BRITISH SHIPBUILDING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19442, 30 October 1925, Page 11

BRITISH SHIPBUILDING

ROMANCE OF GREAT INDUSTRY A PROUD TRADITION. HANDED DOWN THE GENERATIONS. The menace involved to British hegemony on the sea by the present industrial trouble makes apposite a recital of how the existing supremacy came about. Tho story began when the first Phoenician landed in the west of England, looking for trade and finding tin. At that time Hiram, king of Phoenicia, was filling a contract in Lebanon cedar for the temple built by King Solomon. In the five hundred years of their connection with Britain they must have forged the first links of our chain by teaching the natives all they themselves knew of the art of shipbuilding and of navigation. Present-day traces of their sojourn are to be found in the features of tho jnen of that part of tho country, their natural ability as miners and a distinctiveness in tho design of their small vessels.

Like a ship’s cable this chain is divided into lengths joined together by shackles. Space is too limited to examine the chain link by link. But a glance at some of the shackles will servo to show that Vancouver is living up to racial specifications in the share she is taking in the peaceful war for tho supremacy of the Pacific. It is probable that about the tlmo that tho Phoenicians were withdrawing from the Cornish coast the Norso folk were invading the north and cast coasts. Finding the country better than their own for farming and the wild cattle ready to hand, they stayed. These people also taught tho natives of these coasts the arts of building and handling sea craft and like the Phoenicians in the south left their marks upon both the people and tho craft built locally Romans Bring Advanced Ideas. By tho time the Romans came they found tho people of tho British Isles established as fishermen and on parts of the east coast, as whalers. In turn those people wove into the chain moro advanced ideas of maritime work and by transporting some of tho natives to the Mediterranean taught them the value of foreign trade

The next few hundred years were not good for tho further development of trade upon peaceful lines. Tho Vikings were the marine pioneers of the day: and kept more peaceful folk at home. But trading with Franco and the Low- ■ lands never ceased, and in time tho! Vikings settled at different points on. the British coast and mixing with tho’ natives gave freedom from molestation! to those adventurously inclined. In. fact it is stated with some apparent degree of truth that, voyages from, Wales venetrated as far as Greenland'

and the Labrador coast in the eighth century. A new shackle in the chain was woven in by the great Hanseatic League of North Europe, which vir u ally held tho trade in the thirteenth century. Nearly all their ships were manned and commanded by Britons, who also conducted their business abroad, and so came to establishing trades of their own. Tho reigns of tho later Henrys were marked by the development and upheaval of the Reformation, which marks the next shackles in tho chain. Spain and Portugal obtained from Rome the power to explore and take possession of tho world for the Church. Spain was granted all she could obtain in the west. Portugal was to go east. Spam penetrated, conquered, converted, and bled the Americans and the Pacific ds far as the Phillipine Islands. Portugal pushed east as far as Macao, near Hongkong. Britain, with the other Protestant countries, was left in the lurch. Her markets were being closed, and the chain was in danger of being broken. But the men and the ships were at hand to save the situation. Imbued with the righteousness of their cause, the British seamen set out to sea for war or trade, if necessary both. Under tho blood-rod flag of England, with the red cross of ; St George in the upper left hand corner, i they took their ships to every corner of the world and returned victorious.

Fought Because All Ships Had To. Navy and merchant service became' one, except for a few coast defence; vessels. Hawkins, father and son,: Drake, Raleigh, Burleigh, tho Howards,. Humphrey Gilbert, our first Arctic ex- ■ plorcr, Forbisher, all took their share of this grim business. They fought be- i cause all ships had to fight. They ex- ' plored to get ahead of Spain or Portu i gal. They traded because it was a necessity. They colonised for tho rea-| sons that they did all the rest Call; them slave traders er worse, they did ' what they did not only for the glory of ■ the Empire of wh.eh they hvd the foundations, but also to tho glory of ( their God. And we arc their debtors.! These men met and fought the Armada, in the destruction of which they saw the beginning of the end for Spain and Portugal. Long protracted, the death of both as marine Powers came at length in the days when to the Cross of St. George had been added the Cross of St. Andrew, and new links were-being woven to the chain. From this time also the fighting and trading forces of the sea were definitely parted. Fighting and exploration became the duty of tho navy, while the merchantman nominally fought only in self-defence against pirates and the King’s enemies. But each service played into the other's hands, with or without ollicial sanction. No one will ever know on how many occasions a venturesome merchantman got into a hornet’s nest, and, finding no navy to help him, took matters into his own hands and fought it out. Other shackles mark the founding of the great trading companies, such as the Hudson’s Bay, the East India Company, and tho South Sea Company, each with its fleet of ships. From time to time the strength of the chain has been sorely strained. Once was after the famous 4 4 Boston tea party,” when men of our own blood, with ships built as we could build them, almost succeeded in beating the British from the sens. But by the time the treaty of Ghent was signed this danger had passed. Again the same, nation peacefully threatened it in the China Sea in the days of tho fast clippers, but there again the Red Ensign outlived the danger. Since then the shackles ha.ve boon woven more peacefully by the adaption of steam and the annihilation of distance by mechanically propelled ships.