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

2.11.10
16

EIRE AT BLACKWALL.

About midnight on Friday a fire broke out in
the extensive premises of the r.Chanies 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. Mane, the eminent shipbuilder. On
the east side of the creek many of the huge speci-
mens of naval architecture for which the Thames 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 tl ie 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 horee-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 Dantsie oak,. which was being
fashioned and adapted for use, or itored in the con-
tiguous wharf, was involved in the conflagration.
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 gexe 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 assistance
they could in the emergency. :By degrees, as the
blaze diffused its own intellieence over the metro-
polis, fire-engines7and 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 mere 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 insurances
effected in the Phoenix and Manchester offices—is
as nothing compared with the delay and impedi-
ment it will offer to the progress of a war steam*
of prodigious dimensions and strength, called the
Warrior, which the company are now building for
the Board of Adm iralty,an d 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 1,2,50-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 inches 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, morticing, and
moulding, was being executed and fashioned 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 Christmas ; but
it is feared that the result of this casualty will be
to retard her completion for some considerable
time, unless, indeed, the operations which have
been suspended by the fire can be carried on b 53,0
machinery available in other quarters. About
men are thrown immediately out of
employment,employed in the
oak, and other
though some 2,000 or 3,000
nl-Many- wharf
are 10,000 to
yard. About two months ago frog
£15,000 worth of teak, Dantsle
thebeen to seethtehe
P
on
woods of great cost was piled
Newcastle, and Marlborough,
Charles
se
Napier.
Alfred,
pe r. theß By
adjacent to the scene of
distin-
guished persons have recently
and Sir
ts'erew steamer of 2,500 tons is
War-
rior, including, among
for the Peninsular a d • l C
LDukesord c
loaf:Somerset,eiifist-class
pg e others,
her side
nearly read— for launching
n nnta om-
y .
Pa nyg, and ti