The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-03 00:00:00

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i C...

Paid.

LIRE AT BLAVIrWALL.

About midnight on Friday a fire broke out in
the extensive premises of the Thames Ironworks
and Shipbuilding Company at Blackwall, which in
a few hours destroyed property of the aggregate
value of about £lO,OOO, and the effect of which, be-
yond the immediate loss, will be seriously to retard
the completion of a gigantic shipbuilding operation,
for purposes of naval warfare undertaken for the
Government. The works of this company are lo-
cated on both sides of Bow-creek, a little to the
west of the Victoria Docks, on ground formerly oc-
.cupied by Mr. Mare, the eminent shipbuilder., Om
the east side of the creek many of the huge speci-
mens of naval architecture for which the Tharues has
long been famous are reared from time to time, and,
there, also, the large subsidiary ironworks are car-
ried on ; while the ground on the opposite side is
principally, or rather was—occupied by a cluster of
sawing, moulding, and planing mills, smithies, and
the like, replete with a system of elaborate and
costly machinery, all of which was driven by a steam,
engine of some 60 horse-power. Of this machinery,
some of which was quite new, the various buildings
in which it was housed, and the great steam. engine
itself by which it was all propelled, only a few
useless vestiges remain, and a large quantity of
the most valuable descriptions of timber, principally
teak, mahogany, and Dantsic oak, which -.was being
fashioned and adapted for use, or stored 'An the con-

tiguous wharf, was involved in the .cr.mfiagration..
and served to make a huge bonfire 'in the dead of
night, visible for eight or ten miles round. The
fire, which is supposed to have originated in the
engine-house, was discovered by Richard Pretty, a
watchman on the premises, who gave an immediate
alarm, which was spread more rapidly throughout
the neighbourhood by the conflagration itself. The
working population from the adjacent Trinity-
wharf, the dockyard of Mr. Green, and other places
hastened to the scene, and rendered what aitsisto.nce
they could in the emergency. By degrees, as the
blaze diffused its own intelligence over the. metro-
polis, fire-engines:and firemen almost innumerable
arrived at the spot, but, owing to there being an
indifferent supply of water on the land side, they
were unable to render the service they might have
done in arresting the progress of the fire, which
continued to burn, though in :a degree more miti-
gated, until five in the morning. From the adja-
cent creek the large floating engine, which had
come from its mooring-place at Southwark-bridge,
played for some hours with considerable effect on.
the burning mass, and prevented it extending to,
though it scorched places, a long range of joiners'
shops and stacks of valuable seasoned timber piled
up in the immediate vicinity. What little wind
there was fortunately blew in the direction of the
creek, so that the fire ended there, and was confined
to a comparatively limited area. The loss of pro-
perty—which, by the way, is covered by insuvances
effected in the Phoenix and Manchester offi.ces—is
as nothing compared with the delay and impedi-
ment it will offer to the progress of a war steamer
of prodigious dimensions and strength, called the
Warrior, which the company are now building for
the Board of Admiralty,and a companion towhich de-
signated the Black Prince, is in course of construc-
tion on the Clyde. The tonnage of this vessel is
estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000, and her ag-
gregate cost at about £380,000. Her machinery,
which is being made by Penn and Son, of Green-
wich, will be about 1,k50-horse power, and will
propel her at a rate of 13 or 14 knots an hour. Her
strength and capacity to resist an attack from
without may be fancied from the facts that she is,
first of all, built 'wholly of iron, and infinitely
stronger in that respect than any ordinary iron
vessel ; that upon this groundwork she is being
covered bodily over with teak 18 inch es thick, and
over this again she is to be encased from stem to
stern in wrought iron 41 inches thick, or, as it
were, " locked up in steel." All the woodwork for
this gigantic creation of naval architecture, includ-
ing the sawing, planing, tenoring, morticin g, and
moulding, was being executed and fashionea in the
premises which, with all the machinery, have been
burnt to the ground, and at a rate to which hand
labour to almost any amount was unequal. The
vessel has been on the stocks about 12 months, and
was expected to be launched about Christ-yam ; but
it is feared that the result of this casualty will be
to retard her completion for some considerable
t'Lme, unless, indeed, the operations have
been suspended by the fire can be carried
machinery available in other quarters. About 50
eeTPl7leo,olono teo
men are thrown immediately out
d th
of employment,
oak, and other
though some 2,000 or 3,ooagoOtaar;troo
on the wharf
yard. About two months
fire. Many distin-
guished worth of teak, Pea?
up
npttllyeubeen to see the War-
woods of great cost waos;
elthers, Prince Alfred, the
Newcastle, and Marlborough,
adjacent to. the scenere
guished persons have
and Sir Charles Napier. By
amens other,
steamerh
War-
rior,Paget, and
of 2,500 tons is
,Deourrkdsei sdceol
afar Seflioirremscetre.
Per:sail/se,
being built Peninsular and Oriental Com-
is nearly unc mg.
pany, and