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 months offering looks like a standard raised quarterdeck steam coaster from the early part of the century. Ships of this type were built in their hundreds and were the unsung workhorses of the home-trade area.
But “Fullagar” is not all she seems. In some ways she marked a milestone in merchant shipping. She was the first all-welded ship built in a UK yard. She was built as an experiment by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. The order was placed by T & J Brocklebank in 1919. Brocks, of course, operated a fleet of cargo liners running regular services to India, so why exactly they placed an order for a 500 ton coaster is beyond me.
The Birkenhead yard had invested in electric-arc welding plant, and I would guess that they needed a shipowner prepared to engage in an experiment. The hull was all welded; no rivets used in the construction. The internal water and fuel tanks were also welded. Thus “Fullagar” was the first sea-going vessel to feature all-welded construction. The shell plating was lapped and joggled as with conventional riveted construction, but the weight of the rivets was saved. Prior to “Fullagar”, welding had been adopted in ship repair, and Lloyds had formulated provisional rules guiding the practice of welding in ship structure.
The ship was of 500 tons deadweight, 420 gross, and was 150 feet overall. She was delivered in 1920. Coasters often take the ground on the berth, so the welded structure would be severely tested at times.
The hull construction was not the only unique experimental feature of this vessel. Her power plant was also a prototype. Despite her “woodbine” funnel, “Fullagar” was actually diesel powered. Her engine was the first marine installation of the Fullagar diesel engine.
The engine configuration was patented by Hugh F Fullagar, and Cammell Laird had taken out a licence to design and build their version. Fullagar had died in 1917, so he never saw his engine installed in a ship. The engine was known as the Cammellaird Fullagar engine, and the “Fullagar” was the first installation. The engine was a four-cylinder two-stroke with bore of 14″ and each piston had a stroke of 20″ . Her engine comprised four cylinders arranged in two pairs. Each cylinder contained two pistons, vertically opposed, not unlike the better-known Doxford, which was introduced a year later. The main difference between the Fullagar and the Doxford was in the method of connecting the top and bottom pistons. In the Fullagar engine, the top piston was connected to the lower piston in the adjacent cylinder by means of diagonal connecting siderods. The cranks on adjacent cylinders were at 180°. Thus the pistons created their own combustion chamber, with all combustion loads transmitted to the crankshaft. Fuel injection was by compressed air, or “blast injection”. Air compressor and circ pump were driven from the crankshaft. The engine developed around 500hp at 110 rpm.
Evidently the engine performed well, but was over-powerful. After two years the ship went back into the Cammel Laird yard where the engine was replaced by a Beardmore 4 cylinder two-stroke. Evidently, Cammell Lairds built another identical engine for installation in a twin-screw ship alongside the one removed from “Fullagar”.
” Fullagar” was engaged running between Liverpool and Belfast. In 1921 her welded structure was severely tested when she grounded in the Mersey. Her bottom was set up over 11″ but no welds failed. In1922 she was sold, and made the long ocean passage to Vancouver, British Columbia. Renamed “Caria” she continued trading locally, carrying cement. She was finally lost when, in 1937, then carrying the name “Cedros” she sank after collision with a sailing vessel.
The Fullagar engine never really gained popularity. A small number were built by a variety of licensees for installation in ocean – going ships, but were troublesome. More successful were those built for power generation on land, and I gather there is one still in running order in a museum in Napier, New Zealand.