SHIPBUILDERS OF SUNDERLAND

Robert Thompson (1773 - 1854)

Robert was born about 1773. He was a Keelman when he married Elizabeth Beaney on 25 November 1796 at Holy Trinity, parish church of Sunderland. Robert was listed as a Master Mariner, when he died of "old age", at West House, Fulwell, on 6 March 1854, at age 81. He was buried at Sunderland Churchyard.

A Keelman ran a keelboat, a shallow draft boat that could navigate far up the shallower parts of the river. Some keelboats were used to haul away the sand ballast that was brought in by the early seagoing sailing ships, The sand keels could carry between 50 and 60 tons of sand. Other keelboats were used to haul coal from far up the river down to the waiting brigs. Each coal keel, by law, should carry 21 tons of coal.

Robert's parentage is not known for certain though it is possible that his parents came from South Shields or Jarrow.

Robert Thompson senior (1797 - 1860)

The first child of Robert Thompson and Elizabeth Beaney, Robert was born 21 September 1797 and Christened on 20 January 1799 at Holy Trinity Church of Sunderland. He married Sarah Lowes on 30 August 1818 at Bishopwearmouth parish, Sunderland.

Robert worked for a short time on the traditional type of vessel for moving coal (the keel) and then became a shipwright’s apprentice under Mr. Allison, on the North Sands. Robert built several small craft on his own account in 1819, in the dock berth below Lambton Drops, with the usual technique of launching sideways. One ship was launched prematurely when on a rising tide, she was lifted from the blocks and carried into the river. As so frequently happened with such small scale shipbuilders, over the next twenty-six years Robert alternated between employment as a shipwright, working in small building partnerships, and acting as a shipyard foreman or manager on both the Tyne and Wear rivers. His sons frequently moved with him as they learned the shipwright’s trade.

Robert built his first ship - the barque Wolsingham - at Jarrow, where he was manager at the Patent Slip and Sawmill. That was in 1834. In 1837, Robert was foreman for Mr. John Storey, on the North Sands, when Mr. Thomas Speeding, sailmaker and shipowner of Monkwearmouth, made arrangements with two bachelors of the name of Melvin, ropers of Chaytors Haugh, for the building of a small brig for him. They engaged Robert to build it, so along with his three sons, and two brothers, he opened a yard at Washington Staiths (Coxgreen). Eldest son Robert became manager. Here a launching difficulty was experienced, for the vessel dropped over the quay and broke her rudder. A new one was made in a day, and the ship went down-river under the name Iona to be honored as the first ship to enter the North Dock, then known as Wearmouth Dock.

Another from the same Coxgreen yard was the 400-ton Barnard Castle, capable of doing the run from the Tees to the Thames and back in six weeks under favorable conditions. This ship, designed by John Watson, a Pallion builder, was owned by the Stockton and London Shipping Company, and was black hulled with gilt molding around the topsides. The May, launched in May 1840 was the last ship from Thompson’s Coxgreen yard. The industrial depression, known as the "Hungary Forties" was the reason for the closure not only of the Thompson’s, but many more yards in the northeast. Robert went to sea as a carpenter on a Whitby ship trading to America (1841-44). Robert junior went into a Southwick yard which stood on the site later occupied by George Clark’s engine works, and the two other sons, Joseph Lowes and John were employed by John Watson at Pallion.

When trade revived in 1844, Robert senior became foreman at the John Candlish yard, Southwick, and was quickly joined by his three sons. It was not until 13 February 1846 that Robert took over the old Harrison & Oliver yard on the North Sands, and with his three sons in partnership, started Robert Thompson & Sons. The lease for the yard stipulated that, for the haulage of timber, Thompsons should employ horses belonging to the ground landlord, Sir Hedworth Williamson, who claimed manorial rights over the foreshore. On a sloping beach and a short quay on the North Sands, the Thompsons began building their first ship, the Pearl, a brig of 240 tons. They were all shipwrights, and working with four employees, they had her finished in eleven weeks. She showed a profit of £200 on the contract. Soon 60 men and boys were employed and ships followed each other in quick succession. Seven were built in 1847, and again the following year.

In 1854, son Robert left the firm to start his own shipbuilding yard. Son Joseph Lowes assumed his management position. Wood ships continued to be built in considerable numbers on the North Sands. Helvellyn (1,017 tons), launched in April, 1856, proved to be the largest they ever built. Among those built for William Nicholson and Sons, of Sunderland, was the copper-ore trader Vencedora, launched in 1860.

Robert died at West House, Fulwell, on 10 December 1860, at age 63. He was buried at Monkwearmouth Mere Knolls Cemetery. Sons Joseph Lowes, and John took control of the business, but one year later, John left the firm and opened a yard at the North Dock.

Robert Thompson junior (1819 - 1910)

Robert Thompson junior was born on 23 November 1819, the eldest son of Robert and Sarah Thompson, at Monkwearmouth Shore. He joined with his father and his brothers, Joseph Lowes and John, and two of his father's brothers to open a yard at Washington Staiths (Coxgreen). He married Sarah Barber, the daughter of Richard Barber, a mason, on 9 June 1839 at Monkwearmouth. During the industrial depression of the early 1840s, the Coxgreen yard went out of business, Robert found work in a Southwick yard. He father went to sea. After the depression, Robert senior became a foreman for John Candlish, Southwick, and was soon joined by Robert junior and brothers Joseph Lowes and John.

In 1846, Robert Thompson senior and his three sons opened a yard at the North Sands, styled as Robert Thompson & Sons. No agreement was made, only the wages arranged. The father took 30/- (30 shillings) a week in wages, son Robert 27/- and his brothers 24/- each, thus pointing to the leading position which son Robert had already secured. The yard prospered. Young Robert was the chief draughtsman. Disputes were however arising between Robert and his father and in 1850, he left the yard. Joseph Lowes, who had designed the emigrant ship Achilles, persuaded his brother to re-join the yard. A partnership agreement of 1853 gave Robert a quarter share in the yard.

Robert was 35 when he again decided to branch out on his own. On August 8, 1854, he bought the patent slipway and shipbuilding yard then occupied by John Candlish, from the executors of W. Tanner, and commenced to build at Soutwick. The establishment of this business led to some confusion because there were now two Robert Thompson yards, each independent, for the next six years.

His first ship was the little wood barque Graces (449 tons), build in 1855 for Thomas Coxon of North Shields, and there followed 21 of much the same type until he commenced building composite ships ten years later. In all, 18 very fine composite ships (iron frames with a wooden hull), more than any Sunderland yard, were built by Robert - the first the Southwick in 1865 and last in 1874. Robert began building in iron with the SS Irishope (1,113 tons) in 1868. Although a few other Wear yards had preceded him in iron shipbuilding, he was in advance of the great majority of shipyards there, including the main family yard.

Many very smart sailing ships were built in the "iron" age, the last of them was the barquentine Regent (386 tons), built in 1892 - an iron ship, although steel had been introduced at the yard in 1888.

The firm was styled Robert Thompson and Sons when the junior members of the family came to the yard. In 1880, he took over the Bridge Dockyard, which had been idle for some years, and established a ship repair business. From it came some spectacular broadside launches. This method of launching was used because the narrowness of the site precluded the ships being sent down the slipway in the normal fashion. The final broadside launch was the Admiral L’Hermite in 1903.

Robert died at West Hall, Whitburn, on 18 July 1910, at age 90. The firm, Robert Thompson & Sons Ltd., continued with his sons James Elliot, Joseph Lowes and Richard Charles at the helm.

Joseph Lowes Thompson (1824 - 1893)

Joseph Lowes was born 16 October 1824 of Robert Thompson and Sarah Lowes, at Monkwearmouth. He first married Thomasin Elliot, and after her death, married Hannah Swan.

Joseph Lowes started learning the shipwright trade in 1837, at the age of 12, working with his father and two brothers. When this venture went bust in 1844, Joseph Lowes went to work for John Watson at Pallion, then to Neddie Brown at Hylton, then Carr Brown at Hylton, then to Richard Wilkenson at Pallion, then joined his father at the John Candlish yard at Southwick.

In 1846 he was a junior partner in the firm Robert Thompson & Sons, where his brother Robert was the chief designer.

Brother Robert left the business to start his own shipyard in 1854, and Joseph Lowes became the manager and chief designer.

He assumed total control of the Robert Thompson & Sons yard upon the death of his father in December 1860, and in 1864 he expanded the yard eastward, taking the yard then occupied by Mr. John Blumer. In September 1871, he changed the name to J L Thompson. The "& Sons" was added in 1875 when the next generation came into the yard. Of the large wood vessels built by Joseph Lowes Thompson may be mentioned the Vincedora, Rondinella, Freedom, Golondrina, Atossa, Morning Glory, Aurea, Star, Iduna, Veronica, Trevanion, and many others. The largest wood vessel was the 1,017 ton Helvellyn, launched on 21 April 1856. From 1846 to 1869, 40,278 tons of wood ships were built. Wood shipbuilding continued until 1869, when the last wood vessel was built by Joseph L Thompson, numbered 103, it was launched in 1870, and named the Peace, in commemoration of the close of the Franco-German war.

Thompson was now considering the introduction of iron shipbuilding, and, with this in view, he sent his sons to their uncle’s yard at Southwick, where iron construction was already in progress. In 24 years Thompsons had built 103 wooden ships, with a tonnage of 38,522

On 1 March 1871 the J L Thompson firm laid the keel of Ship number 105, their first iron steamer, ushering in a new era in shipbuilding. Joseph Lowes retired from the firm in 1875, leaving the operation of the firm to his three sons, Robert, Joseph Lowes (Junior), and Charles Elliot Thompson.

Joseph Lowes was a very active supporter of the Sunderland Football Club. He died 24 January 1893, at age 68, at Ashville House, Monkwearmouth, and is buried at Monkwearmouth Mere Knolls Cemetery.

John Thompson (1825 - 1891)

John was born about 1825 of Robert Thompson and Sarah Lowes, in Monkwearmouth. John started learning the shipwright trade in 1837, working with his father. He was also apprenticed to John Watson at Pallion from 1840 to 1844. In 1846 he joined with his father and brothers in the firm, Robert Thompson & Sons at the North Sands. John was a Shipwright when on 6 February 1848, he married Harriet Johnson at Monkwearmouth. After his father’s death in 1860, John left the firm to open his own yard at the North Dock. This venture did not prove successful. John died 9 January 1891.