BARO

BARO

Postby teesships » Tue Jul 26, 2016 6:04 pm

See: http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/harkess/baro1908.htm

I posted the following on TEESSHIPS in May 2001:

I was quite intrigued recently to hear from an Alexander Harkess, particularly as he was providing a personal link with the Tees past. His great great grandfather was the Harkess of W. Harkess & Son (was he the father or son?), shipbuilders for many years in the Dock Point area of Middlesbrough.

Alexander kindly sent this postcard of one of their ship, the BARO.
0506baro.jpg

Turning to THE ELDER DEMPSTER FLEET HISTORY 1852-1985 by James E. Cowden and John O. C. Duffy we find that the BARO was yard no. 174, 957 gross tons, built for Elder Dempster of Liverpool. She was fitted with four passenger cabins off the saloon under the poop.

After running trials on 23 March 1908 she was transferred to British & African Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. the following June and, on 29 December 1919, renamed ILORIN. In 1932 she was laid up in Badagri Creek and, on 3 May 1933, dismantled and scuttled off Lagos. We are told that Baro is a town on the river Niger, 65 miles above Lokoja.

There was a second BARO in the Elder Dempster fleet from 1950-1961.

**********

According to Mitchell & Sawyer in their BRITISH STANDARD SHIPS OF WORLD WAR 1 the Harkess yard ceased building in 1922. A lot more detail is given by William Lillie in his HISTORY OF MIDDLESBROUGH. Briefly, he relates that William Harkess came to Middlesbrough in 1853. Between 1856 and 1902 Harkess built 160 vessels in wood, iron and steel including high speed passenger as well as cargo vessels. William Harkess died on 25 April 1886 and was succeeded by his son William, born in Middlesbrough 1860 and who was Mayor in 1911.

They also took over from Mr Arnold Bennett a boat-building and repairing establishment on the Port Clarence side of the river. In addition they used the T.C.C. Graving Dock for sundry repair work, a profitable sideline.

Their yard had three building berths, and served by sidings to the North Eastern Railway. The largest ship they built was one of 4,400 deadweight tons for Ellerman. They built coasters for Coast Lines and colliers for the local Constantine company. During WW1 two types of Harkess coasters were used as prototypes for standard vessels.

At the end of the war Mr Harkess, then in failing health, sold the shipyard as a going concern to a Frenchman Monsieur Hani. Unfortunately, they were immediately faced with the slump in ship-building and in 1923, owing to pressure from the Income Tax authorities for unpaid tax, the company went into voluntary liquidation. The yard was sold to Sir Charles Parsons and, subsequently, the National Shipbuilders Security Corporation took over and closed the yard.

During WW2 the sites were used by Tees-side Bridge and Engineering Co. (and possibly others) for the production of tank-landing craft.

Ron
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