T.R. Dowson shiprepairer
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Re: T.R. Dowson shiprepairer
by Dennis Maccoy » Fri Jun 08, 2012 9:59 pm
The 3 SDBs were Bryansford, Mayford and Gifford, all of which might have been subjects of some of my first ship photographs had not a jobsworth shouting "Oi - you can't take photographs of them!" appeared at an inopportune moment. That was in the days when one could simply walk into most dock estates, and not be assumed to be a threat to the very fabric of society.
Regards, Dennis.
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Re: T.R. Dowson shiprepairer
by northeast » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:23 am
Interesting to see those names Dennis, in my early excursions to Hartlepool (the foreign land across the bay!) I noted BRYANSFORD on 28/05/1960 and the other two on 12/11/1960. BRYANSFORD and GIFFORD went to Nigeria as IBADAN II and BONNY.
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Re: T.R. Dowson shiprepairer
by magoonigal » Sun Jun 17, 2012 3:11 pm
Published on Friday 15 June 2012 10:39
By Janis Blower. Shields Gazette. on-line.
IT is not a yard which is talked about much these days, but Dowson’s in Shields was a player in its day.
TR Dowson & Co Ltd, to give it its proper name, which operated from Tyne Dock for more than six decades, until its closure nearly 50 years ago now.
Recently, a reader has kindly pointed out to me, a piece of memorabilia from it has come up for sale on the internet, being an album of what appears to be navy photographs relating to Turkey and Norway - ships of whose fleets it dealt with.
If you’re interested, it was clocking nearly a hundred quid at last glance.
But who and what were Dowson’s, he was curious to know?
Well the company was founded in the latter years of the 19th century by TR Dowson, virtually as a one-man concern.
It later merged with other shiprepairing interests and by the end of the Second World War, it was one of the busiest of the smaller shiprepairers on the North East coast, employing around 300 men.
Its early customers were the London gas companies who would send Dowson’s their colliers for repair.
During the war, even post-war, it had a reputation for refitting naval vessels, including destroyers, frigates, corvettes and minesweepers.
At the time the firm celebrated its golden jubilee in 1952, one of its contracts was for the refit of the destroyer Beaufort.
The company went on to celebrate its diamond jubilee 10 years later but, sadly, did not survive for much longer, closing down in 1965.
The ship here was one of the vessels it worked on.
This is the destroyer Marne, built early on during the Second World War by Vickers-Armstrongs at High Walker on the Tyne.
She had a distinguished war record, one incident being when she helped to rescue 169 survivors from HMS Punjabi after she was sunk in a collision with the Tyne-built battleship King George V.
She was herself torpedoed and badly damaged in 1942.
In the late 1950s, she was sold to Turkey - which would chime with the photograph album - and underwent refit at Dowson’s before the hand over.
She was renamed Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak, and remained in service with the Turkish Navy until 1970, when she was scrapped.
Footnote:- Janis is a very rare thing these days, she is a Reporter who gets her facts right and has a true love of all things nautical in the North East!
By Janis Blower. Shields Gazette. on-line.
IT is not a yard which is talked about much these days, but Dowson’s in Shields was a player in its day.
TR Dowson & Co Ltd, to give it its proper name, which operated from Tyne Dock for more than six decades, until its closure nearly 50 years ago now.
Recently, a reader has kindly pointed out to me, a piece of memorabilia from it has come up for sale on the internet, being an album of what appears to be navy photographs relating to Turkey and Norway - ships of whose fleets it dealt with.
If you’re interested, it was clocking nearly a hundred quid at last glance.
But who and what were Dowson’s, he was curious to know?
Well the company was founded in the latter years of the 19th century by TR Dowson, virtually as a one-man concern.
It later merged with other shiprepairing interests and by the end of the Second World War, it was one of the busiest of the smaller shiprepairers on the North East coast, employing around 300 men.
Its early customers were the London gas companies who would send Dowson’s their colliers for repair.
During the war, even post-war, it had a reputation for refitting naval vessels, including destroyers, frigates, corvettes and minesweepers.
At the time the firm celebrated its golden jubilee in 1952, one of its contracts was for the refit of the destroyer Beaufort.
The company went on to celebrate its diamond jubilee 10 years later but, sadly, did not survive for much longer, closing down in 1965.
The ship here was one of the vessels it worked on.
This is the destroyer Marne, built early on during the Second World War by Vickers-Armstrongs at High Walker on the Tyne.
She had a distinguished war record, one incident being when she helped to rescue 169 survivors from HMS Punjabi after she was sunk in a collision with the Tyne-built battleship King George V.
She was herself torpedoed and badly damaged in 1942.
In the late 1950s, she was sold to Turkey - which would chime with the photograph album - and underwent refit at Dowson’s before the hand over.
She was renamed Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak, and remained in service with the Turkish Navy until 1970, when she was scrapped.
Footnote:- Janis is a very rare thing these days, she is a Reporter who gets her facts right and has a true love of all things nautical in the North East!
Paul Hood. + WSS Tyneside Branch Hon Sec.
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Re: T.R. Dowson shiprepairer
by magoonigal » Sun Jun 17, 2012 6:02 pm
You mean it was'nt you??????
Paul Hood. + WSS Tyneside Branch Hon Sec.
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