From the brush of David Bray
This article, and others, follow a series which Sea Breezes magazine is publishing, featuring David’s paintings, and the stories behind them.
This month I have stretched the conditions of my artist’s licence to breaking point. Indeed I wouldn’t be surprised if it was revoked in short order!
We contemplate a mid-19th century setting in some far eastern anchorage. Sailing junks and fishing boats go about their business, while one of the new-fangled steamships is moored to a buoy, loading tea for Liverpool.
Then a vision of the future appears. One of the Blue Funnel “Super P” class ships glides into the anchorage, derricks up, hatches open. In twenty minutes she will be fast to a buoy, and in half an hour she too will be loading tea. I am, of course (in the words of Captain Mainwaring) “delving into the world of fantasy”, but what the heck? I enjoyed painting them.
The Blue Funnel line was formed as the Ocean Steam Ship Company in 1865. Alfred Holt and his brother Philip had designs upon entering the lucrative China – UK trade with steamships. Hitherto this trade was exclusively the province of sailing ships such as the legendary tea clippers. Steam was not regarded as a viable prospect due to the inefficiencies of contemporary steam plant in ships. Boilers ran at low pressures, and engines were invariably simple-expansion. Coal consumption was so high that on longer voyages very little cargo could be carried owing to the need to stow huge quantities of bunker coal. Very long distances were out of the question.
Alfred Holt was a member of the extended Holt family of Liverpool, several members of which had interests in shipping. Older brother George was the “Holt” in Lamport and Holt, running services in various trades mostly using sailing ships. Alfred served an engineering apprenticeship with the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, and became an engineer for the company. He was interested in the huge improvements in efficiency showed by locomotives running on high pressure steam with compound steam cylinders. At the time the early steam ships were limited in boiler pressure.
Leaving the railway, Alfred and Philip managed a small steamer, the “Dumbarton Youth” named, evidently after a football club. Another small ship, the “Cleator” was purchased, and Alfred installed an experimental high pressure boiler and compound engine. The success of this arrangement encouraged him to order three larger vessels from Scott’s of Greenock. Alfred had persuaded the Board of Trade to relax the boiler pressure limitations, so the new ships were much more efficient in terms of coal consumption.
Moored to a buoy in my painting is the “Agamemnon”, the first of the three ships. Entering service in 1866 she represented a major advance in ocean shipping. Her fuel consumption was about half that of contemporary steamers, enabling long-distance passages to be made carrying viable tonnages of cargo. She and her two sisters, the “Ajax” and “Achilles” were immediately put on the China run, lifting tea cargoes. The writing was on the wall for the sailing clippers. Three years later the Suez canal opened, and the “Achilles” was the first Holt steamer to transit. The Blue Funnel fleet expanded rapidly, becoming one of the biggest shipping lines in the UK. Much has been written about the company and it’s history, and need not be repeated here.
It is often stated that it was the opening of the Suez canal that put the tea clipper out of business, but in reality it was the advent of the steamship, pioneered by “Agamemnon”.
“Agamemnon” was of 2,279 gt and 309 ft loa. Pioneering technology is soon rendered obsolete, and with larger, more powerful and economic ships entering service, these three ships were ultimately scrapped in the 1890s.
Moving forward about a century, we see the final development of the general cargo liner in the Blue Funnel “Super P” class. I have shown the first of class, the “Priam”. This class of eight ships were designed by company naval architect, Marshall Meek, the design intended to minimise time working cargo in port. Very versatile and lavishly-equipped, the design was superb, but badly let down by the constructing shipyards. Six of the class were ordered from UK yards (Vickers and John Brown) and two from Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi. Only one ship, the “Patroclus”, (Mitsubishi) entered service on time. All the others suffered building delays ranging from five months to a whole year. Also, building defects were rife in the ships from British yards. The line is said to have lost over £4 million due to late delivery, and huge penalty payments were made by the yards.
Despite their technical design excellence, these ships were obsolete before the paint was dry. Containerisation was being introduced; indeed the first generation of container ships, the “Botany Bay” class, was being designed, also by Marshall Meek. The six ships of this class were for the Australia services, but the next generation, the “Liverpool Bay” class were for the Far East route. These ships effectively put paid to the conventional general cargo vessel. None of the eight “Super P” class competed more than twelve years service with Ocean Fleets, several were sold to the C Y Tung group in 1979.
“Priam” as shown, was built in 1966 at Vickers yard on the Tyne. Of 12,094 gt she was 564 ft loa. A single Burmeister & Wain diesel gave her 21 knots. In 1979, sold to C Y Tung she was converted for full containerisation within the Orient Overseas line. In 1985 she was struck by an Iraqi missile, towed to Bahrain, she was then taken to Kaohsiung for scrapping.