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BHC Rockbreaker No 2

PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:21 am
by Whickham
BHC ROCKBREAKER NO 2 (which therefore means there was a No 1 as well), I wonder who built these? Also BHC NO 12 alongside which seems to have a funnel?

Photographer unknown

Rockbreaker.jpg

Re: BHC Rockbreaker No 2

PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 6:37 am
by northeast
Locally built in 1907 and yes there was a No1.
See next list of BHC craft.

Re: BHC Rockbreaker No 2

PostPosted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:51 am
by magoonigal
These have been wrongly captioned in the past but looking at the clearly captioned Rockbreaker No2 you can see that the jib is at the end of the vessel, whereas Rockbreaker No1 has the jib in the middle.

Both were built by Blyth Drydocks. No 1 was built in 1906 as Yard No 134 and No 2 in 1907 as Yard No 138. Net tonnage's were 183 and 184.

Most of the river bed at Blyth was rock and they were built to break this up so the river could be deepened.

Chipchase%20Blyth%20June%201961.jpg
Rockbreaker No 2

Rockbreaker No 1.jpg
Rockbreaker No 1

Re: BHC Rockbreaker No 2

PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 10:31 pm
by E28
Neither Rockbreaker 1 or 2 were ordered from Blyth S & D D Co Ltd.

They were ordered from Messrs Lobnitz & Co, Renfrew.
Their construction was supervised by Messrs J. Watt, Sandeman & Sons of Newcastle, engineers to the Blyth Harbour Commissioners.

Lobnitz record of building such or similar vessels is well known, World leaders of renown.
After orders were placed with Lobnitz, the construction of the barges was subcontracted to Blyth by the order of Lobnitz.
Lobnitz built all the specialised equipment to be fitted to the barges, being installed at Blyth.

Rockbreaker No 1 Lobnitz yno 624, Blyth yno 134 launched 19 July 1906
100' x 28' x 8' (moulded)
Rockbreaker No 2 Lobnitz yno 635, Blyth yno 138 launched 4 March 1907
No 1 was in service by the time No 2 was launched

Both were purpose designed for rock cutting in the river Blyth, although similar vessels existed elsewhere.
Rock cutting was introduced to eliminate the need for using explosives.