Introduction

Summary

The selected documents in this volume provide an insight into the workings of a naval dockyard during a period of transformation. The years 1815 to 1865 were the ones in which the naval dockyards fully harnessed the use of steam and made the conversion from constructing ships of timber to those of iron. At Chatham, these changes were particularly apparent. In 1815, apart from a newly completed sawmill, the yard was entirely devoid of steam machinery. By the end of the period, the yard situation was very different. Not only was it building ships designed to accommodate steam engines but, throughout the yard, steam-powered engines had been installed in various workshops and centres of manufacture and were used for powering pumps for draining the docks. As for the transition to iron shipbuilding, this was a far more dramatic process. Throughout the period, those in the smithery were employed in the manufacture of increasing amounts of ironwork, producing items for use in ships’ hulls together with fittings for all classes of vessels. Nonetheless, this was no real preparation for the construction of a 9,800- ton iron battleship, the task that confronted Chatham in 1860. The final product, completed in september 1864, was achilles, the first such ship to be built in any royal dockyard – a vessel that signalled a new direction, not only for Chatham, but for all the naval dockyards.

The adoption of steam machinery combined with the decision to undertake iron shipbuilding at Chatham inevitably had a dramatic impact upon all those employed at the dockyard. To keep pace with the increase of steam engines, an ever expanding number of mechanists and machine- minders had to be employed, culminating in the appointment of a Chief Engineer at the head of a separate department. At the same time, other groups of workers found themselves possessing skills that were now better performed by steam-powered machinery. Among these were sawyers and scavelmen. The former were unable to compete with the speed and efficiency of the powered saws of Brunel's mill while the latter, hitherto responsible for the clearing and drainage of the docks, were made redundant with the introduction of steam pumps. However, such changes were nothing more than a ripple compared with the revolution in ship construction methods brought about by the laying down of Achilles.