Stormont Womens’ Probus
Lagan Legacy makes a presentation to Stormont Womens’ Probus
On a beautiful sunny afternoon Charlie Warmington, Lagan Legacy's writer and research speaks to Probus Womens' Probus in Knock Golf Club. His presentation begins with a proud mention of one of Northern Ireland's greatest writers.
I once had the privilege of working on a documentary with the stepson of one of Belfast’s rightly internationally acclaimed icon’s - literary genius, Christian apologist, man of faith, academic, pipe smoking, pint drinking C.S.Lewis, who grew up with Belfast Lough framed in his bedroom window, and thereafter in his mind’s eye. His stepson Douglas Gresham was the boy child of Joy Gresham whom Lewis married late in life – and who died of cancer – a very harrowing, if famously helpful story which C.S. penned so eloquently in that wonderful book “The problem of Pain”. A titanic tome if ever there was one.Lewis was well soaked in his homeland’s maritime heritage. “The sound of a steamer’s horn at night still conjures up my whole boyhood,” he wrote in “The Problem of pain” adding “My memory is stored with ships side images to a degree unusual for such an untravelled man.” He used ships, and analogies of ships, constantly throughout his work, and to the best of my knowledge, never mentioned Titanic. Even to describe the two most important things in his life, his faith and his marriage, he turned to ships. “It is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us,” he wrote, again in the Problem of Pain. And when his beloved Joy Gresham passed away– “Marriage is as one ship, which must chug along on a single engine after the death of one’s spouse,” he penned in “A Grief Observed.”For our documentary we asked his stepson Douglas Gresham the obvious question about his stepfather – what was it like to live in the shadow of a huge character like C.S.Lewis? Gresham replied with an answer I still consider to be one of my most memorable moments of reporting – “I don’t live in his shadow,” he said, “I bask in his glow!” This, I suggest, is what we should be doing with Titanic. Gresham wrote a biography about C.S., and got on with his own, very creative life, and has helped many thousands of authors and artists – and me – to face the reality of their professions, of work, and faith.
This is the kind of attitude we need for Titanic.
It is hard but work, it’s a new way of thinking - it’s an attempt to save our actual history – our real history which included the Titanic, yes, but there was so much more than her– the people who built the other ships, an armada of them, and our memories of those people, their diaries and notes and quotes and anecdotes.
The gaps in Belfast’s industrial heritage are everywhere. Everything is being knocked down or ignored.Darwin’s origin of the species attempted to trace the evolution of mankind. The evolution of Belfast could well be called “The Origin of the Spaces”!If Titanic hadn’t happened, Belfast would still have been one of the mightiest maritime cities in the world. Indeed, with great respect – the city might have become an even bigger nautical name. The people who remember our one ship, Titanic, often remember the name Harland and Wolff, and that’s about it. But Harland and Wolff can boast of countless innovative maritime inventions, nautical records and sea-going firsts. These ocean going feats have never been properly documented. How many feats in a yard?Harland and Wolff’s endearingly nicknamed “Belfast bottom” was known to shipping magnates everywhere; it was a new high efficiency ship’s hull design, perfected and patented in Belfast, and copied for years by ship builders all over the world. Another great feat by Harland and Wolff was The White Star Line’s Belfast built Oceanic, the first vessel to surpass the dimensions of the acclaimed Great Eastern. The Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic were each, in turn, the biggest man made moving objects on planet earth. The tanker Myrina was the largest in the world at the time, and the largest vessel ever launched down a slipway. The semi-submersible drilling rig Sea Quest, due to its three-legged design, was launched down three parallel slipways. This was a first and last time this was ever done. The cranes, Samson and Goliath, were the world’s biggest, and the Alexandra and Thompson dry docks were in turn the biggest on earth. And there were many more historic world beating accomplishments in Harland and Wolff, and a lot more yards too.Concurrent with Harland and Wolff being the biggest shipbuilder in the world, the city’s other yard Workman Clarke was the second biggest, and down the centuries there were another dozen. There’s a list of ships owned by Belfast merchants dated 1663, including vessels of up to 50 tons. After which came William Ritchie’s yard with his 300 ton Hibernian launched in 1792. Which expanded into Ritchie and McClaine. Then came Coates and Young, Charles Connell and Sons, Kirwan and McCune, Thompson and Kirwan and more to boot. Give or take a few minor qualifications, down the years Belfast also boasted some of world’s greatest linen mills, soap factories, rope works, and thread works. Her potteries, glassworks, gasworks, tea factories, cigarette producers and brickworks were national if not international leaders. The city’s vast vaulted underground sewage system was revolutionary, her huge industrial ventilation systems were second to none, similarly her aircraft, trains, bridges, oil rigs and much more; all curiously underplayed.I suggest one reason might be because of a magnificent but sad single ship – currently underneath the Atlantic. Today’s Belfast is a city striding proudly into an exciting new era after suffering thirty vacuous years of sadness and tragedy. Humble heroes, many of whom may never be acknowledged, have worked relentlessly to reconstruct life in our unique and very special place; very special because of its characters and characteristics – its people, places, past and present. I suggest that some of the most special of all were, and are, the shipyard workers, their related tradesmen, craftsmen, sea farers and management. Theirs’ was a miracle rarely worked, if ever, on any river in the world. And who remembers them? The top owners and managers too seem virtually unknown in the city they as good as built! I took to the streets of Belfast a while ago to interview passers by about their nautical history.We journalists call this task “Vox pops”. It used to be a tradition for a trainee ‘cub’ reporter to hit the streets to learn their trade, and three decades ago, as such a cub, my confrontations with the public were never very comforting.At the height (or depth) of the troubles, and asking people how they viewed bigotry, one lady smiled at me and suggested that she was all for it; it would be great, she said, having half a dozen husbands! Regarding our maritime heritage, I was asking shoppers asking if they knew the names of our more renowned shipbuilders; my opening question to people on the street was “Who owns/owned Belfast’s most famous shipyard?” Unsurprisingly, all but one got the surnames right and the lady who didn’t was from Dublin. On being faced with the date that the yard started a few managed ‘here and there’ during the 1800s, and I terminated that question with the man who answered 1690. Though as I’ve said earlier, a list of Lagan built ships owned by Belfast merchants goes back to 1663. On the matter of Harland and Wolff building anything else but ships some thought maybe they built other things, several rightly mentioned oil rigs and floating docks, two were bang on with bridges, and I can’t confirm the plausibility of paintbrushes being constructed on Queen’s Island though I wouldn’t be surprised! On being asked the full names of Messrs Harland and Wolff there were a smattering of Samuels, William, Billy and intriguingly “One of them was Eastern European, wasn’t he?” but no one got Edward James Harland and the German Gustav Wilhelm Wolff. With regard to there ever being any other shipyards on the Lagan it emerged that few passers by really knew, except a 60 year old male health worker who rightly said “There’s a Clarke rattling about in my head!” ; presumably Workman Clarke.A professional lady in her fifties knew Workman Clarke’s misnomer – “The wee yard” – as I’ve said, it was very big indeed - and apparently there was once a shipyard in Lisburn. A smidgen of truth – they once built a lot of barges there. A very sad minority – zero - knew any other names of people connected to shipbuilding. One 55 year old self employed East Belfast man suggested Leonardo DiCaprio, and another joker in the pack, when I reminded him of Thomas Andrews, replied “Of course, and his liver salts!” Speculation on the actual number of shipyard workers fared better, with over three quarters of the poll hitting relatively close to home, or to within a few tens of thousands of the peak of forty thousand men. “Any women?” I asked a guy, he answered “Not at the moment, but I never lose hope!” Most guessed that upholstery departments, drawing offices and secretarial positions would have been inhabited by the female of the species, and I wasn’t sure what the Dublin lady was angling at when she suggested there were lots of ladies working as “rivet catchers”! At the end of my straw poll I asked the slightly irreverent question - “Who would you choose to run a shipyard today?” My pollsters clutched at short straws blowing in the wind, and Bono and Bob Geldoff featured noticeably. Retrospectively, not a bad choice; Belfast was certainly a number one in her day! The top twenty is a useful link at this stage. Remember the Supremes; Diana Ross and the Supremes?? Can any one name the other two? This is where Titanic, Weapon of Mass Distraction comes into her own. Because there were two others – as big, as innovative, as well built, as supreme – and with amazing stories to tell – but very few people here, and only the real fanatics around the world – can tell you anything about the other two Olympic Class Liners – the Olympic herself, launched before the Titanic, and the Britannic, launched after the Titanic. And each was a big story. Olympic was originally a bigger story than Titanic, preceding her sister as the biggest man made moving object in the world. Olympic first made her name at sea in 1914 when she was ordered to evacuate the crew of a British Battleship Audacious which had struck a mine. In 1915 the SS Olympic returned to Harland & Wolff to prepare for war. As a troop carrier she successfully ferried many thousands of soldiers to and from their duties, saving many others from stricken vessels on the way. In 1918, after careful strategic planning by her skipper, the Olympic rammed the German U boat U103 and sank her. When the war ended British troops were still posted all over the world and Olympic continued to make the round trips to bring troops home. By 1920 she was refitted as a transatlantic Liner and in June a celebration party was held on board on to mark the return of the "Old Reliable". She was on her way to New York on 26th June 1920. Olympic proved to be more popular than ever. Passengers enjoyed her swimming pools and Turkish baths, and Charlie Chaplin loved the card games in her smoking room. In 1933 the Olympic smashed into the Nantucket Lightship totally destroying it. After almost one quarter of a century in service she was auctioned off. There were 4,456 lots. The general public could not view the items but only read descriptions in a catalogue - which cost two shillings and six pence.The third Supreme sister, the Britannic was launched in 1914 but on the outbreak of war was converted into a hospital ship with over 3,000 beds. After hugely successful and life saving voyages, in 1916 she ran into a German laid mine field (though some speculate torpedoes) and was racked by an enormous explosion. A small number died in the ensuing mayhem and survivors were picked up by escorting destroyers. At almost 50,000 tons she was the largest British Merchant Service war loss.