WORK FOR JARROW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23671, 1 December 1938, Page 7

WORK FOR JARROW

BERENGARIA TO BE BROKEN UP BRIEF TELEGRAPHIC ANNOUNCE. MENT SIR J. JARVIS'S GREAT AID (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON. Nov. 10. "Bought Berengaria for Jarrow, John Jarvis." Such was the wording of a telegram received by the Mayor of Jarrow from Sir John Jarvis. The people knew immediately what it meant, for this is not the first big ship that Sir John had purchased to make work for this centre on Tyneside. For the purpose of breaking up this immense liner of 52,000 tons, Sir John paid over £IOO,OOO. It is expected that several hundred men will be employed for at least two years on the dismantling and breaking up work. A company is to be formed, with tha help of the Commissioner for Special Areas (Sir George Gillett), known as the "Jarrow Shipbreaking Company," and it is hoped to make the industry permanent in the,town. Jarrow was once a well-known shipbuilding centre —now it provides employment in shipbreaking. The Mayor said:— " This is the best news we have had for a long time. We knew Sir John was in the market for the Berengaria, but it seemed likely that it would go to Clydeside for breaking up. We have many men in the town who are skilled in shipbreaking, and if the industry becomes permanent we can take all tha work that is going." PART OF A LARGER PLAN. Sir John Jarvis said: " The purchase of this ship is part of a larger plan which I have tried to carry out to help Jarrow. I hope the Jarrow Shipbreaking Company will prove a new permanent industry. Five ships have already been broken up at Jarrow, including the R.M.S. Olympic, which I bought in 1935. There is no reason, now that Jarrow • men have proved their aptitude with this kind of work, why other ships should not follow. "My larger plan for Jarrow was to break up ships to afford scrap for metal industries which would in turn convert it into steel and iron and thereafter fabricate it into the normal requirements of commerce. To-day there are six new Tyneside businesses which I have established under this plan-'-Jarrow Metal Industries. Ltd., Jarrow Tube Works, Ltd., Greaves and Thomas, Ltd., and three new industries flourishing at Gateshead, making and using steel and iron and absorbing a considerable amount of the Jarrow products. In this way two Tyneside towns badly hit by the depression in the North are being put on their feet." The Berengaria is the largest ship ever to come into the Tyne. She has been lying at Southampton since March this year, when she was put out of commission. , She was built at Hamburg for Germany in 1912. as the Imperator, and handed to Great ; Britain and renamed after the war. The voyage to the Tyne is expected" to take place early next year when the breaking-up site has been prepared for a ship of such size. The Berengaria, it is interesting to note, was in the Tyne 15 or 16 years ago, when it wts reconditioned and converted to oil-burning by Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., of Walker,.