Building ships

Each week, Nick (at work) checks through my work and adds things for me to work on. Sometimes this doesn’t amount to much (and some weeks he doesn’t even get time) and then, like this week, there’s a lot for me to do.

Two weeks ago, I did some research on a shipbuilder called Lobnitz. This came as a result of his shipbuilding company Lobnitz & Co Ltd. The company went through almost as many changes as the Thames Iron Works.

He originally joined a company called Henderson, Coulborn & Co (1861-1874), which had started life as James Henderson & Son (1847-1861). Lobnitz was very good at his shipbuilding and soon became a partner and, following the death of Henderson, the company changed its name to Lobnitz, Coulborn & Co (1874-1890). Eventually he took over everything and, naturally, renamed the company Lobnitz & Co (1890-1896). Like so many other companies, he then took advantage of the Companies Act, and turned his company into a limited liability one, calling it Lobnitz & Co. Ltd (1896-1976).

That sounds so easy and concise but it took me most of the day to unravel the various strings and find out everything…well, almost everything. I then had to create separate People records for the various companies rather than one, all-encompassing one. Very satisfying.

Following my Lobnitz success, I then had a go at Barclay, Curle & Co. This was a lot easier.

By the end of the day, I was working on a guy who patented a new and better type of boiler, who worked for Palmers’ Shipbuilders in Newcastle. It made a change to move to the Tyne as I’d been stuck on the Clyde for the last month. I didn’t finish by the time I left so I have that to look forward to next week.

The trains, on the way home, were a bit messed up because of flooding at Southampton. Now, you’d think this would have very little effect on the Alton line but, that is not so. Trains to Alton were replaced with the trains, originally going to Southampton and, therefore, started from Woking. This meant catching a Fratton train to Woking and changing. It didn’t make us late or cause us much irritation, really. It was just very, very odd.

It was lovely to see Mirinda again and we celebrated with fish and chips for tea.