Wordsworth Technical Specification

The three Glover Brothers became ship owners in 1865 when they purchased the barque W. E. Gladstone. S.J. Glover purchased his first steamer in 1872 and registered it and another four in West Hartlepool. He also had shares in other ships. Septimus joined his brothers and the company became Glover Brothers and Co. The business was transferred to London and continued until 1936 when their last two ships were sold.

Family History:

Septimus Jonathan Glover was born on 21 February 1834 at South Shields. He married Elizabeth Ann Briggs in April 1858 at Stockton-on-Tees.  By 1861 the couple were living at Seaton Carew with their two daughters. Septimus was listed in the census as a bookkeeper to a coal company.  By 1871 they were living at Stranton with their three daughters and four sons. By 1881 the family had moved to Aberdeen Park, Highbury, Middlesex with Septimus now a shipbroker. He died on 2 August 1908 at Aberdeen Park aged 74 leaving effects of £118,630.

This section will, in time, contain the stories of more than 450 merchant ships built or owned in the Hartlepools, and which were lost during the First World War. As an illustration of the truly global nature of shipbuilding, these ships were owned by companies from 22 different countries, including more than 30 sailing under the German flag at the outbreak of war.

Northern Daily Mail, Thursday, February 4^th, 1915.

Launch at West Hartlepool

Messrs. William Gray and Company Limited, yesterday launched the handsome steel-screw steamer ‘Wordsworth’, which they have built for the Shakespear Steam Shipping Company, Limited, London.

She will take the highest class in Lloyd’s Register, and is of the following dimensions: Length overall 354ft 6ins; breadth, 49ft; and depth, 25ft 5ins., with extra long bridge, poop and forecastle.

The saloon, staterooms, captain’s, officers’ and engineers’ rooms, etc. are in houses on the bridge deck, the crew’s berths in the forecastle, and apprentices’ room and hospital in the poop.

The hull is built with deep bulb-angle frames, and has large clear holds, cellular double bottom, and fore peak and aft peak ballast tanks, nine steam winches, steam steering gear amidships, screw steering gear aft, direct steam windlass, large horizontal multi-tubular donkey boiler, shifting boards throughout, boats on deck overhead, stockless anchors, telescopic masts with fore and aft rig, and all requirements for a first-class steamer.

Triple-expansion engines are being supplied by the Central Marine Engine Works of the builders, having cylinders 24½ins., 40ins., and 65ins. Diameter, with a stroke of 42ins., and two large steel boilers for a working pressure of 180lbs per square inch. The engine-room auxiliaries include an evaporator and feed and ballast pumps, all of the “CMEW” type.

The ship and machinery have been built under the superintendence of Mr. J.S.Bonnyman, on behalf of the owners.