Description

The shipbuilding interests of the Denny family date back to William Denny (born 1779), for whom ships are recorded being built in Dumbarton as far back as 1811. By 1823 the company name had changed to William Denny & Son (first ship the Paddle-Steamer Superb). From 1845 the company became Denny Brothers (this being William jnr, Alexander and Peter and in 1849 the firm was reconstituted as William Denny & Brothers, this being William, James and Peter Denny.
The founder developed the company’s interests in ship owning and operation with interests in the British & Burmese Steam Navigation Company, the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company and La Platense Flotilla.
The Company built all types of ships but were particularly well known as producers of fine cross-channel ferries
Peter Denny continued to expand his shipbuilding operation in Dumbarton, and by 1867 , had transferred his whole operation to a new purpose built yard on the River Leven. In 1868 , Peter Denny took the eldest of his sons, William Denny III, (1847 – 1887) into partnership and in 1871 , his nephew Walter Brock joined the company, becoming a partner in 1873 . Walter Brock was an engineer who, while at Dumbarton, developed the quadruple expansion engine and ways of installing it into older vessels. William Denny III was an experimental scientist and in 1870 , he persuaded his father to adopt progressive speed trials over the measured mile, ensuring a qualitatively more standardised product for customers. He also pioneered the construction of double cellular bottoms for cargo vessels and ensured that the company adopted mild steel in vessel construction. In addition he encouraged his father to build a large experimental tank for testing ship models. In 1881 Denny built a tank 300 ft 22 ft and 9 ft deep, the first such experimental tank in any commercial shipyard in the world.
In 1874 , Peter Denny became the chairman and managing director of the incorporated firm of the British & Burmese Steam Navigation Co, jointly owned by Henderson & Co and by Peter Denny, Walter Brock and John McAusland, the latter three partners taking 580 of the 2,299 shares of £50 each. This company, reformed in 1876 as the Irrawaddy Flotilla Co, built flat bottomed river craft for use in the Burma area. In 1882 , encouraged by their success in Burma, the partners set up another company, La Platense Flotilla, to build river craft in the Argentinian and Uruguayan river systems. William Denny III represented the Denny shareholding. The venture ended in financial loss and tragedy when revolution, drought and inflation left the combined Denny and Henderson interests with unpayable gold based obligations and debts entailed in attempts to buy out local competition. William Denny III took his own life and La Platense was wound up in 1890 . It is a tribute to the strength of the business as a whole that it was able to survive losses amounting to over £487,000.
The author was a Professor of Divinity, so one must accept a certain amount of hagiography in his account, but it would seem that William Denny was a talented man with many admirable characteristics, and it was tragic that he felt compelled to end his own life when he might have
achieved so much more.

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