William Robertson Shipowners Ltd.

William Robertson (1832-1919) was born in Paisley on the Clyde but grew up in nearby Renfrew, and began his working life in Renfrew as an office boy at the age of fifteen years for iron founders Henderson Brothers. He began to work for himself as a coal merchant four years later, and quickly realised he needed a coal shipping fleet to bring the coal in bulk to his customers. In 1852, he began operating the wooden scow Ellen on the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch, moving coal to Glasgow and Renfrew and down the Clyde to Dumbarton. The next two wooden scows, Gem and Ruby of 1854/55 and able to carry 60 tonnes of coal, began the ‘gem’ nomenclature for which his fleet became famous with names of minerals and semi precious stones.

William Robertson moved his business from Renfrew to Glasgow in 1861, and in the following year extended his sphere of operations by sending his wooden smack Topaz of 80 tonnes capacity with coal to Oban via the Crinan Canal. The first steam coaster was Jasper, a Clyde ‘puffer’ of 65.5 feet in length completed in December 1865 at Maryhill for use around the Clyde and to Oban. The first seagoing steam coaster was Agate of 210 dwt completed at Rutherglen in May 1878 to trade to Ireland with coal. The Robertson fleet had expanded to fifteen steam coasters by the late 1880s, engaged in the coal, limestone and iron ore trades of the Irish Sea. A fleet of twenty one coasters was being traded during 1890 in Agate, Amerthyst, Cairngorm, Cameo, Cornelian, Diamond, Emerald, Ensign, Gem, Jacinth, Larry Bane, Latharna, Nugget, Onyx, Pearl, Peridot, Ruby, Sapphire, Sard, Strathavon and Topaz.

At the turn of the century, a big fleet of forty steam coasters was operated, most in the range from 210 dwt to 750 dwt, but also including five engines ‘midships larger coasters for use on the only Robertson liner service from Preston to Hamburg. This quintet were built during 1898/99 as Obsidian of 2,300 dwt, Achroite of 1,660 dwt, Corundum of 1,810 dwt, Axinite of 2,740 dwt, and Citrine of 2,740 dwt. Achroite and some of the other bigger steamers also participated in the outward coal trade to the Mediterranean, returning with cargoes of esparto grass, ores and cork from North Africa, Portugal and Spain to the Irish Sea. This Hamburg liner service continued until 1914 with cargoes of sugar, grain and generals, and William Robertson then concentrated on the British coastal bulk trades until the majority of his big fleet was requisitioned for war service in 1915.

Marine losses were heavy in the first decade of the new century. Cairngorm stranded at the entrance to Harrington harbour at Workington on the first day of 1903 while on a voyage from Duddon to Harrington with iron ore and became a total loss. Emerald sank off the Smalls on 4th August 1903 after a collision while on a voyage from Dublin to Llanelly in ballast. Kyanite was sunk by collision on 17th October 1903 off Dover while on a voyage from London to Liverpool with cement. Peridot was wrecked on 26th November 1905 at Islandmagee in Northern Ireland while on a voyage from Irvine to Carnlough in ballast with the loss of all of her nine crew, many from the vicinity of her loss. Sard was wrecked near Portrush on 22nd March 1906 in fog while on a voyage from London to Coleraine with manure.

Amethyst sank on 4th October 1908 after a collision in fog off Wicklow Head while on a voyage from Ayr to Le Havre with coal, her crew being rescued. Iolite stranded on rocks near St. Brieuc in northern France on 4th December 1908 while on a voyage from Cardiff to St. Brieuc with coal. A new Amethyst was completed in March 1910 by the Scott & Sons yard at Bowling, but a year later was sold and rebuilt into a passenger ferry for the Vancouver branch of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. The latter was founded in 1852 to build a line between Toronto and Montreal, but was bankrupted in 1919 and nationalised four years later into today’s Canadian National Railways (CNR). Amethyst was renamed Prince John and served for forty years at Vancouver, mostly in the Canadian National Steamships (CNS) fleet, before demolition in 1951.

World War I

The Robertson fleet had grown to 49 steam coasters on the outbreak of the First World War on 4th August 1914. The headquarters of the fleet was now at Gresham Chambers in West Nile Street in Glasgow, but they were left with only fifteen coasters to trade on their own account in 1915 as the remainder of the fleet was requisitioned for war service by the British Government. Sixteen owned or managed vessels were lost by enemy action or marine causes during the war :-

• Malachite captured and sunk by gunfire on 23rd November 1914 by German submarine U21 near Le Havre while on a voyage from Liverpool to Le Havre with general cargo.
• Gem mined and sunk on 25th December 1914 off Scarborough while on a voyage from Mostyn to the Tyne with soda ash, all of her crew were lost.
• Olivine captured and torpedoed by U33 30 miles south of St. Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight on 4th April 1915 while on a voyage from Guernsey to Calais with granite.
• Nugget sunk by gunfire from U28 on 31st July 1915 when 45 miles SW of the Scilly Isles while on passage to the Dardanelles after being requisitioned.
• Turquoise sunk by gunfire on 31st July 1915 by U28 60 miles SW of the Scilly Isles while on passage to the Dardanelles after being requisitioned.
• Sphene captured and sunk with bombs by UB18 on 3rd August 1916 26 miles SW of St. Catherine’s Point while on a voyage from Honfleur to Newport in ballast.
• Opal mined and sunk on 18th December 1916 off the Isle of Man while on a voyage from Llanddulas to Belfast and the Clyde with limestone, 12 crew lost including the Master.
• Essonite torpedoed and sunk on 1st February 1917 by U55 3 miles NNW of Trevose Head while on a voyage from Caernarvon to Rochester with stone, ten crew lost.
• Kyanite captured and sunk with bombs on 15th February 1917 by UC65 27 miles SSW of Bardsey Island while on a voyage from the Burn Naze factory at Fleetwood to Bristol with alkali.
• Topaz torpedoed and sunk on 12th March 1917 by UB18 27 miles from Cape Barfleur near Cherbourg while on a voyage from Honfleur to Port Talbot in ballast, three crew lost.
• Jargoon sunk by collision off Belfast Lough on 20th November 1917 while on a voyage from Troon to Dublin with coal.
• Diamond sunk by collision off Rathlin Island on 13th April 1918 while on a voyage from Cardiff to Londonderry with steel plates, three crew lost.
• Morion captured and sunk with bombs on 2nd May 1917 by UC65 in Ballyhalbert Bay, County Down while on a voyage from Dublin to Carnlough in ballast.
• Fluor scuttled in Leningrad on 12th March 1918 while requisitioned and on Government loan to Russia.
• Obsidian scuttled in Sveaborg Roads on 4th April 1918 while requisitioned and on Government loan to Russia.

Pebble was seriously damaged during the Dardanelles campaign while in use as a fleet messenger, and did not return to service as she was sold to the Admiralty after the end of the war, and was repaired for further service with a Greek owner. The German prize ships Huntsholm ex Telde and Hunsgrove ex Lorenzo were torpedoed and sunk by German submarines in June 1918 while being managed for the Shipping Controller. Agate of 990 dwt was the only new coaster to join the fleet from the famous coaster building yard of Scott & Sons of Bowling in 1917.

The ships that were requisitioned were used during the war as colliers, fleet messengers, ammunition and stores carriers, and supply ships to operations in France, Mediterranean and the Baltic. It is surprising that the bigger ships such as Achroite and Obsidian were not taken up for service as ‘Q’ or decoy ships to combat the U-boat menace. Unrestricted submarine warfare was declared by Germany on 1st February 1917 with a ‘sink on sight without warning’ policy. Prior to this, sinking a British or Allied ship was a more leisurely affair, in order to determine if this was a neutral ship and to give time for the crew to abandon ship if not. ‘Q’ ships with a big array of concealed guns thus had time to close in on the U-boat and sink her with accurate gunfire. Twelve U-boats were sunk in gun duels with ‘Q’ ships from the North Atlantic to the Aegean, and it is interesting that the only gun duel that resulted in the sinking of both the U-boat and the ‘Q’ ship occurred off Jersey when Q18 (Lady Olive of 702 grt built in 1912 as Tees Trader) and a U-boat were both sunk on 19th February 1917.

Inter-War Years

William Robertson died on 19th March 1919 from a stroke, and ownership of the remaining coasters was transferred five months later to his sons William Francis Robertson and John McKellar Robertson. Capt. R. Shaw was the Marine Superintendent of the fleet at this time, with the fleet continuing the business of shipping coal, coke, limestone, cement, clinker, iron ore and many other types of cargo. The fleet was now of 26 owned ships of 15,350 grt giving an average of 590 grt or 900 dwt per coaster. The biggest was Achroite of 1,660 dwt, and she was joined by seven new coasters up to 1927, with seventeen second hand steamers purchased from English and South Wales owners. This provided the Glasgow fleet with two dozen new coasters of around 900 dwt that had been built in the early post war years to rebuild the fleet.

These coasters were Asteria of 850 dwt, Axinite of 1,000 dwt, Beryl of 655 dwt, Coral of 760 dwt, Citrine of 670 dwt, Corundum of 1,230 dwt, Diamond of 850 dwt, Essonite of 740 dwt, Fluor of 1,217 dwt, Gem of 840 dwt, Girasol of 843 dwt, Jargoon of 940 dwt, Kyanite of 740 dwt, Malachite of 960 dwt, Morion of 850 dwt, Nephrite of 1,230 dwt, Nugget of 530 dwt, Obsidian of 1,115 dwt, Olivine of 890 dwt, Opal of 670 dwt, Pebble of 846 dwt, Sphene of 1,123 dwt, Topaz of 670 dwt, and Turquoise of 653 dwt. Beryl was completed in November 1924 by the Ailsa yard at Troon and was soon chartered very profitably for several years by Cunard Line to carry potatoes, tomatoes and other fruit and vegetables from North French and Channel Islands ports to Liverpool.

Diamond was launched on 29th August 1927 at the Burntisland yard in Fife as the only coaster Robertsons ordered from this yard. Topaz and her sister Opal were standard World War I design coasters built by the John Lewis & Sons yard at Aberdeen. Opal was laid down as War Exe and was acquired in 1925 but was lost six years later on 4th September 1931 when her cargo of maize shifted three miles southwest of the Longships while on a voyage from Antwerp to Cardiff. Topaz, on the other hand, was acquired in 1922 by Robertsons and gave 34 years of unbroken service before her scrapping at Port Glasgow in May 1956.

A fleet of 37 steam coasters was being traded in 1925 in the usual coal and coke cargoes from the Tyne to London and the South Coast power stations, and later to the Ford plant at Dagenham, as well as the Irish sea trades of limestone, cement, clinker, grain, bonemeal, wood pulp, soya beans, iron ore and other general coasting cargoes. Longer voyages to Continental ports such as Boulogne, Antwerp and Rotterdam were also frequently made. A great deal of employment for the fleet was provided by the purchase in 1922 of the limestone quarries of Kneeshaw, Lupton near Llanddulas in North Wales. This continued well after the Glasgow fleet was taken over by Stephenson Clarke Shipping of Newcastle in 1970.

The steam coaster fleet stood at the same figure of 37 vessels in 1933, but orders for motorships were soon placed for delivery beginning in 1935. The steam coaster Pyrope of 560 dwt was completed by the Bowling yard of Scott & Sons in July 1936, but no new steam coasters were built for the fleet after this date, although two were added in post war years when purchased second hand. The new motor coasters were Sapphire of 1,320 dwt completed in September 1935 by the Ailsa yard at Troon, Cameo of 1,324 dwt completed in January 1937 by the Inglis yard at Glasgow, Jacinth and Spinel of 900 dwt completed in late 1937 by the Henry Robb yard at Leith, Prase of 500 dwt, Cairngorm of 540 dwt, and Jade of 1,335 dwt from the yard of A. Vuijk at Capelle in Holland in 1938, and Citrine of 1,015 dwt from a Hardinxveld yard in Holland in 1939. Jade was a raised quarterdeck type vessel of 200 feet in length with three bulkheads, a single mast and two derricks to serve her two holds. The hatches were of dimensions 58 feet by 21 feet, and a Deutz diesel engine of 825 horse power was fitted to give a service speed of eleven knots and she had a bunker capacity of fifty tonnes of diesel oil.

World War II

A fleet of 39 steam and motor engines aft coasters was being traded on the outbreak of war on 3rd September 1939. This was composed of seven motor coasters and 32 steam coasters fitted with either two or three masts, and two derricks for cargo handling. Five owned ships and one managed vessel were lost to enemy action or marine causes during the war :-

• Girasol sank following a collision on 24th April 1940 off the North Foreland while on a voyage from North Wales to London with limestone.
• Agate was wrecked on Islay on 30th December 1940 while on a voyage from Goole to Belfast with coal.
• Olivine disappeared in the Irish Sea after sailing from Glasgow on 27th March 1941 with a cargo of wheat for Sharpness.
• Emerald was torpedoed and sunk by E-boat on 31st January 1944 to SE of Beachy Head while on a voyage from Middlesbrough to Poole with coal, twelve crew and three gunners were lost.
• Coral was torpedoed and sunk by a U-boat in the English Channel on 20th August 1944 while on a voyage from Arromanches to Southampton in ballast, six lives were lost.

The managed coaster Dagmar of 844 grt was bombed and sunk on 9th June 1941 off Bournemouth while on a voyage from Cardiff to Shoreham with coal, three lives being lost from her sixteen crew and two gunners. Company coasters were requisitioned for use as colliers, fleet messengers, ammunition ships and cased petrol carriers, some serving with distinction in the Mediterranean. No fewer than seventeen of the company fleet took part in supplying the Normandy beachhead forces in June 1944. They had to unload ammunition and supplies under enemy fire onto the beaches, or into landing craft and later at the Mulberry harbours.

The motor coaster Spinel of 1937 arrived at the beleaguered port of Dunkirk towards the end of May 1940 with cased petrol amid constant air attacks from the advancing German forces. She was moved to a berth in the inner basin for protection, but unfortunately her exit route was blocked by bomb damage and her crew were forced to abandon her, but not without first damaging her engines with sand and sinking her. A few days later, Spinel was taken over by the German Navy and salvaged, but due to her engine damage it was four months before she could be sailed along the North French coast to Jersey, arriving at St. Helier on 4th October 1940.

Spinel was then used to supply Alderney, Guernsey and Jersey from France, manned mostly by a German crew but also for a short time by a crew from Jersey and flying the Jersey flag of St. Patrick’s Cross. All manner of cargo was carried, including animals, food, ammunition and war supplies and German personnel. She was damaged on one occasion in convoy from Granville in France by bullets from Allied aircraft. After the fall of Normandy in June 1944, Spinel was only used occasionally and then laid up due to a lack of fuel. She was reclaimed by British forces landing on a ‘B’ class destroyer at St. Helier on 9th May 1945. After a refit in the U.K. she was renamed Empire Spinel by the Ministry of War Transport, and was handed back to Robertsons in 1946. She traded in the British coastal bulk trades for another twenty four years, gaining a new diesel engine in 1957, and then arrived for scrapping at Dalmuir on 11th March 1970.

Post-War Years

Replacement vessels were urgently needed to restart commercial trading, with a managed standard Empire ‘F’ type coaster of 465 dwt purchased in July, 1946 as an immediate replacement for war losses and renamed Morion. A standard ‘Empire’ cargo motorship of 1,224 dwt built in 1941 was purchased in February 1950 and renamed Agate. Orders were then placed for five new motorships for delivery up to the end of 1952. These were Sapphire of 1,360 dwt completed in September 1949 and Emerald of 1,830 dwt completed in June 1952, both by the Grangemouth Dockyard Company, and Gem and Olivine of 1,850 dwt and Pearl of 1,350 dwt in 1952/53 from the Ailsa yard at Troon.

A former Newcastle steam coaster from the fleet of Gillie & Blair Ltd. was purchased in 1948 and renamed Tourmaline. She had been completed as Deemount of 569 grt and 716 dwt by the Aberdeen yard of John Lewis & Sons Ltd. in September 1933 with an unusually high bridge, which with her engines was placed aft. She traded profitably for her Newcastle owner in a wide variety of coastal trades including the coal trade to Aberdeen, and had been renamed Olna Firth in 1945. A former Belfast steam coaster built in 1933 by John Lewis Ltd. at Aberdeen as Rosapenna for the big John Kelly Ltd. fleet, was purchased in November 1950 from Comben Longstaff & Co. Ltd. as Chesterbrook and was renamed Girasol of 1,240 dwt.

The fleet in May 1949 was one of 23 coasters, namely Asteria, Axinite, Beryl, Cairngorm, Cameo, Citrine, Felspar, Fluor, Gem, Jacinth, Jade, Jargoon, Morion, Nugget, Obsidian, Pearl, Pebble, Prase, Pyrope, Spinel, Topaz, Tourmaline and Turqouise. William Robertson Shipowners Ltd. was set up during that month with all ships transferred to it. Cameo was wrecked on the Arklow Bank off the east coast of Ireland on 10th September 1950 while on a voyage from Port Talbot to Dublin with coal.

Gem Line Ltd. was set up in 1952 to own the coastal fleet and all other assets, and William Robertson Shipowners Ltd. became a subsidiary of Gem Line Ltd., and was later renamed Gem Line Ltd. at the end of 1957. Fifteen coasters were being traded during 1959, all motorships, with Turquoise of 717 dwt having been purchased in April, 1955 from J. R. Rix & Sons of Hull as Jarrix, although she dated from 1947 when built at Kalmar as Arne for Swedish owners. Three new motorships had been completed during 1956/58 as Amber and Amethyst of 2,400 dwt from the Ailsa yard, and as Brilliant of 1,440 dwt from the Koster yard at Groningen in Holland in 1958. The older motorships were Agate of 1941, Cairngorm of 1938, Jacinth of 1937, Jade of 1938, Prase of 1938, and Spinel of 1937.

I recall seeing Emerald of 1952 and several of her near sisters e.g. Sapphire of 1949, Gem of 1952, Olivine of 1952 and Pearl of 1953, in dry dock at Tyne Dock Engineering Ltd. at South Shields. Coal cargoes from the Tyne to London or to the power stations of the South Coast of England would have been fixed for them after coming out of dry dock in the busy decade of the 1950s on the Tyne. The steam coasters Asteria, Nugget, Pearl, Pebble and Topaz went for scrap during this decade, and the last steam coasters, Beryl of 1924, Fluor of 1925 and Girasol of 1933 were sold off in 1958, the former to be scrapped at Troon and the latter two for further trading abroad. The fifteen motor coasters owned in 1960 had a total deadweight of 20,430 tonnes, giving an average of 1,362 dwt per coaster. The same size of fleet of fifteen motor ships was being traded during 1966 in Amber, Amethyst, Brilliant, Cameo (ex Gem of 1952), Emerald, Jacinth, Jade, Olivine, Pearl, Prase, Sapphire, Spinel, Topaz, Tourmaline and Turquoise. The Ailsa yard at Troon had built eight of these motorships, with Amber of 2,410 dwt built in 1956 as the first to relinquish the long quarterdeck design to give a four hold, two hatch, three mast design equipped with four slewing derricks of three tonnes capacity.

The environmentally hazardous dumping of radioactive waste in the North Atlantic was a very unusual charter for Topaz of 1962 and Gem of 1969 during the early 1970s. The United Kingdom had begun this horrific trade in 1948 and during the next thirty years dumped 74,052 tonnes of hazardous radioactive waste in fifteen sites in the North Atlantic and eighteen sites off the Continental Shelf of the British Isles. The radioactive waste included solids and liquids in sealed containers and reactor vessels, with or without spent or damaged nuclear fuel. This represented 35,088 TBq (Trillion Becquerel, an SI derived unit of radioactivity) of radioactivity. The dumping of high level radioactive material into the sea was banned by the London Convention of 1972, which came into force in 1975, and by International Treaty in 1983. Topaz was said by her crew to have become contaminated with radioactivity, but she survived this ordeal and was sold on to Turkish owners in the Thames in April 1982 and renamed Sutas. She was still reported as trading in 1994, and Gem continued trading for foreign owners after her sale from the British register in 1990 until she foundered in 1996 off Sardinia in the Mediterranean under the name of Anis Rose, so they apparently seemed none the worse for their hazardous and secret trade.

The Robertson fleet of Glasgow coasters was acquired by Powell Duffryn, the Welsh coal and industrial group, in October 1970, and eight of these motorships were integrated into the fleet of Stephenson Clarke Shipping Ltd. of Newcastle on 1st January 1978. These were Amethyst of 1958, Brilliant of 1958, Gem of 1969, Jade of 1967, Sapphire of 1966, Topaz of 1962, Tourmaline of 1962, and Turquoise of 1961. Gem of 2,950 dwt had been completed in October 1969 at Groningen in Holland for Gem Line Ltd., and Cairngorm of 3,440 dwt had been completed for Gem Line Ltd. by the Martin Jansen yard at Leer in Germany in May 1973, but was sold in 1977. Jade of 2,800 dwt and Turquoise of 1,675 dwt were the last pair of ships purchased second hand for Gem Line Ltd. in 1974/75. Turquoise had been managed as Kylebank by Robertsons from 1971 for the Kyle Shipping Co. Ltd. of Liverpool. At the time of their integration into the Stephenson Clarke Shipping fleet, the former Robertson coasters were all trading from Llanddulas with limestone.

After the integration of the Robertson fleet into Stephenson Clarke Shipping of Newcastle, ‘Gem’ names such as Amethyst, Gem, Jade, Topaz, Sapphire, Emerald, Sapphire, Tourmaline and Pearl regularly featured in their voyage lists. The last former Robertson coaster was sold out of the Newcastle fleet in 1990, this was Gem of 2,920 dwt completed in October 1969 at Groningen in Holland. A new Emerald of 3,860 dwt was completed by the Clelands yard on the Tyne in April 1978 and was used in a wide variety of North European and Baltic trades e.g. Antwerp to Liverpool with grain in February 1981, and Zeebrugge to Rostock in ballast to load coal in November 1989. Somersbydyke of 3,180 dwt was acquired by Stephenson Clarke Shipping in 1978 from the Klondyke Shipping Co. Ltd. of Hull and renamed Pearl in 1979, and was traded by the Newcastle shipping company for four years before being sold for further trading.

Two self trimming Spanish built and Spanish owned bulkers of 11,900 dwt, Guardo and Cardona, were purchased by Stephenson Clarke Shipping from Spanish operator Ership S.A. of Madrid in late 1992 and renamed Gem and Amethyst. They were used in Baltic trading e.g. from Ventspils (Latvia) to Landskrona (Sweden) or Gdynia to Hamburg with coal, and in the alumina trades to Blyth, or occasionally on the East Coast coal run to London. Gem was sold to Norwegian owners in 1998 and renamed Arendal Bay and is still in service today, while Amethyst was renamed Sea Amethyst by Stephenson Clarke Shipping in 1997. She loaded grain on the Tyne in September of that year, and later that year she loaded one of the last ever cargoes of ‘black diamonds’ to be shipped from the river.

Postscript

The big Robertson fleet of over 150 steam and motor coasters became very well known in all of the British coastal trades, but particularly in the Irish Sea. They could be identified by an unusual white horizontal bar painted beneath the bridge of the bridge ‘midships engines aft types, and underneath the aft accommodation of the ‘all aft’ types. The fleet covered a very long period of 140 years if one includes the years when the last motor coasters were operated in the Stephenson Clarke Shipping fleet of Newcastle.

The most frequently used ‘gem’ names in the Robertson fleet were Amethyst, Citrine, Olivine, Sapphire, Topaz and Turquoise. The mundane cargoes they carried are in sharp contrast to their exotic and valuable ‘gem’ names, and to the cargo of the Spanish galleon in the ‘Cargoes’ poem by John Masefield –

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds, emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores (Portuguese coins).