-war
depression
hit the area quite badly, and in 1925 the yard closed itself to shipbuilding, and was reopened by Harry Payne as the factory
for Bristol Metal Spraying and Welding Company.
Coastal colliers and cargo ships
River steamers
Coastal and harbour tugs
Barges
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, England, who built coastal colliers
Collier (ship type)
Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
and cargo ship
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
s, and small craft such as tugs
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Origins
In around 1850, John Payne established himself as a millwrightMillwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
, engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, iron founder
Iron Foundry
Factory: machine-music , Op. 19, commonly referred to as the Iron Foundry, is the most well-known work by Soviet composer Alexander Mosolov and a prime example of Soviet futurist music. It was composed between 1926 and 1927 as the first movement of the ballet suite...
and steam boiler maker, inland from the River Avon at Tower Hill in Bristol. In 1859 he branched out into shipbuilding, a natural expansion of his marine business, firstly completing the Jane, a small wooden steam tug. This had to be launched into Bristol Harbour
Bristol Harbour
Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It has existed since the 13th century but was developed into its current form in the early 19th century by installing lock gates on a tidal stretch of the River Avon in the centre of the city and...
after transportation by truck, and she was used by the company to tow barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s with machinery from the wharf near the workshops. Her small size once enabled her to save the crew of a stricken barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
in Bristol Harbour. The company built three wooden tugs at Tower Hill, likely including the dimunative 11t Merrimac, and later built up the towing fleet over a number of years.
Expansion
Following some initial success with wooden hulled tugs, in 1862 John Payne acquired the former Acraman Yard in Bedminster in order to build iron vessels. A number of these ships were fitted with steam engines built in his own foundryFoundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
in Tower Hill. The first iron tug was the Emma of 1862, and several new construction orders followed for several iron-hulled vessels for local operators. In 1864 the company moved away from the traditional tug building business and built the first coastal collier, the Isca a sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
-rigged steamer of 65 t.
Having built in iron for some years, an experimental composite
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
-hulled design was built in 1865, the 77 feet (23.5 m) Cardiff Castle, a paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
tug of 62 t, later converted to a yacht in 1880 with an unusual dandy
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
rig and wrecked
Wrecked
Wrecked is a 1996 album released by Raymond Watts . Wrecked was originally released in Japan in 1996, and was later released in the United States on September 16, 1997 by Wax Trax/TVT Records. Each release is different, with different track run times, as well as different tracks present. A...
on Cardiff Grounds on 15 April 1897. The same year the Kate was completed, and these were the first paddle vessels built at the Acraman's Yard by John Payne. The Kate was a double-ended design which later operated from Penarth
Penarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
beach.
The Harlequin of 1868 was the first tug design with twin screws, which provided superior towage control and had advanced engine arrangements for their day. The same year, John Payne completed two river steamers
Riverboat
A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...
for Brazil, the Corruipe and Mondahu, steel twin-screw
Twin screw steamer
A twin screw steamer is a steam-powered vessel propelled by two screws, one on either side of the plane of the keel....
vessels of 200 t and the largest vessels yet built by the yard. These appear to have been the companies only exports. The steamer Henry Allen, completed in 1874, was even larger at 225t.
A new chairman
In 1880, John Payne Snr. died, and his son also called John took over the running of the firm. By the close of the decade the first steelSteel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
hulled vessel was built, the steamer Teal of 131 t and launched in 1889, although the company continued to also build in iron until 1893. Under John Payne Jnr.'s leadership the company continued to build a steady stream of cargo ships, tugs and a barge Bristol Safe, later rebuilt in 1912 to be the 129 t twin-screw ketch-rigged steamer Garthavon.
Lean years
Things changed in 1910 when John Payne Jnr. died, leaving the company to be run by Mrs. Amelia Payne, who set up a limited company as John Payne Ltd, to run both the shipyard and towage business. The tug Bristol Scout was the only order before World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when three of the company's tugs were requisitioned by the Port Examination Service, with the larger John Payne seeing service in the Dardanelles
Dardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
A large tug of 134t was ordered by the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
late in the war, and was completed after the armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
as the West Winch and bought by the company. Both the John Payne and West Winch were later sold to C.J. Kings, who operated a fleet of tugs from Avonmouth
Avonmouth
Avonmouth is a port and suburb of Bristol, England, located on the Severn Estuary, at the mouth of the River Avon.The council ward of Avonmouth also includes Shirehampton and the western end of Lawrence Weston.- Geography :...
.
James Towers Shipbuilding Company
With new orders in the early 1920s for two large coasting vessels, the company was sold to new owners James Towers Shipbuilding Co. in 1924. These vessels, the largest built by John Payne, were completed that year, with the Reedham being the largest at 483 t. The steel cargo ships were later sold to Coast Lines Ltd. and the other to an operator in Canada.Unfortunately the new owners joined the industry at the wrong time, as the post-war
Post-war
A post-war period or postwar period is the interval immediately following the ending of a war and enduring as long as war does not resume. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date...
depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit the area quite badly, and in 1925 the yard closed itself to shipbuilding, and was reopened by Harry Payne as the factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
for Bristol Metal Spraying and Welding Company.
John Payne built vessels
The company built more than 40 vessels. Known ships include:Coastal colliers and cargo ships
- Isca (1864), 65t iron steam screw sloopSloopA sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
- Enid (1867), 88t iron steam screw sloop
- Monmouth (1869), 65t iron steam screw sloop
- Ethel (1870), 100t iron steam screw sloop
- Pendragon (1870), 59t iron steam screw sloop
- Henry Allen (1874), 225t iron steam twin-screw schoonerSchoonerA schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
- Ibis (1881), 169t iron steam schooner
- Teal (1889), 131t steelSteelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
steam screw ketchKetchA ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft of the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward... - Reedham (1924), 483t steel screw steamer
- Smitham (1924), 447t steel screw steamer
River steamers
- Corruipe (1868), 200t iron twin-screw river steamerTwin screw steamerA twin screw steamer is a steam-powered vessel propelled by two screws, one on either side of the plane of the keel....
- Mondahu (1868), 200t iron twin-screw river steamer
Coastal and harbour tugs
- Jane (1859), 27t wooden steam screw tug
- Emma (1862), 22t ironIronIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
steam screw tug - Kate (1865), 30t iron steam paddle sloop-rigged tug
- Cardiff Castle (1865), 62t compositeComposite materialComposite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
steam paddle dandyDandyA dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
-rigged tug - Dolphin (1866), 42t iron steam screw tug
- Harlequin (1868), 58t iron steam twin-screw tug
- Leo (1871), 95t iron steam paddle tug
- Merlin (1871), 19t iron steam paddle tug
- Oberon (1871), 56t iron steam screw sloop-rigged tug
- Queen Mab (1872), 48t iron steam screw tug
- Star (1875), 40t wooden steam screw tug
- Oberon (1876), 56t iron steam twin-screw tug
- Elf (1876), 53t wooden steam screw tug
- Kimberley (1878), 54t iron steam screw tug
- Fawn (1878), 29t iron steam screw tug
- Stag (1883), 41t iron steam screw tug
- Columbine (1886), 60t iron steam screw tug
- Staghound (1892), 39t iron steam screw tug
- Antelope (1893), 36t iron steam screw tug
- Brunel (1895), 36t steel steam screw tug
- Cabot (1899), 61t steel steam screw tug
- Gazelle (1901), 57t steel steam screw tug
- Contract (1907), 38t steel steam screw tug
- John Payne (1909), 145t steel steam screw tug
- Bristol Scout (1911), 54t steel steam screw tug
- West Winch (1920), 134t steel steam screw tug
Barges
- Bristol Safe (1904), 106t steel barge