A present for keith at tregenna

[Keith at Tregenna]

Keith says "no comment I have gone for a sail on the Newport bridge" haha

Guess you mean the Newport Transporter Bridge ?

The Newport Transporter Bridge (Welsh: Pont Gludo Casnewydd) is a transporter bridge that crosses the River Usk in Newport, South Wales. It is a Grade I listed structure. Designed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin, it was built in 1906 and opened by Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar on 12 September 1906. The span is an example of the very rare transporter bridge concept, of which only eight remain in use worldwide.

The bridge is the lowest crossing on the River Usk.

The bridge was shut down in 1985 because of wear and tear. Following a £3 million refurbishment, it reopened in 1995 and operated until late 2007. Service was suspended again at the end of 2007 in order to carry out a further £1.225 million refurbishment, re-opening on 30 July 2010.[6]

The bridge was closed on 16 February 2011, because of operational problems, but re-opened again on 4 June.

The Visitor Centre is located on the west bank and features exhibits about the history of the bridge, its construction and other transporter bridges around the world. The centre is open on the weekend.

Tiger Bay (film)

Tiger Bay is a 1959 British crime drama film based on the short story "Rodolphe et le Revolver" by Noel Calef directed by J. Lee Thompson and produced and co-written by John Hawkesworth. It stars John Mills as a police superintendent who investigates a murder, his daughter Hayley Mills, in her first major film role, as a girl who witnesses the murder, and Horst Buchholz as a young sailor who commits the murder in a moment of passion.

The film was shot mostly on location in the Tiger Bay district of Cardiff, at Newport Transporter Bridge in Newport (12 miles from Cardiff) and at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol. It features many authentic scenes of the children's street culture and the black street culture of the time, along with many dockside shots and scenes in real pubs and the surrounding countryside. It marks a vital transitional moment in the move towards the British New Wave cinema exemplified a few years later by A Taste of Honey.

Plot summary LINK: Tiger Bay (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

K.

[Keith at Tregenna]

i thought keith may like this, ?Attachment 12955

PLEASE SHAME MY HOME TOWN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN: There is not one surviving dock coal tipper at Barry Dock.

All thanks to Tony, we have now an example, though nine miles away.

CLOSEST WE WILL GET TO THE PAST.

THANKS K.

[Tony Wilding]

if i find more i will upload them, found that one by accident while looking for photos of watts watts ships loading coal there, but no luck, strange really as that company were regular carriers of welsh coal, only photo i have is ss fort augustus in barry in 1947, a watts watts wartime managed ship, has got to be more somewhere.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Fort Augustus:

1942 FORT AUGUSTUS, MOWT (Watts, Watts & Co), London
1948 U.S. Maritime Commission.
1959 Scrapped Beaumont, Tex.

K.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Watts Watts and Co

History:

The Northumbrian Watts family are believed to have first become shipowners in 1715. In the mid 1850s W H Watts owned a number of small sailing ships carrying coal from Blyth along the coast in winter and as far as Spain and the Baltic in summer. With two neighbours he formed Watts, Milburn & Co in 1885, initially operating with sailing ships before acquiring the small steamer “Gosforth” of 1856. A London office was opened in 1861 and the steamer “Surbiton” was built, starting the company’s policy of naming its ships after London suburbs.

Watts resorted to the somewhat radical action of taking control of a number of North-East collieries to solve the difficulty of obtaining full cargoes for his ships. In 1872 Watts, Milburn & Co was dissolved and replaced by Watts, Ward & Co. Although the company’s steamers still normally operated in the Home and intermediate trades longer voyages began to be undertaken. By the early 1880s its coastal trade was controlled from Newcastle and deep-sea trading from London. In 1884 the Britain S S Co Ltd (BSSC) was formed to own most of Watts’ ships and the name of the management company was changed to Watts, Watts & Co in 1896.

At the outbreak of WW1 Watts owned 22 steamers, of which 13 were lost to enemy action, one sank after a collision, two were posted missing and one wrecked. The Shipping Controller place two ships under Watts’ management and three reparations steamers were allocated to the company. Second hand vessels were bought after the war and the fleet was up to 19 ships by 1920.

The company thrived, despite the economic turbulence of the 1920s, but it suffered severely in early 1930s. A number of the photos in the collection show some of its vessels laid-up in the River Dart. Many were sold and the fleet was down to 9 steamers at the start of WW2, of which 5 were lost, although the MOWT allocated at least 10 ships to Watts’ management.

A number of war-standard motor ships were obtained and the last steamers were sold in 1958. A construction programme of high quality motorships was undertaken, to operate a service from London to the east coast of Canada and with the aim of obtaining charters from liner companies. The collection contains photos of many of these ships, including the first, which was “Wanstead” of 1949. “Wanstead” was chartered to Port Line as “Port Wanstead” from 1957 to 1960; to Lamport & Holt as “Raeburn” from 1963 to 1964; to John Swire & Sons as “Wanliu” from 1964 to 1969 when she was sold to Swire’s China Navigation Co, together with her two sisters.

In 1959 Watts owned 9 motorships, through BSSC. During the 1960s it became clear that the market for break-bulk ships was coming to an end. A number of smaller British shipowners decided to band together in 1966 to form Seabridge Shipping Ltd. The initial members were Bibby Line, BSSC, Clarkson, Silver Line, Bowring and Furness Withy. Each member agreed to build bulk carriers that would be chartered to Seabridge, who would operate and market them. BSSC built a 42,000 grt Panamax ship, “Westminster Bridge”, but by the time it was delivered in 1968, Watts decided that the potential rewards from shipowning were insufficient to justify the capital investment risk. All of BSSC’s other ships had been sold or where on the point of being sold, so Watts were able to make an immediate clean sale of BSSC, its Seabridge interests and the new bulk-carrier to Bibby. Watts continued in business for a while, managing its old ships whilst they remained in service.

LINK: The Allen Collection: Watts Watts and Co

[Ivan Cloherty]

Further to #15 Watts Watts name in shipping survived into the 70's as Comben Longstaff managed the coaster 'Mortlake' for Watts Watts, there was also another vessel but the name escapes me for the moment, I think I mentioned it in previous posts some years ago. When originally WW purchased the CL ships they wanted the hulls painted grey as per their deep sea brothers, against advice they went and did it, but learnt the error of their ways very quickly, not the ideal hull colour for vessels that are constantly 'rounding the knuckle' in ports many times a week and reverted to black of the original vessels.

[alf corbyn]

I have been on the Newport and Middlesbrough transporter bridges. and they have times of sailing posted. enjoyed the series about the Middlesbrough bridge also enjoyed tiger bay.

[Tony Wilding]

hi ivan , you are correct, the mortlake was one, i can not remember the other one either, found a photo of mortlake painted grey, do any of these names ring a bell, windsor queen, richmond queen, ? Tony w.

[Ivan Cloherty]

hi ivan , you are correct, the mortlake was one, i can not remember the other one either, found a photo of mortlake painted grey, do any of these names ring a bell, windsor queen, richmond queen, ? Tony w.

Yes Tony, I looked after them at various times, there was also the Osborne Queen, Sandringham Queen, Esk Queen (ex Sprightly), Balmoral Queen

The other WWatts was 'Chevychase' which was then sold to Queenships and renamed Northumbrian Queen on 31st Aug 1972

All managed by Comben Longstaff

[Keith at Tregenna]

NAMES OF SHIPS AND PICS ON THE (benjidog: ) LINK ABOVE: REPEATED: The Allen Collection: Watts Watts and Co

CLICK ON SHIPS NAME FOR THE PICS.

Hope this is helpful.

K.