Description

Also included, but bound in in, facsimile “Agreement and Specification” between C. J. Mare and the London & South Western Railway, for building hull of “Alliance”. The engines were to be installed by Seward and Capel, and there was to be a penalty payment of £20 per week for late delivery to them.

There is a list of Steam Channel Packets “Built at Orchard Yard Blackwall” and a brief summary of the history of cross Channel steamer services until the 1860s. Coverage is given to the Yard’s part in the construction of Stephenson’s Britannia Railway bridge over the Menai Strait, and Brunel’s unique tubular/suspension bridge over the Tamar. However the author is in error in stating that rhey were built at the shipyard. In the case of Britannia, It has at first been intended to fabricate sections at Mare’s yard, but this was superseded by “moving the yard” and several hundred workmen to the bridge site.

There is a section dealing briefly with other famous ships associated with the yard and several pages including large photographs, concerning the salvage and rebuilding of “Eastern Coast” which had been cut in two in a collision on the Thames.

In many ways a rather strange, rambling publication, but a scarce and unusual item.

PREVIEW BELOW – MAY TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD.