Chatham Dockyard (26 page)

After dinner every man and boy [employed as ironsmiths] turned out on strike, and the scene was indescribable. The Captain Superintendent, noticing an unusual gathering of the ironworkers after the dinner hour in front of his office, despatched a messenger to the Chief Constructor [the Master Shipwright, Oliver Laing] for his immediate attendance. On arrival he was asked the meaning of that large concourse of ironworkers there. The chief said it was a great surprise to him to hear them state that they would do no more work until they got an advance of money, on what was originally agreed upon. This naval captain was moved with indignation at the course the men had adopted, for which there was no precedent but the great mutiny at the Nore and Spithead on April 28th, 1789 [sic]. He said, ‘I cannot find language strong enough to condemn the means employed by these men.’ My orders are, ‘Give them fifteen minutes to decide whether they will leave the yard or return to their duty; failing this, call on the whole force of police to be in readiness to drive the whole of them out of the gate, which they shall never enter again. Should there be any resistance, call to your aid the armed military guard.’ The chief, on putting in his appearance, replied to the men. He said he had but one request to make, ‘that they were all to return to their duty at once.’ Furthermore, he could give them no assurance whatever that their grievances would be considered. They would have fifteen minutes given to them to leave. Those who were disposed to return to duty at once could do so, and those who declined would be removed by force.

Conceive, my readers, what a consternation this must have caused throughout the dissatisfied ranks. One quarter of an hour to decide a question that might affect them the whole of their lives. Eyes were fixed upon the large clock just where they stood, until it chimed the quarter. The chief of the police at once emerged from the rear of the office at the head of a strong and powerful force. ‘Forward,’ was the order given in a loud tone of voice. There were but two only who had the moral courage at once to return to duty, Bill Morgan and Welsh Bob, both powerful men; these men have ever since been cared for by the authorities. The gate being reached, many went there for the last time with a sad heart. Many lessons may be learned from this for the consideration of our workmen.
¹⁸

Although fundamentally correct, it does miss out the all-important issue of the ironsmiths having to train the shipwrights, this being the real cause of the strike. As to the importance of the event, particularly for Chatham, is that of what followed. The Admiralty, in needing to replace the dismissed ironsmiths, sought help from those who had not chosen to continue the strike, persuading them to train, with the help of the dockyard engine smiths, a much larger number of shipwrights. Eventually reaching 500 in number, these newly trained shipwrights were employed in plating and marking while the work of drilling and riveting was given over to yard labourers. Henceforth, this latter group, who were granted a higher rate of pay, became known as ‘skilled labourers’. Within the Medway Towns, these dramatic events were considered a victory by the local community. Many of those shipwrights transferred to
Achilles
were on the verge of redundancy, the Admiralty about to replace them by a larger influx of ironsmiths. John Thomson also makes reference to this in his memories of working at the dockyard:

The question may be asked: Did the ironwork remain at a standstill? Oh dear, no. The Admiralty wired, ‘try and get your own shipwrights to take the entire ship in hand.’ No sooner was this known throughout the yard, than immense numbers of volunteers came forward, and with a little instruction from the two men named, they succeeded. Riveting and plating was taken up by the shipwrights, while the drilling was kept exclusively for the labourers, who were then styled for the first time ‘skilled labourers.’ The work went on with amazing rapidity. So great was the change that their Lordships on their visitation frequently alluded with delight to the shipwrights in Chatham yard so nobly responding to their call.
¹⁹

A further view of the No.2 Dock in October 1863, with work upon
Achilles
well in hand.

Through the employment of shipwrights trained in ironworking, progress on
Achilles
continued without any further major interruption. Often neglected is that of the impact of these changes upon the environment of the yard. The clatter of steam-powered machinery now reverberated around the various factories and workshops within which they had been installed. Outside, the sounds of hammering on metal and various industrial pollutants were also transforming dockyard life. Dickens, in revisiting the yard after nearly fifty years’ absence, was particularly struck by these changes, emphasising the distinctly different sounds that were produced by those engaged upon the construction of
Achilles
:

Ding, Clash, Dong, Bang, Boom, Rattle, Clash, BANG, Clink, BANG, Dong, BANG, Clatter, BANG, BANG, BANG! What an earth is this. This is, or soon will be, the
Achilles
, iron armour-plated ship. Twelve hundred men are working at her now; twelve hundred men working on stages over her sides, over her bows, over her sterns, under her keel, between her decks, down in her hold, within her and without, crawling and creeping into the finest curves of her lines wherever it is possible for men to twist. Twelve hundred hammerers, measurers, caulkers, armourers, forgers, smiths, shipwrights; twelve hundred dingers, clashers, dongers, rattlers, clinkers, bangers, bangers, bangers!
²⁰

Eventually, shortly before Christmas 1863,
Achilles
was ready to be floated out of the No.2 Dock. However, things did not go according to plan. R.G. Hobbes, as a clerk in the dockyard, was able to provide a first-hand account of a floating out that was beset with difficulties:

On the 22nd the tide at Chatham was one of the highest that had occurred for years, and, had everything been arranged for it, she might have been launched at noon that day. That night, however, several hundred workmen began to make the usual preparations. But it was found that the caisson at the entrance to the dock could not be removed without great difficulty, and that the exit of the ship would also be impeded by the projecting ends of the dock itself, which it would be necessary to cut away. At midnight the tide was high again, and the
Achilles
floated, but could not be launched in consequence of the removal of the impediments not having been completed.

Having been allowed to settle back into the dock, it was planned that she should be floated out on the next high tide that was due on the afternoon of 23 December. However, a change in wind direction resulted in a much lower than predicted tide, forcing the launch to be delayed. All the hands required for the floating out were ordered to stay overnight. Returning to the account given by Hobbes, he states that
Achilles
was once again afloat in dock just an hour before midnight and was immediately towed out by five steam tugs that had been kept in readiness. Then another mishap occurred:

Near the entrance to the dock a bank of sand and mud had accumulated, and in consequence of the length of time the
Achilles
had been in dock, and the impossibility of removing the caisson, it had gone on increasing. At the moment the
Achilles
cleared the dock, the tide, which at that part of the harbour is always of great force, caught her broadside and forced her round on the sandbank, where she grounded. The tide had now ceased flowing, and it was greatly feared that with the falling tide it would be impossible to get her off. Notwithstanding the united efforts of the five steamers, she at first defied all attempts to remove her; and it was only by the exertions of several hundred men, who manned the capstans on the sheer-hulk in the middle of the harbour, and the full steaming of the tugs, that she was ultimately got safely off the bank.
²¹

Having so narrowly avoided a serious disaster,
Achilles
was successfully towed to her moorings in Gillingham Reach. Here she was to remain for much of the following year, this for the purpose of fitting out. Since the very founding of the dockyard in the sixteenth century, this had been the adopted practice, the yard having no enclosed area of water for it to be carried out under more controlled conditions. Rennie, of course, had produced plans for enclosing Chatham Reach, but nothing had come of this proposal. With the not inconsiderable growth in size of ships, and the increasing size
and complexity of steam machinery, the existing arrangements for fitting out vessels at Chatham were recognised as quite unacceptable. Indeed, the officers at Chatham estimated in that being forced to convey every item of furnishing to
Achilles
by water, it added approximately £50,000 to her overall construction costs. Materials having to be brought out and fitted while she lay at her moorings in Gillingham Reach included 50,000 sq. ft of canvas, thirty miles of rigging cordage, the various huge timber sticks that made up her four masts, all items of her steam machinery that had been manufactured by John Penn & Son, a 12.5-ton screw propeller, two funnels and the twenty 100pdr muzzle-loading guns (together with shells and gun carriages) that made up her armament. In addition to all this, other items included coal, food supplies, steering gear, general items of interior furnishing and much, much more. Not until September 1864 was she finally out of dockyard hands, commissioned at that time into the Channel Squadron.

Immediately following upon the floating out of
Achilles
from the No.2 Dock, the workforce became available for the construction of two further ironclads,
Lord Warden
and
Bellerophon
. Significantly improved over the two earlier ironclads built at Chatham, both were designed to carry their guns, numerically reduced but more powerful in weight, in a central armoured citadel rather than on the old-style broadside pattern. In turn, this permitted a reduction to be made in the length of these vessels, so increasing their manoeuvrability. A further important point as regards these two vessels, was that both had timber hulls that were clad with 4.5in armouring, this to use up the vast stocks of timber that had, over the years, been accumulated in the yard. While
Bellerophon
was laid down in the No.2 Dock on the day immediately following the floating out of
Achilles, Lord Warden
was laid down in the No.3 Dock on 24 December. As with the two earlier ironclads, there was a similar level of interest in the progress of their construction and how any difficulties were overcome.
The Times
, for instance, carried this report in August 1864:

The delays which have taken place in the progress of the ironclad frigate
Bellerophon
, 14 [muzzle loading guns and of] 4246 tons now building at Chatham Dockyard, in consequence of the non-supply of angle and plate iron from the contractors, are likely to be effectually remedied, arrangements have been completed by which at least 100 tons of iron will be sent into the dockyard weekly by Messrs. Cheney and Co., who have the contract for supplying that description of iron for the vessel. Notwithstanding, however, the delays which have taken place in the construction of
Bellerophon
, which are attributable solely to the non-delivery of the requisite material from the contractors, the most marked progress has been made on the construction of the frigate, which will not occupy one half the time in building that was consumed in the construction of the
Achilles
, built at the same dockyard.
²²

Chatham was now the recognised lead government dockyard for the construction of the new ironclad battleships. However, the improvements to the buildings of the yard
were small compared with what was actually required. First and foremost, of course, was the need for an enclosed area of water where vessels could be fitted and refitted more conveniently. Plans were certainly in hand to ensure that such facilities would be brought to Chatham, this through the purchase of St Mary’s Island and the resulting construction of a massive extension that would more than quadruple in size the existing yard. In the meantime, with such work taking many years to complete, attention was given to the newly created iron shipbuilding areas adjacent to the Nos 2 and 3 Docks. Work undertaken in this area, and underway while
Achilles
was still under construction, included an enlargement to a number of the workshops and the erection of a large workshop for machinery required for preparing armour plating, with this latter being undertaken by Messrs Foord & Sons of Rochester.