Forestry & Shipbuilding

In the 17th and 18th centuries England, and after 1707 Scotland, had a problem.  They were running out of timber for what had become one of the lynchpins of the military might upon which they relied to maintain commerce and economic growth.

For example Nelson’s flagship the HMS Victory was built in 1759 and launched in 1765. There were in excess of 6,000 trees used in its construction.  Although mostly Oak there were still larger number s of pine trees used.  Clippers and mercantile vessels were almost exclusively

The forests in America had become a major source of timber for the Navy. Although less known than the Boston Tea Party, but nevertheless an important event in the run up to the war of American Independence there was a Pine Tree riot in 1772 in New Hampshire in protest of the King’s agents marking the best pine trees for their own and exclusive use which had come about from a 1729 Act of Parliament forbidding cutting down white pine trees.

There was a strong trade in timber with the Baltic states and in 1779 alone 5,000 masts were imported.  Equally there was an important strategic pact made with Russia for the supply of timber.  With major pines already assigned to the Navy shipyards dedicated to mercantile vessels were finding it harder and harder to source their timber including the use of shorter lengths.

So any “home grown” solution which meant the exploitation of until then untapped sources to help the shortfall was a good business proposition.

As a result shipbuilding in Speymouth was directly related to the local timber production in the area. Timber, predominantly Pine,  was floated down the Spey and could either then be transported (by sea) to its final destination or it could be transformed into product.

The fundamental reasoning is as sound as it was then as it is today – Porters Value Added Chain (¹) sings directly to this song.  A value chain is the full range of activities — including design, production, marketing and distribution — businesses go through to bring a product or service from conception to delivery. For companies that produce goods, the value chain starts with the raw materials used to make their products, and consists of everything that is added to it before it is sold to consumers (²).

In Garmouth there had been small boat building going on for centuries but John Geddes, living in Garmouth, is identified specifically as a shipbuilder in 1658. Furthermore there are references to trades such as sawmills, Benjamin Parsons is identified as the master of the sawmill in 1664. In the Land Tax rolls there is also a sawmill cited. Alexander Winster is identified as a ships carpenter, he died in 1696.  So there is clear evidence of shipbuilding in the 17th century as an industry rather than a casual activity supporting perhaps fishing on the Spey itself.

In 1730 Alexander Grant sold wood from Abernathy to a branch of the York Building Company for 7000 pounds. They improved some of the local infrastructure by building roads and some sawmills.

About the year 1730, a branch of the York-building company, purchased to the amount of about £7,000 of these woods of Abernethy, and continued till about the year 1737 ; the most profuse and profligate set that ever were heard of then in this corner. This was said to be a stock -jobbing business. Their extravagancies of every kind ruined themselves, and corrupted others. But yet their coming to the country was beneficial in many respects ; for, besides the knowledge and skill which was acquired from them, they made many useful and lasting improvements ; they cut roads through the woods ; they erected proper saw-mills ; they invented the construction of the 1 raft, as it is at present, and cut a passage through a rock in the Spey, without which, floating to any extent could never be attempted. Before their time, some small trifling rafts were sent down Spey in a very awkward and hazardous manner : 10 or 12 dozen of deals, huddled together, conducted by a man, sitting in what was called a currach, made of a hide, in the shape and about the size of a small brewing-kettle, broader above than below, with ribs or hoops of the raft, to which his currach was tied with a rope. These currachs were so light, that the men carried them on their backs home from Speymouth.” (The Topographical, Statistical, and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland: A-H, A. Fullarton, 1842). 

The company wanted to enter in life assurance and the stock rose during 1720 but the threat of a writ against the company taking on this new activity led to a crash and the company was crippled.  In 1740, there was a major parliamentary enquiry  and court hearing into the York Building Company that was basically using lands that had been forfeited after the first Jacobite rising.  The result was that the company left behind quite some infrastructure in Garmouth.

The Glenmore Company or The English Company, owned by Ralph Dodsworth and William Osborne re-established operations in 1784 after buying the rights to the timber in Glenmore from the Duke of Gordon for the sum of 10,000 pounds. They set up a dockyard and facilities to store and mill timber and build and launch ships. They were given land and buildings close to Garmouth, those left behind some 40 years earlier,  as part of the 26 year lease to the forest. The port they established was first called Kingston Port after the company’s port of origin – Kingston Upon Hull.  It was therefore

Here we can see a strategy of control of the raw material the transport to the sawmills and the subsequent transformation in ships. There are many advantages to the strategy:

• Lower costs due to eliminated transaction costs – the alternative sources of timber were from Scandinavia and the Baltic with implied increased transportation costs
• Improved quality of supplies – the could control when the timber was felled against orders and also control the supply with respect to the weather.
• Improved coordination in supply chain – they had complete control over their supply chain. Even than customer came to pick up the ship from the yard
• Greater market share – through their knowledge of the market from their days in York they had the ability to be able to use the network of clients. Culturally it may also have been easier for them to approach the English clients
• Secured distribution channels – the raw material supply was totally in their hands
• Facilitates investment in specialised assets (site, physical-assets and human-assets) – they owned the village, sawmills and trained the local labour force in the required skills. In fact they were also basing the location upon the fact that ship builders were already operating in the area albeit on a much smaller scale

However what Dodsworth and Osborne did not see were the disadvantages:

• Higher costs if the company is incapable to manage new activities efficiently
• The ownership of supply and distribution channels may lead to lower quality products and reduced efficiency because of the lack of competition
• Increased management skills are required to manage the whole of the value added chain – it is another set of skills to manage forest operations
• Higher investments leads to reduced flexibility and a potential for defaulting on loans through poor cashflow management
• Competing technologies can remove the advantages overnight

There is little or no information about the degree of forestation in Scotland in the early middle period. There is some anecdotal evidence that by 1400 there was a serious timber shortage in Scotland as shown by the increasing levels of timber being imported from the Baltic and Scandinavia (³).

In the 17th century there was some interest in the time from Scotland such as that shown by Captain Mason in the Grant woods of Speyside around 1630 (⁴).   Masts for the Royal Navy were also taken from Strathcarron in 1652 and in 1665–1669.

Brigadier Alexander Grant — who died in 1719 — attempted to bring some masts from his woods of Abernethy to London ; but though a man of great enterprize in his military profession, did not persevere in this, owing to the many difficulties he had to encounter, such as the want of’ roads in the woods, skill in the country, people, and all kinds of necessary implements.  (The Topographical, Statistical, and Historical Gazetteer of Scotland: A-H, A. Fullarton, 1842). 

In the 18th Century like the York Buildings Company there were other histories of failure such as the Loch Arkaig woods, those of Strathglass and in Rothiemurchus.

At Abernethy, where the woods still appeared to outsiders to be virtually untouched when the York Buildings Company arrived a full century after Captain Mason, the subsequent felling operations had not gone very far before the company declared bankruptcy.

Most of the forests or woods were semi-natural made up of native tree species growing by natural regeneration. Dodsworth and Osbourne (⁵) ‘observed many coarse crooked trees standing in the forest which we understand were of little or no value, but as we intend to build ships they will be useful to us.’

On the Gordon Estate there had been ongoing planting for some time probably using seed from the native pinewoods of Glenmore. In a letter dated 16th Feb 1762 from William Bell, factor to the Gordon Estates, there is clear reference to planting of 400,000 firs close to Fochabers in that year.

Gordon Castle 16th Feb. 1762

My Lord,

I have the honour to write to your Grace on the 11th Nov last to which I now refer. I have now sent an abstract of the plan of Glenmore which I hope will amuse your Grace it is without doubt one of the prettiest places in Britain you will see by it which is Peter Grouts tack and also the part possessed by James Stuart the forester and as Peter Grant is to remove at Whitsunday I hope your Grace will send your orders to what I mentioned in my last letter have paid the Spences. Each of them the salaries that their father had agreeable to appease your Graces order and it is necessary that there be a salary to the forester of Glenquiach which nice it befits 6 bolls of meal and about 30 to 40 shillings and I give the two foresters at Glen Avon five bolls of meal each I hope your Grace will take the trouble to let me know how far you approve these salaries and your orders shall be faithfully followed. I have had another meeting with the tenants at Auchendoun and Glenrinnis about their perjuring the right to the forest of Blackwater which 1 have procured for them the greatest part of this I have passed The others I hare absolutely refused to pass

I have caused the planned measure of the parks that is enclosed and planting of the hill of Fochabers on the way to Mulben it contains 203 acres and there are already planted in it this season 400,000 fir plants, 11000 birch plants, 1500 Alders, 300 Elms, 200 rowans, 200 ash, 100 gean, 100 white poplar, 100 Hollies and 100 willows and I think much above half the ground is planted I hope to have it finished this season and I have turned the road that end to Mulben round the out side of the enclosure which will do much belter than having the road through the plantings and we about drawing out the avenue at the burrows gate to the wood through Clunys field in obedience to my Lady Dutchess orders but we will be at a loss for trees of a proper size to make it up.

The Gardener has cut more trees in the garden than what I have reason to think your Grace will approve of and has taken such opportunity to do it when there was nowon to oppose it however I think there is now a stop put to it. I have marked by and caused cut some dead butts one fir tree in the wilderness of his use which will soon be rotten where these feed beside doing hurt to the other trees and bt then will save as much other woods but this will not near save for Mr Alan Durmand use very large and some times extrovagent your Graces hopes

I beg to offer my duty to Lord William and compliments to Mr Beneto My Lord

your Graces most Faithful

humble servant

William Bell

From 1766 to 1931 (and as early as 1714) there were almost continual collections of fir seed, using estate labour, indicating that the seed was from local sources, i.e. the Old Wood. The last remaining remnants of some 50 acres were still standing in 1999, many more were blown down in the 1953 gale. The seed was extracted, sown in the estate nursery and planted back on estate ground.

At Gordon Castle there is a plank, cut from a tree near it root with a brass plate on it with the inscription.

“In the year 1783, William Osbourne, Esquire, Merchant of Hull, purchased of the Duke of Gordon the Forest of Glenmore, the whole of which he cut down in the space of twenty-two years, and built, during that time, at the mouth of the river Spey, where never vessel was built before, forty seven sail of ships of upwards of 19,000 tons burthen. The largest of them of 1050 tons, and three others, little inferior in size, are now in the service of His Majesty and the Honourable East India Company. This undertaking was completed at the expense (of labour only) of above 70,000l. To His Grace the Duke of Gordon this plank is offered, as a specimen of the growth of one of the trees in the above forest, by His Grace’s most obedient Servant,

Hull, September 1806 William Osborne”

The Timber business must have made an impact not only on Kingston (and Garment) through shipbuilding but also otters towns . We know that there as a sawmill in Fochabers and management of fallen timber in Glenmore in 1766 (⁶).

The timber was floated down the river either in rafts tied together or initially a separate timbers.  This method of transport had been going on for some time (⁷) at least in 1715 it was standard practice:

1715 March 26

Bond by James Hosack, elder, in Ordifish, Donald Smith in Coldhame, Andrew Hosack there, Andrew Fraser, elder in Ordifish, James Inglish there, James Hosack, younger, there, Andrew Hosach there, William Loggie in Fochabers, James Hutchon there, Andrew Hosack there, John Robertson there and John Cowie, there, all salmon fishers to the marquess of Huntly, to go, on 24 hours advertisement, to burn mouth of Druie above Kincardine in Strathspey, and assist in bringing down the Spey his lordship’s timber to Gordon Castle for 10s scots each as daily wages, and to take down from the sawmill at Gordon Castle to water mouth below Buckie, the sawn timber to be landed and stacked without ie, outwith floodmark, for payment of 20s scots for each float of timber, the float of dales at 15 and 12 feet in length consisting of 90 dales, and each float of a lesser size consisting of sixscore dales, the marquess furnishing them with staples and ropes to secure the floats.

The floating went on for hundreds of years. An account from Joseph Lobban (b. c. 1877), aged 75, a retired carpenter, from Abernethy and then residing in Nethy Bridge, Strathspey (⁸) recorded on the 25th of October 1952, gave a fascinating insight into the work undertaken by loggers:

And those floaters they had to be skilled men, because they built the sleepers on rafts and floated them down the Spey till Garmouth. That would be a distance of over forty miles. The number of sleepers on the raft depended on the size of the water. If the water was high the more sleepers they would take – anything – up to a hundred an’ fifty or two hundred sleepers on the one single raft, and one man to navigate it. The only instrument they had was what they called a floater’s cleek. It was like a boat hook to steer the raft off the rocks. Well, I remember my own father telling me once – he was a skilled floater – going down with a raft, and he got stuck on the rocks at Carran. There were bad rocks on the River Spey at Carran. And he was detained about three hours there and before he got to Garmouth and got the raft off his hands and was paid for his raft, the coach that left Garmouth for Granton had gone, and he would get no more till next day. He left his cleek and put his address on it to be sent with the coach the next day and walked it, walked the forty miles. All that he carried was a small bag o’ meal, and he would get hot water at any house; and always made the bowl of brose and a smoke and walked the rest. He arrived home at Lower Dell up here next morning. He left Garmouth at eleven o’ clock. He arrived up at Dell next morning at six o’ clock, six in the morning – walked day and night. He got his breakfast. He went down to the River Spey – a distance of two and a half miles – and started buckling his next raft.

 The floaters never had corns. You never heard of a floater troubled with corns. His feet were always wet and the corns didn’t thrive. You never heard of a floater having a cold. The reason o’ that I think was that those floaters had a man carrying a cask o’ whisky and at every stage or every now and again they got their glass of whiskey and that seemed to do the needful. They had no waders, just ordinary woollen clothes and they would be up to the knees, up to the belly sometimes in the river. It made no difference. They were hardy. There were times when they called a jam. That was when the whole float sticks and they jam up in the water. The logs in front got stuck and that ones had to be relieved. It was a dangerous job, but I never heard of anyone being drowned. They could just jump along on the logs. They wore loggers’ boots wi’ nails in them. They got a grip on the log wi’ the floaters cleek balanced themselves.

I remember seeing a cleek. They were long – about twelve feet – handles in them of twelve feet – wooden handles with iron hooks. There was a point and a hook. It was something like the Lochaber axe.

Ship Building

The task of setting up the timber operation was left to William Osbourne when Ralph Dodsworth returned to Hull.  The business was complex with numerous activities to manage from the felling of the trees in conditions that were far from easy to the sales of the contracts to build the vessels themselves.

Due to the size and weight of even a small wooden vessel, the shipyards of a strong foundation in order to be able to support the vessel throughout the construction, which could be extensive. The foundation was constructed of large timbers embedded into the earth in a parallel to the shore.  These massive timbers would have been perhaps anywhere from 30 to 50 feet in length, and placed at a distance that corresponded to the side of ship being built.  This set of log “steps” would be laid from the water’s edge inland to accommodate the length of ship being built.  The upper side of the timbers were then hewn smooth. On the log bed the wooden blocks there would be placed corresponding to the ship being built.

There would have also been:

• smiths for the iron cladding and other metal parts
• sawmills
• sawdust – where two men (one in the pit and the other outside) would cut to length the timbers processed by the sawmill
• joiners
• sack makers
• storage sheds
• timber yards to season the timber
• steam box to be able to ply and bend the wood for the curved parts of the ship
• sail yards where the sails, probably purchased form outside suppliers along with the cordage

In Kingston the timber that had be brought down on the Spey Floaters was stored in the yard.  A 30 foot wide channel was dug and dressed with stone to provide a base along which ships could be hauled to the river mouth. The channel led from the river mouth to the land in front of the principal property of Dunfermline House. It was here that the blacksmiths, riggers, block makers, sail makers and sack makers had there work stations.

Trained shipwrights from Hull were brought north to Kingston and over the next five years the yard built 13 ships, five of which were in the 300 ton range.  By 1792 employment increased to 28 carpenters and block makers, 16-18 sawyers and 8 sawmillers with a total of 75 people working at the yard.

At one point there were up to seven shipyards in Garmouth – it must have been a very busy place – a complete contrast to the sleepy coastal village there today.

By 1806 all of the timber had been extracted from Glenmore and the end was in sight. The costs of bring timber form elsewhere were simply too high to continue. Furthermore with the advent of iron steamers the days of wooden commercial or war vessels were seriously numbered.

On closure of the Dodsworth & Osbourne yard in 1815 many shipwrights emigrated to Miramichi, New Brunswick. A place where many people from Speymouth had emigrated in the late 18th century.

1. Porter, Michael E., “Competitive Advantage”. 1985, Ch. 1, pp 11-15. The Free Press. New York. ↩
2. Arline, Katherine. “What Is a Value Chain Analysis?” Business News Daily. N.p., 26 Jan. 2015. Web. 06 June 2015. ↩
3. Oosthoek, Jan. Conquering the Highlands: A History of the Afforestation of the Scottish Uplands. Acton, A.C.T.: ANU E, 2013. Print. ↩
4. TC Smout The Pinewoods and human use, 1600–1900 Forestry 2006 79: 341-349. ↩
5. Skelton J. Speybuilt: The Story of a Forgotten Industry. Garmouth; 1995. p. 24. ↩
6. GD44/29/7/2 ↩
7. NAS GD44/35:1/1/22 ↩
8. “Floating Timber Down the Spey.” The Calum Maclean Project. N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 06 June 2015. ↩