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Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the circumstances through which the contract to build HMS Thunderer, the last major warship built on the Thames, came to be awarded to Thames Iron Works in 1909. It combines a study of the company and its political supporters with an examination of salience of naval issues in the contemporary political environment; in both the east end of London and the country at large.

It argues that Thames Iron Works survived the longest of the Thames shipbuilders because it was the biggest; but that it was still too small to effectively build capital ships in the twentieth century. That it was able to do so, only once before failing, was because of a unique combination of local – Liberal and labour - political support and the circumstances of January 1910 General Election, in which naval armaments were used as weapons on the hustings by Liberal politicians in their battles with their Conservative opponents.

That election enabled the continuation of a Liberal Government which radically changed the nature of the British state. This study demonstrates that its naval policy should not be seen as an adjunct to that reforming programme, to be studied in isolation. It shows, on the contrary, that the navy was at the heart of the case made to ‘the people’, nationally and in a particular locale, and an important part of why it was successful.

Course: Naval History - MA - C2457P

Date Deposited: 2023-10-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14205.html