Charles Hill & Sons

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Charles Hill & Sons was a major shipbuilder based in Bristol, England, during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Bristol Place in England

Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 459,300. The wider district has the 10th-largest population in England. The urban area population of 724,000 is the 8th-largest in the UK. The city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. South Wales lies across the Severn estuary.

England Country in north-west Europe, part of the United Kingdom

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

Background

Miranda Guinness was the last ship built by Charles Hill & Son of Albion Yard, Bristol and also the world's first purpose built beer tanker. Launched on 9 July 1976. Ships on the Liffey, Dublin - geograph.org.uk - 565850.jpg
Miranda Guinness was the last ship built by Charles Hill & Son of Albion Yard, Bristol and also the world's first purpose built beer tanker. Launched on 9 July 1976.

Established in 1845 from the company Hilhouse, they specialised mainly in merchant and commercial ships, but also undertook the build of warships and governmental vessels especially during the First and Second World Wars. [1]

Hilhouse was a shipbuilder in Bristol, England who built merchantman and men-of-war during the 18th and 19th centuries. The company subsequently became Charles Hill & Sons in 1845.

The company became Charles Hill and Sons after shipwright Charles Hill, who joined the original shipbuilder in 1824, acquired and renamed the firm in 1845.

In 1879 they established Bristol City Line, a transatlantic service between Bristol and New York (BCL ceased operations after 1974). In 1881 the company built its first iron ship, and then moved into steel sailing vessels. [2]

Bristol City Line

Bristol City Line was a British shipping line based in Bristol, England that traded from 1704 until 1974. From 1760 Bristol City Line also built ships.

A tugboat built by Charles Hill & Sons, MV Rozi, is now a tourist attraction - having been scuttled off the coast of Malta, it is now a sports scuba diving destination.

Tugboat boat that maneuvers other vessels by pushing or towing them

A tugboat is a type of vessel that maneuvers other vessels by pushing or pulling them either by direct contact or by means of a tow line. Tugs typically move vessels that either are restricted in their ability to maneuver on their own, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal, or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going. Some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines. Many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors.

MV <i>Rozi</i> Tugboat scuttled as a dive site off Malta

MV Rozi was a tugboat, built in Bristol in 1958. She was originally called Rossmore, and was later renamed Rossgarth. She was sold to Tug Malta in 1981 as the Rozi and operated in the Grand Harbour. After being decommissioned, she was scuttled off Ċirkewwa as an artificial reef. It is now one of the most popular dive sites in Malta.

Malta island republic in Europe

Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Italy, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. With a population of about 475,000 over an area of 316 km2 (122 sq mi), Malta is the world's tenth smallest and fifth most densely populated country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.8 km.2 The official languages are Maltese and English, with Maltese officially recognised as the national language and the only Semitic language in the European Union.

The company went out of business in 1977 and the dockyard is now owned by Abels Shipbuilders since 1980.

Abels Shipbuilders Ltd was a ship and boat builder in Bristol, England. They are now the largest remaining shipbuilder in Bristol. In addition to boat building, the company have branched out into architectural sculptures, tidal energy and marine restoration.

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Bristol Harbour harbour in the city of Bristol, England

Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of 70 acres (28.3 ha). It has existed since the 13th century but was developed into its current form in the early 19th century by installing lock gates on a tidal stretch of the River Avon in the centre of the city and providing a tidal by-pass for the river. It is often called the Floating Harbour as the water level remains constant and it is not affected by the state of the tide on the river.

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Francis Baylie was a shipbuilder based in Bristol, England, during the 17th century, a well established merchant shipbuilder who also built warships for the English Royal Navy.

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Sydenham Teast (1755-1813) was a Quaker merchant, fur-trader, shipbuilder and shipowner based in Bristol, England, during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Fire-float Pyronaut

Pyronaut is a specialised form of fireboat known as a fire-float. It was built in 1934 by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd., Albion Dock Bristol, Yard No. 208. Registered number 333833. She is owned by Bristol Museums and based at M Shed in Bristol's Floating Harbour.

John W. Griffiths American naval architect

John Willis Griffiths was an American naval architect who was influential in his design of clipper ships and his books on ship design and construction. He also designed steamships and war vessels and patented many inventions. Maritime historian William H. Thiesen wrote, "Of all the nineteenth-century American shipbuilders, John W. Griffiths did more than any other builder to champion American shipbuilding methods. An experimenter, an advocate for formal ship-design education, and a working intellectual, Griffiths proved to be most remarkable of America’s nineteenth-century shipbuilders.”

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William Patterson Shipbuilders was a major shipbuilder in Bristol, England during the 19th century and an innovator in ship construction, producing both the SS Great Western and SS Great Britain, fine lined yachts and a small number of warships.

The Greenport Basin and Construction Company, known by various names throughout its history, but most recently named the Greenport Yacht & Shipbuilding Company, is a shipbuilder in Greenport, Suffolk County, New York. It was established in the 19th century by brothers Pliny C. Brigham and Theodore W. Brigham. One local history relates:

Greenport prospered due to the menhaden industry; 64 boats were in service and seven under construction in 1879. By this time, shipbuilding boomed in Greenport. The Greenport Basin and Construction Company, famous yacht builders, became a large repair and docking facility for menhaden vessels. Menhaden vessels or "bunker boats" were said to have lined the shoreline along Main and Front Streets.

References

  1. Hill, John (1981). Shipshape & Bristol Fashion. Bristol: Redcliffe. ISBN   0-905459-70-9. various
  2. British Shipbuilding Yards. Norman L. Middlemiss