Royal Navy.
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This material below is copyrighted. I would like to thank Phil Russell for allowing me to use some of the information from his web site and also to and Doug Hollings for the photographs he kindly sent. 3rd January 1823 was the day Robert Whitehead was born in Bolton, England. He went to the local grammar school and became an (apprentice) engineer and joined Manchester's Mechanic's Institute. After a spell working in France (1844) he started his own company. He married in 1846 - lived in Marseilles, France, and then moved to Milan producing textile and silk weaving machinery. Whitehead (pictured on the right), then moved his family from Milan (due mainly to unrest in the City), to Trieste. News of his work in developing marine steam engines spread, the young man joined a company at Fiume which designed and built warships - the company was Stabilimeno Technico Fiumano. The move was to change his life, especially when his help and expertise was requested in perfecting the "coastsaver" apparatus - a steel floating object filled with explosive - invented by a retired Captain Giovanni Luppis of the Austrian Navy. Around 1850, Whitehead had been approached by the Austrian Government to produce a new weapon, (by this time Whitehead had many locomotives and marine steam engine engineering factories throughout Europe. There were a great deal of British entrepreneurs around the world at this time), for it's Navy. Some had looked at developing methods of destroying ships from a safer distance that at present. Around 1866, after many tests, and help from his twelve year old son, John, a floating torpedo had been developed which could hit a target at about 700 yards and a speed of approximately seven knots, after being fired underwater by compressed air. To keep the torpedo at a required depth, Whitehead developed perhaps the most crucial piece of engineering that became the basis for his success - it was a hydrostatic plate to drive the depth rudder, by a spring connected to a pendulum. This was a 'first' in torpedo design as one one else had this device. (For other torpedo designs at the time - click here.)
In 1868, the Austrian Navy saw the Whitehead-Luppis torpedo in action and placed an order. Whitehead retained the copyrights and even negotiated a new contract with Luppis which gave Whitehead full control of all future sales.
The Whitehead family bloomed and became very wealthy after the sale of the Fiume torpedo and his children married into some of the most influential families in Europe. Robert Whitehead's daughter, Alice, married Count George Hoyos in 1869, who purchased the Fiume factory and renamed it Silurifico Whitehead, with John Whitehead, (the eldest son), becoming a director. Having Count Hoyos as a son-in-law was a considerable bonus, as he was a member of an old Hapsburg aristocratic family with considerable contacts and influence. The international family links were increased in 1892 when Robert Whitehead's grand daughter, Marguerite Hoyos, married the son of the German Chancellor, Herbert Von Bismark. In 1912, Robert Whitehead's great grand-daughter, Frances, met and married a submarine commander - Captain Von Trapp (of The Sound Of Music fame).
Robert Whitehead retired, nearly 80 years old, leaving an established Ferrybridge Works. His eldest son - John - took control in the late 1890's. John died suddenly in 1902, so Count George Hoyos took control until he died in 1904 quite sudden. Captain Payne Gallway took over and was helped by a Scot - an engineer by the name of A. E. Jones, nicknamed "Fiume" because of his time spent at the place. During the next two years, the company grew, with orders from America for torpedoes (1905), and, perhaps the saddest day - 14th November 1905, Robert Whitehead died aged 82, having received many high awards from nine appreciative countries - BUT NONE FROM GREAT BRITAIN - HIS NATIVE COUNTRY. In 1906, captain Gallway died suddenly, this meant all the original team had now died. In 1906, Vickers and Armstrong-Whitworth and Co acquired sufficient shares (the rest of the shares were with the Whitehead family) to take control. (It is reported that the British Admiralty were worried who would 'take over' the company, for instance a foreign power.) Once the company was 'secure', the new owners increased and improved performance. New torpedoes were designed - larger and faster. Whitehead branches opened abroad, mainly to help guarantee a reliable supply to other foreign Governments, even in hostilities that may occur. As to be expected, at the outbreak of World War One in 1914, the British Admiralty took complete control of the works, with production "round the clock", 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ironically, once the war ended in 1918, Vickers-Armstrong were handed back control. Then the orders coming in started to slow down, it was such a dramatic turn of misfortune that in 1921, the Whitehead Company went into liquidation, sacked it's workforce and closed the gates. By late 1923 however, it was a newly formed company - "The Whitehead Torpedo Company Limited" brought the majority of the Wykes Regis site for a reported sum of £17,700.
As British history shows, during the 1930's was a time of the big depression, and the new Whitehead Company, along with the whole of the Country felt the effects, Whitehead workers went on a three day week, but apprentices were still on full time. A normal working week was 44 hours, by 1933, short time meant only two days per fortnight - making it therefore very hard for the families to survive.
Almost immediately, the assembly and test sequences for every item was documented. A survey of all plant and machinery was conducted, and replacement costs produced. This resulted in sufficient funding being available and numerous machines purchased and installed, including capstan lathes, pneumatic hammers and new heat treatment furnaces. Working practices were reviewed and overhauled - some radically - including the introduction of all Component Drawings and Operation Sequences, and a Production Control Section. For specialist tools, a Jig and Tool Office to design them, using the latest equipment. Production costs was another key factor, examined and re-structured suitable for mass production. The fruition of all this drastic and brave action brought additional new orders from the British Admiralty for torpedoes like the Mk Vies, (Mk VI and Mk X). Also by 1939, the workforce had increased from 600 in 1934, to over 1,700. Sports and leisure activities slowly came back to the site over the years - including boating; fishing; swimming; polo and of course football and cricket, even though torpedo design had escalated considerably with numerous designs on the market from different
company's. The British Admiralty used (as from and during World War Two) 21 inch for ships and submarines (this torpedo remains the regular service design - even in 1991), the 18 inch for aircraft. Improvements still continued on the 21 inch Whitehead Torpedo using a
The Street Works (in Somerset) started producing and testing the main sub-assemblies of the 18 inch and 21 inch torpedoes, and producing units like ARK and air blast Gyroscopes, servomotors, reducers, depth gaer and tail units. The Staines (Middlesex) complex was to produce the 21 inch torpedoes and air blast gyroscopes, but over 6,000 tons of heavy engineering plant had to be moved out and stored locally before any modifications to the workshops could be started. This included building been lined and heated, services laid on and jigs, machine tools and special equipment was purchased and installed. By 1943, torpedo output reached twenty, with the different units been produced as and when required, by a workforce of over 1,650 people (mostly from clothing factories in London). As expected, Whitehead torpedoes were not the only ones being manufactured throughout Great Britain during the war. The total number of weapons expended up to September 1944 was 6,447, with Royal Naval Torpedo Factory at Greenock, producing the major share, along with small contributions from Morris Motors. Even during the war, team spirit was a high priority, there were numerous sporting events and entertainment organised, especially pantomimes! As the war neared an end, the need of torpedoes reduced - a similar story in 1918! Street in Somerset was the first to close, followed by Staines in Middlesex. By 1945, Bournemouth works had closed as well. The race was on to capture engineering and manufacturing production of peacetime contracts suddenly becoming available. Among some of the "peacetime" contracts won, was making machines for packaging soap, cigarettes, ice cream, soap flakes and butter. Pumps were made for oil and petrol, oil separators for Norway and even John Smith brewery of Todcaster, had stainless steel vats made. The Viscount aircraft had the intricate flap gear box and undercarriage pistons cylinders made. During this time, the British Admiralty decided to launch a new torpedo research programme. Among the designs were, at the time, pure science fiction to most; homing torpedoes, called "Pentane", then followed electric homing torpedo projects called "Bidder" (21 inch) and "Dealer" (18 inch); then the "Mackle" project which was wire guided torpedoes. Then followed a 24 inch jet propelled torpedo using solid fuel, at speeds close to 500 m.p.h, tested on a track 300 feet long and 80 feet high. Throughout the later part of the 1940's, through to the late 1950's, sport and entertainment expanded, producing some very strong teams, of which some reaching through the divisions up to Division One of the Dorset League. Early in the 1960's, torpedoes were still being producing (although a small amount now), and in 1962, Vickers-Armstrong (Engineers) based in Itchen, Southampton, had amalgamated with Vickers-Armstrong, based in South Marston near Swindon. They became known as the Vickers-Armstrong (Engineers) Ltd, and was the catalyst to a re-organisation of Vickers-Armstrong in 1966, after developing the Accelerated Freeze Drying Process for food, and the Hovercraft. The Vickers-Armstrong Group decided to sell the Ferrybridge Works (at Wykes Regis) transferring many of the workforce to South Marston, which was to have a £300,000 investment programme for their Hydraulics Division. The main reason (possibly) is that South Marston had become the heart of Vickers research and production on nuclear and medical products, and was producing a range of pumps and valves, under agreement with the American firm Racine Hydraulics and Machinery Incorporated. The Weymouth Works would close and it's proud workforce of 900 employees were offered to transfer to Swindon. This was still a massive blow for the famous and long established Ferrybridge Works to take. On the 31st March 1967, a Conveyance was signed by Vickers Ltd, to sell the Ferrybridge Works to a company called Wellworthy Ltd, and so ensuring that there would be employment for the engineering skilled people of the area. Many of the Ferrybridge Works employees decided against moving to Swindon and took redundancy instead. Some were immediately re-employed by Wellworthy Ltd, a total of 100 staff took employment with Wellworthy Ltd, out of 148 employees on the Vickers books! The new company had to repair and demolish quite a lot of the Ferrybridge site as it had deteriorated, before they could start production. Wellworthy's main industry was producing pistons, liners, piston rings and gudgeon pins. At other locations within the company produced compressors and valve seal inserts. By 1986, the Ferrybridge workforce of 350 were now part of a total workforce of 14,500 within the AE Group, (AE standing for "Assured Excellence"). Although a great deal of change occurred over the next few years, the Ferrybridge Works sadly closed when AE Piston Products (the result of a merger of Wellworthy and Hepworth and
Grandage, in 1989 with a turnover of £125 million a year), announced it was closing down the site. After two years, the site was put up for sale, in 1998, it was sold and demolition and clearance of the site began. Local historians made a final search for the original foundation stone (never found after numerous searches over the years), laid by the Lady Countess Hoyos in April 1891. It was found, (see right), but sadly no other artifacts were found, probably found by local "Wykeite" hands. It is reported that inside a cavity in the undertone were deposited a sealed bottle containing two or three small coins, Jubilee Shilling and a Half Crown, a copy of the London Times, Evening Standard and Southern Times.
(Please click on photograph to read the inscription.)
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