John Readhead and Company – 1872 to 1888

The picture above is the 'Sagunto' built 1875

Between the years 1872 to 1888, 152 ships were constructed, of which there remains today one astonishing link with this very distant period. Ship No. 114 was a small iron screw cargo vessel built for Messrs. J. J. Sister and Company, Valencia. Today this 90 year old veteran is still steaming round the Spanish Coast and she is thought to be the oldest steamship still operating in European short sea trades. Launched in 1875 as the “Sagunto”, she presently carries the name “Enrique Maynes” after seven changes of ownership. Her original two-cylinder compound steam engine of 1,480 h.p. built at the Readhead engine works gives her a present-day speed of between 8 and 9 knots on a consumption of 7 1/2 tons of oil per day.
The steam tug “President” was another famous little ship. Built as Ship No. 124 in 1876 for the Limerick Towing Company, in her later years she rendered yeoman service on both Tyne and Wear. She was finally scrapped in 1959 after 83 years, and as someone commented at the time “they built ‘em to last in those days”.

Tug 'President', built in 1876, and was in service for 83 years.

The stream of newbuildings continued and by the end of the seventies the founder was casting his eyes around for a site that offered more space for the present but which would also allow further development as the need arose. Allow an article of the period, written some time after these expansive steps had been completed, to take up the story:
“The thorough technical knowledge possessed by Mr. John Readhead, the founder of the firm, combined with his exceptional energy and enlightened enterprise, soon created a most valuable and substantial business: and the original premises, which were situated at the east end of the town, and are still retained by the house for certain industrial processes, became, in time, too circumscribed for the requirements of the output. Messrs. Readhead and Sons, therefore, purchased the extensive West Docks property, which had long been well-known as one of the most extensive wooden-ship building and repairing yards in the northern counties.”
July 14th, 1880, was the actual date of the transaction and this was the signal for iron and steel shipbuilding to commence at West Docks. Work continued meantime at the Lawe yard whilst the new site was being prepared. The article continues;-
“They proceeded to provide all the mechanical and other appliances of the most approved modern type for the construction and repair of iron and steel steamships and sailing vessels. So complete is the working plant in the engineers’ shops, boiler shops, forges etc., including a large number of hydraulic machines, that the firm are able to compete, as to cost of production, with any other house in the trade in the United Kingdom.”
The new yard opened with three berths which were later increased to four. Shops for joiners and carpenters were sited along the present open welding area and the head office, a large old country house, stood facing the river on ground now occupied by No. 4 monotower crane. The former head office was not demolished until 1910. New engine and boiler shops were built and it is of interest to note that production commenced on the same sites that remain in use today.
Iron and steel shipbuilding at the West Docks began in 1881 with ship No. 167,
A screw steamer named “Jane Kelsall” and built for Messrs. W. D. C. Balls & Son, North Shields. Progress was good and there is little doubt that the main reason for continued success lay in the proven technical ability of Mr. John Readhead aided by his four sons, particularly the energetic James. They had shown the greatest courage and wisdom when deciding to invest their capital in the most modern shipyard machinery available. Meanwhile the steamers that Mr. Readhead and his men constructed were beginning to be their finest advertisement. From this fact springs one of the most interesting of Readheads legends.
St. Ives, in Cornwall, was the home port of numerous small sailing schooners and brigantines that traded under the ownership of a local family by the name of Hain. Three generations of Hains had all taken to the sea and had quietly changed a primitive fishing business into a deep-sea shipping organisation. But these Hains were really sailors first and men of business second. However in 1851 a fourth Edward Hain was born and, after schooling, he joined the St. Ives’ branch of Bolithos Bank, where he gained considerable experience in accounting before moving to London to obtain commercial practice in a tea merchant’s office. In 1878 he returned home, aged 26, and presented an ultimatum to his father that they must embark upon the ownership of steamers of much greater size than the sailing ships up to then owned by the concern, or he would not remain in the family business. Edward Hain had already heard mention of Readhead steamers, and so decided to make a special trip to inspect the yard of Mr. Readhead. He arrived one day quite unannounced and walked in through the gates to have a look round for himself. At the time James, his father’s shipyard manager and also aged 26, was discussing a problem with one of his foremen when he espied this young man wandering in the yard. James returned to his foreman and said “Who’s that man wandering about my yard and what is he doing here?” The foreman could proffer no help and so James decided to investigate for himself with a ready mind to request the gentleman to leave the premises. He made contact but fortunately was quick and sensitive enough to detect from the opening remarks of Mr. Hain that he must show a different hand at once. Edward Hain was conducted on a full tour of the yard and was afterwards introduced to Mr. John Readhead.
However one cannot help but surmise over the probable impressions that each of these young men must have left upon the other on this occasion, for here were two men whose progressive minds must have soon recognised the fact that each was trying to forge his own individual way along closely similar paths. At any rate the direct results were that in 1878 Mr. Hain, by placing an order with Mr. Readhead for a screw steamer named “Trewidden”, caused the first page of the longest chapter in Readhead history to be written.
“Trewidden” was built at the Lawe yard as Ship No. 146; she was of 1,730 tons and 115 h.p., the contract price being £18,000. A second ship followed two years later. Between 1881 and 1888 thirteen further vessels were launched from the new West Docks yard for Edward Hain and Company. Friendship between the Readhead family and the Hains of St. Ives soon became firmly established and the framework of one of the most outstanding owner / builder associations in British shipbuilding was beginning to emerge. Today the Hain Steamship Company has merged with another member of the P. & O. group to become Hain-Nourse Ltd, but our happy associations with this new company still continue. An impressive total of 87 ships has now been handed over to these owners from the yards of John Readhead and Sons – our proudest record.
In the second year of the new yard Ship No. 177 was named “John Readhead”. Her owner was a Mr. Franz Rathkens and this gesture was the mode of his tribute to the personal skill and craftsmanship of her builder. Newbuilding at the rate of twelve and thirteen ships a year continued steadily; several repeat orders were taken and further new clients were brought to South Shields. These included companies such as R. Harrowing & Co., Whitby, R. MacAndrew & Co., London, and Stathatos Bros., Rumania.

John Readhead & Co. 1872-1888

Notes;-   

Ship No 91    HELME PARK  -  1873

From website;-

..........For the past six years I have been researching ships lost in the Egyptian Red Sea for a book. Leaving aside those main shipwrecks so popular with divers, I have come across 150 other ship names, which will be in the book. This is now finished - or was, until a German student emailed to say that he had found a new wreck in 50m-plus off Egypt at the end of a dive, and had time only to fin down and look around for a few moments. He did recover a dinner plate, which has a crested centre with "Helme Park" and "South Shields" in a band around what is obviously a shipping line flag in red and black quartering.....

.........The Zealot was captained by J A Best and was carrying cargo worth £24,700 (790 bales, 91 cases, and 110 tons of iron) when she sank.
The two passengers and all the crew were saved and Captain Best's ticket was suspended for six months. Surprisingly little punishment, when you realise that Zealot was the third ship he had lost!.... 

Ship No 99    THE SHAH  -  1874

Paddle tug, 1874, 86grt J.Readhead, South Shields (99) for Joseph Martin, London. Bought by Goole & Hull Steam Towing Co. in 1878. Sold to George Alder, Middlesbrough in 1914, renamed DALES THORPE in 1916. Broken up at Hylton in 1929

Ship No 125    INDIA  -  1876

Built 1876, 364 grt by John Readhead, South Shields for Bennett S.S. Co., Goole
Sank in Ouse Dock 30/7/1896 but raised and repaired
Sold in 1899 to Bennetts of Penzance (no relation to the Goole company)
Sold foreign after 1913 and sank in 11/1928.
Photo on file at Waterways Museum from Charlie Hill's collection.

Ship No. 190    JOHN READHEAD  -  1883

Launched as JOHN READHEAD February 1883 by Readheads for Franz Rahtkens & Co., a Middlesbrough firm.
She was sold in 1905 to Dampf. Ges Warnow GmbH, Germany and renamed WARNOW.
Resold in 1911 to James Mitchell & Sons of Dundee, Scotland.
14 lives were lost when she was torpedoed and sunk by UC 48 on 2nd May 1917 six miles west of Trevose Head.