NAUTICAL

The Baltic Exchange

The Baltic Exchange organises the shipment of the majority of the world's goods that are transported by sea. It also orchestrates most international air cargo movements. The Exchange grew out of the Maryland Coffee House, which was sited in Threadneedle Street during the first half of the 18^thC. The coffee house's clients were largely merchants who were active in the North American and Baltic trades. In 1774 the establishment changed its name to the Virginia & Baltick Coffee House.

In 1810 the business moved to a larger building in the same street. This became known as the Baltic Coffee House. In 1823 a Baltic Club was formed; its members were subject to a series of rules. The 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws greatly increased the volume of their business. In 1857 the Baltic took over the former South Sea House on the north-eastern corner of Threadneedle Street. The London Shipping Exchange was set up in 1891 to service the needs of liner operators. This body merged with the Baltic.

Before the Second World War Britain was the leading shipbuilding nation and was the principal owner of vessels. During the second half of the 20^thC the country's involvement in both industries shrank to being one of a residual presence. The maritime sectors in which London continues to play a major international role are ship finance, ship broking, and marine insurance. Between them the Institute of London Underwriters and Lloyd's of London provide the world s largest marine insurance market.

In 1992 the Exchange's building in St Mary Axe (38) was damaged in an I.R.A. terrorist blast. Three years later the body moved to a smaller property also on St Mary Axe (24-28).

Location: 30 (formerly 24-28) St Mary Axe, EC3A 8EQ. The Gherkin's now occupies the site. (orange, pink)

Website: www.balticexchange.com

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The Baltic Greeks

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At the start of the 21^stC a substantial minority of the Exchange's members were Greek. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Treaty of Paris placed the Ionian Islands under the protection of Britain. The same year Constantine Ipliktzis (d.1857), a Constantinople-born Greek, established a branch of his trading business in London. The Ionides family, who were descendants of his, were to be prominent both in the commercial life of London and as art collectors.

Mainland Greeks began to settle in London during the 1950s. They were drawn to the city by its shipping businesses, notably the Baltic Exchange.

Arthur Beale, Yacht Chandlers

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Arthur Beale, Yacht Chandlers has an external sign that proclaims that the business was established four centuries ago. That such an enterprise should be located in the West End might now seem to be incongruous. It has been suggested that part of the reason why the shop is located where it is, and has survived, is because the hoisting and lowering of sails has a high correlation to the raising and lowering of theatrical backdrops. However, this is not the case. The theatres have their own specialist suppliers although some of their staff do sometimes buy ropes from Beale s.

Until the start of the 20^thC there were still a number of other chandlers in central London. This was a legacy not only of how the city used to be a great nautical centre but also of how it was a place where maritime products were made. The prices were more competitive than in other coastal settlements because there were far more manufacturers in competition with one another. Vessel owners could buy goods more cheaply in London than they could in ports where there were few retailers.

The idea of yachts chandlers being located in marinas was a development of the late 20^thC.

In 2021 Arthur Beale closed its shop. It continued as online business.

Location: 194 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JP. Beale's former premises. (red, grey)

See Also: CARS Vauxhall Motors

Website: https://arthurbeale.co.uk

Captain Bligh

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The Bounty was transporting bread fruit from Tahiti.

When the bread fruit were finally delivered successfully, the slaves refused to eat them.

Captain Bligh had six daughters. His home life may well have been like a Jane Austen novel.

Location: 100 Lambeth Road, SE1 7PT. Bligh s Lambeth home.

Reardon Street (formerly Broad Street), E1W 2QH. Bligh's Wapping home.

Website: www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/william-bligh

The Custom House

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Customs duties have been levied in London since at least the 970s. There has been a Custom House in Lower Thames Street on or near the Custom House site since 1275. Representatives from each ship that entered the Port of London had to go there to pay the due duties on the goods that their vessel was carrying. The present building was opened in 1817.

Location: 20 Lower Thames Street, EC3R 6EE (purple, red)

Website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenues-customs

The Cutty Sark

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The Cutty Sark (1869) is the world's only surviving tea clipper. The craft was constructed to be the world s fastest vessel of its kind, one that could win the annual race to bring the new season's tea to Britain; this was an event upon the outcome of which large sums were waged. She was named after a poem by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (d.1796). On her initial voyage from Shanghai, she took 110 days to make the journey. With time, steam-powered ships took over the trade. The Cutty Sark spent a few years as a tramp before starting to carry wool from Australia via Cape Horn. In the 1880s and the 1890s she was captained by the eccentric Richard Woodget, who was given to roller-skating upon the vessel's deck. However, in the wool trade steam vessels again proved themselves to be economically more efficient than sailing craft. In 1895 she was sold and entered the Portuguese-speaking maritime world.

In 1922 The Cutty Sark put into Falmouth in order to shelter from a storm. There, she was recognised by Captain Wilfred Dowman, a shipmaster. The vessel was ending her useful life and her owners sold her to the shipmaster for 3750. His widow presented the craft to the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College for use as a training ship. Following the Second World War, the College no longer used her as such. The Cutty Sark Society was founded in 1951 by Frank Carr, who was the Director of The National Maritime Museum, and the Duke of Edinburgh in order to preserve the clipper. In 1954 the vessel was put on public display.

In 2007 The Cutty Sark was badly burned in a fire. At the time, most of her fittings had been taken away for conservation work and so they survived the blaze. Five years the restored vessel was reopened to the public.

Location: King William Walk, Greenwich, SE10 9HT

Website: www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark

Hay's Wharf

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In 1651 the Hay family acquired a brewery near Tooley Street, which parallels the river. With time they moved their business activity from brewing into warehousing and transport.

In the 1850s Sir William Cubitt designed the present-day building at Hay's Wharf that enclosed a dry dock.

Location: Hay's Galleria, Hay's Lane, SE1 2HD

See Also: THE THAMES Wharves

Website: www.hays-galleria.com

The National Maritime Museum

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Over the years a collection of naval related paintings was amassed in the Painted Hall of The Royal Hospital for Seamen in Greenwich. In 1873 the Royal Naval College was established as an institution for training naval officers. This development seems to have prompted the establishment of a separate naval museum.

The Society for Nautical Research was founded in 1910. In 1927 the shipowner Sir James Caird, a member of the organisation, bought a large collection of naval prints with the intention of giving it to a maritime museum. In 1933 the Royal Hospital School at Greenwich moved to Suffolk, thereby vacating the Queen's House and a number of other buildings upon the site. The following year National Maritime Museum was established by an Act of Parliament. The Museum opened the same year in the School's former premises. Two years later the Greenwich Hospital collection was added to the Museum.

Location: Romney Road, Greenwich, SE10 9NF

Website: www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum

The Plimsoll Line

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In 1868 Samuel Plimsoll, a coal merchant with a gift for self-publicity, was elected as a Liberal M.P. for Derby. He took a sea voyage during which four other vessels were shipwrecked. In 1870 he took up James Hall's idea that every ship should have a permanent line upon its exterior that would indicate its maximum level of safe submergence. He tried to have his Unseaworthy Ships Bill placed upon the statute book. He found himself to be blocked, losing out to an Agricultural Holdings Bill. In 1873 he took his campaign to the country by addressing a series of public meetings that moved popular opinion in his favour. Plimsoll's Merchant Shipping Bill passed through Parliament in 1876 and received the Royal Assent.

British ship owners were required to place a horizontal line on their vessels that was intended to guard against over ladening. However, the measure had been drafted so that while an externally visible line had to be placed upon a craft, its actual position was discretionary. It took fourteen years for this loophole to be closed. Many of the owners responded to this by placing their vessels under flags of convenience.

Location: 32 Hatton Garden, EC1N 8DH. Plimsoll's business office. (purple, grey)

28 Park Lane, c.W1K 1RA. Plimsoll's home from 1879. (blue, turquoise)

Website: www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/samuel-plimsoll-ship-safety

R.N.L.I.

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51 people died in The Marchioness riverboat disaster. As a result, the R.N.L.I. instituted four lifeboats on the upper section of the tidal Thames.

In 2021 R.N.L.I. lifeboats rescued a number of migrants who were trying to cross the English Channel in small boats. As a result, sections of the right-wing media took to attacking the organisation. However, this proved to be counterproductive as the R.N.L.I.'s popularity with the public at large led to it receiving a boost in its income from donations. Online gifts rose by 50%.

Location: Chiswick Lifeboat Station, Corney Reach Way, Chiswick, W4 2UG

Gravesend Lifeboat Station, London River House, Royal Pier Road, Gravesend, DA12 2BG

Teddington Lifeboat Station, Fairmile, 30 Twickenham Road, TW11 8AB

Tower Lifeboat Station, Lifeboat Pier, Victoria Embankment, WC2R 2PP (orange, white)

Website: https://chiswicklifeboat.org.uk https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/gravesend-lifeboat-station https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/gravesend-lifeboat-station https://towerrnli.com www.rnli.org

Steadlast

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William Stead was a noted campaigning journalist. His book The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (1885) highlighted the problem of child prostitution in London. His political sympathies were radical. When he learnt that the Paris Communards had been driven to eating mice, he expressed his solidarity with them by doing the same. However, his were served upon buttered toast.

The final time that anyone is known to have seen Stead was during the voyage of The Titanic. After it had become clear that the vessel was sinking, a passenger who was to survive saw him in the First-Class Smoking Room. He was reading a book.

Location: 5 Smith Square, SW1P 3HS. Stead's final home. (blue, orange)

Website: www.attackingthedevil.co.uk (The W.T. Stead Resource Site)

Trinity House

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The Corporation of Trinity House's principal activities are to ensure safe navigation in the waters around the British Isles and to assist in the relief of poor seamen.

The Brotherhood of the Most Glorious & Undivided Trinity received its first royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1514. The organisation was then based in Deptford.

To the Crown the organisation was useful as a means of promoting trade and seafaring knowledge. For successive monarchs, the body also had the advantage of being an entity that was separate from the Corporation of the City of London, which had its own pretensions with regard to the Thames and its estuary.

The Corporation established its first light vessel at the Nore in 1732.

The Samuel Wyatt designed Trinity House (1796) in Tower Hill is the Corporation's headquarters.

In 1836 control of all English lighthouses and navigation marks was granted to the Brotherhood. The government provided the body with a loan to enable it to buy the privately-owned lighthouses.

In 1894 the right of ballastage was transferred from Trinity House to the Thames Conservancy.

In 1988 responsibility for district pilotage was transferred from Trinity House to local harbour authorities.

Location: Trinity House, Trinity Square, EC3N 4AJ (orange, red)

Website: www.trinityhouse.co.uk

The General Lights Authorities of U.K. & Eire

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The General Lights Authorities of U.K. & Eire is the umbrella body for Trinity House, Scotland's Northern Lighthouse Board, and the Commissioners of Irish Lights. The body's 1987 report Marine Navigational Aids for Coastal Waters of The British Isles anticipated that the lighthouses of the British Isles would become automated.

Website: www.gla-rad.org

David Backhouse 2024