William Scott Shipbuilders was a short-lived

shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the 19th century and an early producer of

steamships A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

. The yard was important in the development of Bristol Shipbuilding. Scott's assistant, William Patterson, went on to build .

History

Origins & Shipowning

The founder, William Scott (b. 1756), was part of a well known Scottish shipbuilding family from Greenock, and moved to Barnstaple, England, in the late-18th century to engage in the

timber trade There are multiple market layers for wood products. Each country has its own domestic market that may be connected to a regional or global market. Timber supply to domestic markets in many tropical forest countries is largely provided by informal lo ...

. With Christopher Scott (probably his brother) he purchased his first vessel in around 1810, the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

''William'' for the

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

route. They later acquired a number of vessels including the sloop ''Pomona'' of 32 t, which they used as a packet on the Greenock-Bristol run.

Shipbuilding

Hilhouse vacated the shipyard and dry-dock at Wapping on the south side of the River Avon in 1824, and Scott seized the opportunity to enter shipbuilding with his son, James Mullen Scott, as William Scott & Son. William Patterson joined the firm as Scott's assistant and together they built the steam packet ''Lord Beresford'' for the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

run. The engine was fitted out by Price Bros. of Neath. Scott may also have built the steamship ''Bristol'' in 1823, for the Swansea to Bristol service, making that the first vessel built by the firm. Both were constructed to the plans of Sir Robert Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy. Several sail and steam vessels followed, including the first steamship entirely constructed in Bristol, the packet ''Wye'' in 1826 and several West Indiamen. Despite steady output from the yard and activity in the timber trade, William Scott was called in by the creditors in 1830, and the final vessel, the steamer ''Nautilus'' was completed in 1831. William Patterson took over the yard at Wapping later that year and ran it until the late 1850s.

William Scott built ships

Major ships built by William Scott & Son: *''Bristol'' (1823), steam

paddlewheel A paddle wheel is a form of waterwheel or impeller in which a number of paddles are set around the periphery of the wheel. It has several uses, of which some are: * Very low-lift water pumping, such as flooding paddy fields at no more than about ...

packet (probably built by Scott). *''Lord Beresford'' (1824), 81 t steam

schooner (sold out of service 1861).Swansea Docks: Pocketts’ Bristol Channel Steam Packet Company.
Retrieved on 2012-10-21. *''Isabella'' (1825), 340 t

ship-rigged A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel's sail plan with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged. Such vessels also have each mast stepped in three s ...

merchantman *, 266 tons, ship-rigged merchantman *''Camel'' (1825), 50 t sloop. *''Wye'' (1826), 60 t steam paddlewheel schooner. *''Avon'' (1826), 243 t

. *''Worcestor'' (1827), 41 t steam paddlewheel schooner. *''Somerset'' (1827), 81 t brigantine schooner. *''Julia'' (1827), 403 t ship-rigged merchantman. *''Lady Fitzherbert'' (1828), 386 t ship-rigged barque (lost in the Gulf of Finland, 1856. *''Eclipse'' (1828), 31 t steam paddlewheel schooner. *''Francis Smith'' (1828), 581 t ship-rigged merchantman. *''Britannia'' (1829), 411 t ship-rigged merchantman. *''Nautilus'' (1831), 50 t steam paddlewheel schooner.

Citations

References

* * {{cite book , last=Farr , first=Graeme , year=1977 , title=Shipbuilding in the Port of Bristol , publisher= National Maritime Museum Maritime Monographs and Reports Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United Kingdom Manufacturing companies established in 1824 Defunct companies based in Bristol 1824 establishments in England British companies established in 1824