Chapter Two

The Whitehead Torpedo Factory
at Ferrybridge, Wyke Regis

The site chosen at Ferrybridge was on sloping meadowland of some 8 acres extent, overlooking the ancient "Portland Passage" at Smallmouth, where the swift tidal waters of the shallow Fleet lagoon flow into a sheltered corner of Portland Harbour. The site was wedged between the old roadway to Portland, and the newer Weymouth to Portland railway line, both of which were carried across the waters of the "Passage" on wooden stilted bridges, before running along the barren causeway leading to the Isle and Royal Manor of Portland.

The sale of the land was witnessed in a Conveyance, dated the 5th of March 1891, between the Right Honourable John Viscount Arbuthnott and others, to Robert Whitehead Esquire and others. The price was £1200 and included a cottage, along with a Covenant "that no explosive materials of any kind whatsoever shall be manufactured used or bought upon the said pieces of land .... or be used for the purpose of any noxious trade, or of any trade likely to cause a nuisance to adjoining estates". In February 1891 the Southern Times recorded that:
"Messrs. Hill and Co., who are at present constructing a new Admiralty Pier at Portland, have received a contract for erecting a Torpedo Manufactury near Ferrybridge, Wyke Regis, for Messrs Whitehead. The Contractor has taken possession of a house near the site for offices. Surveying and marking out has been done and the building is to be pushed forward rapidly, during the next few months, when the factory should be tenable. Arrangements have been made with the two Railway Companies for siding accommodation." The house near the site that was taken over as offices was called Beachcliff House, built in the early 1800's. On the l8th of April 1891 the Southern Times reported the laying of a Foundation Stone at the new Torpedo Works:" In a very quiet and unostentatious manner the foundation stone of these very important works was laid on Saturday morning by Mr. Whitehead's daughter, the Countess Hoyos. But very few persons were aware of the interesting ceremony, otherwise it would have attracted considerable attention. The erection of such works as are about to be constructed cannot fail to be of great benefit to Weymouth and therefore we hail with satisfaction the events that took place on Saturday. The proposed factory is situated on a piece of ground of large dimensions midway between Weymouth and Portland, very near to the Ferry Bridge. The contractors are Messrs Woodman, Hill, and Co., Engineers, &c., who have carried out some very large public works. The party present at the laying of the foundation stone consisted of the Countess Hoyos, Mr Whitehead, Mr Whitehead jun., Captain Gallwey, late of the Royal Navy (who is to have charge of the manufactury), Mr Woodman Hill, and Mr F. Hill. A marquee was erected and beneath this Mr Woodman Hill explained the plans of the proposed works. Just prior to the laying of the stone Mr Hill presented the Countess Hoyos with a very handsome silver trowel and bog-oak mallet, with which her ladyship expressed herself highly pleased. The trowel bore the following inscription: "Presented to the Countess Hoyos on the occasion of her laying the foundation stone of Messrs Whitehead's new torpedo factory at Portland Ferry Bridge, Wyke Regis, Dorset, on the llth of April 1891, by W. Hill & Co., engineers and contractors."

The inscription on the mallet was "Presented to the Countess Hoyos by W. Hill & Co., llth April 1891". In a cavity in the understone were deposited a sealed bottle containing two or three small coins, a Jubilee shilling and half crown, and a copy of the London Times (weekly edition), Evening Standard and Southern Times. Mr Hill having placed some mortar on the lower stone, the Countess spread it, and the foundation stone was then lowered, placed in position, upon which her ladyship tapped it at the four corners and said "I declare this stone well and truely laid and I wish all good luck and prosperity to the new torpedo works." This announcement was hailed with cheers by the workmen, who afterwards gave cheers for the Countess Hoyos, Messrs Whitehead and Co., and the contractors. After the ceremony the party was conducted by Mr Hill over the site of the proposed works and the principle points explained, this lasting for nearly an hour.
We have been favoured by the contractor for the following particulars respecting the proposed factory: The works will be of a very extensive character, covering at least four or five acres of land and their construction will cost several thousands of pounds. The buildings will include workshops, smithies, foundry, engine and boiler house, offices, &c. The turnery will be 400ft. by 40ft.; there will be two wings for lathes, fittings and stores, 300ft. by 35ft; and the smithy will be 220ft. by 30ft. There will be a chimney stack 70 feet high. There will be a siding from the railway and a subway leading to a pier 1100 yards from the shore, at the extremity of which there will be 20 feet of water at low water ordinary spring tides. 
The whole of the building will be of a permanent character, being brick built and slated. The works will be pushed on at once, as it is hoped to commence the manufacture of torpedoes within four months".

In June it was reported that "The works near the Ferrybridge in connection with the building being erected for Messrs Whitehead are progressing satisfactorily. It would be a highly beneficial thing for the travelling public if the same could be said of the Ferry Bridge itself." This was a reference to the poor state of the existing bridge, which was over 50 years old, and the heavy tolls being levied on travellers. 
There was already considerable pressure to improve the telegraphy link with Ferrybridge. The Southern Times noted in May 1891 that:
"it is understood steps are being taken for the almost immediate connection of Wyke with the telegraph system. Considering the great number of messages that have to be sent by delivery from Weymouth this is certainly a step in the right direction. Not only throughout the year are messages by telegraph constant, but during a busy fishing season the number would surprise any one outside the circle. The telephone is already and has been for some time at work between the Weymouth Port Sanitary Hospital (near the Ferry Bridge) and Weymouth, so that half the work is already done as regards uprights." Building the Factory must have gone according to plan, for by the end of 1891 it had been completed, and Count Hoyos wrote to his wife that "the Weymouth business is certain to succeed and the expenses are far lower than expected. £50,000 will cover all, machines included, and the place will be as big, as useful, and as important as the Fiume one". In his "Tourist Guide to the Isle of Portland", published in 1892, George Lilley, the Medical Officer at the Convict Prison on Portland was able to write that the Portland Torpedo Works were:
"situated on the opposite side of the railway near Ferrybridge, and are owned by Messrs Whitehead and Company who are proprietors of large works at Fiume in Hungary. The work carried out here is the manufacture of the Whitehead torpedo, the invention of Mr. Robert Whitehead. The principal shops in the works are the turnery, 400 feet by 40 feet and fitting shop 300 feet by 35 feet. There are also engine rooms, smithies and foundries. The works are capable of turning out 200 torpedoes a year and can employ about 400 men. The pier in connection is 1,060 yards long and terminates in a house built on piles. From this house the torpedoes are launched, when they are being tried, and adjusted. Targets are moored at 400, 600, and 800 yards distant from the house and the torpedoes pass under these targets and their speed is ascertained by men on the targets signalling as the torpedo passes each in succession. The object of the pier is to transport the torpedoes along from the works to the testing house, and the pier had to be long enough to project into not less than 20 feet of water at Low Water Spring Tides as this depth is required for adjusting a torpedo. The Contractors for the pier and buildings were Messrs Hill and Company of Bury Works, Gosport, the machinery being supplied by various firms in the north of England. Date of erection 1891".
Other evidence suggests that initial progress at the Ferrybridge Works was modest, as not only had the factory to be built, but machinery had to be installed and skilled labour brought into Wyke Regis. The techniques of manufacturing a new product also had to be gradually acquired and modifications incorporated, because at Fiume, Robert Whitehead continued to modify and improve the designs of his torpedoes. Unfortunately, in 1894 the Royal Navy decided that it had sufficient facilities of its own at the Royal Gun Factory to produce all of its torpedo requirements and this left the Ferrybridge Factory without its main customer. From then on, until the start of the first world war, the Factory managed to keep busy by selling its torpedoes on the international market.
These early "Weymouth" torpedoes were both 14" and 18" in diameter, and they could reach speeds of up to 20 knots, for distances of some 1000 yards. In 1895 came the first significant improvement to the torpedo since its invention, when Whitehead introduced the gyroscope for azimuth control, adopting an invention by Ludwig Obry, an Austrian. This resulted in the bearing accuracy being dramatically improved, to achieve an error of less than half a degree. These improvements may have contributed to the Royal Navy's realisation that the single breakwater arm of Portland Harbour no longer gave their ships sufficient protection from attack by torpedoes and in 1896 a start was made on two new breakwater arms nearer to the mainland.
Finding sufficient skilled engineering staff to work at the Ferrybridge Factory presented its problems in the early days and many men were recruited from outside the district. In order to accommodate them, the triangular terraced rows of Ferrybridge Cottages were built and a separate terrace of somewhat larger houses was constructed for the Foremen, some two hundred yards away along the Portland Road.
In the very early days the centre of the triangle was called the net drying area - presumably because the torpedo catching nets were laid out to dry there. The first occupiers of the cottages must have had an unpleasant time, for the early Parish Council minutes record that the houses smelt very badly in hot weather, because the builder had used sewage water when mixing the mortar.
Although the building of the Ferrybridge Works was beginning to have a significant impact on Wyke Regis, it was only part of a general expansion that was taking place in the Weymouth and Portland area during the second half of the l9th Century. In 1857 the railway line had arrived at Weymouth and by 1865 it had been extended to Portland; there was a great deal of house building going on, particularly in the Park district and at Westham; the Nothe Fort had been completed in 1872, along with the first arm of the Portland Harbour Breakwater. In Wyke Regis the new Port Sanitary (Isolation) Hospital had been opened in 1880, at Ferrybridge.

As with today, the indigenous Wykeites did not always welcome the new intrusions, particularly at "Smallmouth", which had been used for centuries as a base for fishing in the Fleet and the waters of the Portland Roads. The building of the new railway viaduct had displaced some of the local fishing boats and the building of the Whitehead Factory, with a boat launching ramp between the two bridges and a long pier stretching out into Portland Harbour, threatened to displace even more fishing boats. However, the promise of additional well paid jobs overcame local objection.
A view of the Works, taken around 1895, shows the main entrance gate, with Beachcliff House and its stables on the right. The stables were eventually used to garage the early Works automobiles. To the left of the entrance gate is the building that housed the General Managers office and in the background is the Whitehead Pier that stretched out over 1000 yards to reach deep water. A substantial hut was built at the end of the pier to carry out final torpedo preparations and to house compressed air generators. Torpedoes were transported through the factory and out along the pier on small carriages, running on a very narrow gauge rail line. The carriages were either pushed by hand, or driven by a compressed air motor, presumably adapted from a torpedo. The torpedoes could either be fired from impulse tubes, one of which is visible on the left of the pier, or loaded onto suitable firing vessel using a crane situated at the end of the pier. By 1898 a new firing range at Bincleaves, some two miles along the foreshore, was in use, with torpedoes being fired across Weymouth Bay. This arrangement lasted until 1934, when a new range was built on the middle arm of Portland Breakwater.
Some of the very early Whitehead torpedoes were test fired from a steam pinnace, manned by Royal Navy "bluejackets". After loading into a swinging arm bracket, the torpedo was charged with compressed air from a pipe fed from ashore. When firing the torpedo, the bracket was swung over the side of the boat.

Apart from the major participants, very little is recorded about the early workers at the Ferrybridge Factory. The first General Manager was Captain Edwin Payne Gallwey (after whom Gallwey Road, in Wyke Regis, is named) and he had a Mr Turner as his Works Manager. An intriguing group photograph exists of what appears to be senior employees of the Company on a summer outing at the turn of the century. Writing on the back of the original photograph, still held at the Works, identifies Captain Gallwey as the bearded gentleman seated in the centre of the group. Other names recorded are Mr Brown, A. C. Weaver, A. Holmes, Dick Lumley, Bob Ashworth, T. Towns, Jimmy Blakey, Bill Sharp and Ned Hoggs. Another attractive old photograph shows a group of bowler hatted foremen posing outside the Number 9 Shop with their torpedoes. The only man identified is Mr. Dowding (rear extreme right) who was Manager of the Foundry. Mr Dowding was a Freemason of some standing and it may be that there was a strong connection between the Masons and senior factory employees.

As the Factory slowly established itself and the number of workers grew, so did their need for houses in Wyke Regis - along with shops, schools, churches and places to drink and relax. New houses sprang up at Broadmeadow, Parkmead Road, Gallwey Road, High Street, South Road, Victoria Road, Sunnyside Road, Williams Avenue and Fair View. The School in Victoria Road was built by Whitehead in 1897 in order to educate the workers children.
The ancient New Inn, in Chamberlaine Road was converted into a social club and became the Whitehead Social Institute. Challenge matches were arranged against other Clubs, despite the difficulties of travel. In March 1901 the Institute was visited by the members of the North Portland Conservative Club to play matches of billiards, draughts, whist, cribbage, euchre and skittles. The Wykeites lost all but the skittles and afterwards the teams adjourned to the Parish Rooms for tea and a smoking concert, when "a large number of songs were contributed by those present."
Other major buildings erected in Wyke around that time were the Wyke Regis Liberal Club in Victoria Road (now the Wyke Working Mens Club, the Wesleyan Chapel in Portland Road and the Wyke Hotel. Robert Whitehead encouraged the building of many of these edifices and contributed £30 towards the building of the Primitive Methodist New Chapel in Gallwey Road.

By the end of the nineteenth century the fame of Robert Whitehead and his Torpedo Factory at Wyke Regis had spread across the land and on the 4th of April 1902 King Edward VII paid a visit to the Works. Again the Southern Times was there to record the event:
"His Majesty put off in his barge from his yacht at 3.30 pm and was received at the Pier end by the firm's representative, Captain Payne Gallwey. He was accompanied by Lord Colville of Culross, the Right Honourable St. John Brodrick, Captain Lampton and several other distinguished noblemen and gentlemen. The Royal party here witnessed the firing of several torpedoes, which was carried out in the ordinary way for testing at the range and they were evidently greatly interested. The long distance from the pier end to the works was traversed on the miniature compressed air locomotive used by the officials of the works and the King evidently enjoyed the novelty of this somewhat exciting ride. Captain Gallwey manipulated the locomotive and His Majesty alighted at the entrance to the works and proceeded to examine the machine with no little curiosity.

Mr. Frank Dodd, the Manager, was waiting at the entrance and was the recipient of very gracious recognition from the King as he proceeded to direct the operation of setting in motion the machinery of a torpedo lashed in a tank. This operation is commonly performed for the testing of the internal mechanism and as this particular torpedo is run at full pressure, a surprising revelation is manifested to the uninitiated of the tremendous power stored up in it. Nearly all the departments were visited and inspected in turn and His Majesty asked many questions of Captain Payne Gallwey and Mr Dodd on various points of detail connected with torpedo manufacture. Particular interest was evinced in the gyroscope and the manufacture and working of this important addition to the torpedo was fully explained. A number of employees had the honour of showing their particular work to His Majesty during his progress through the establishment. At five o'clock Captain Payne Gallwey again drove him to the Pier end, his suite following on foot, as on their arrival. Work went on as usual during the King's visit and no demonstration was made, in strict accordance with his expressed desire. A few of the villagers, however, had been keeping a good lookout on the movements of the Royal barge and when they saw it heading for the Pier, the news of the King's visit spread so that there were about 100 persons in the vicinity of the works on his departure. The officials and employees are justifiably proud of the honour done to them by the royal visit to the leading centre of industry in this little village in South Dorset."
King Edward VII would have seen an 18 inch diameter Mk II Whitehead torpedo, 5 metres long, such as the one shown in the diagram. The pistol or percussion firing mechanism consisted of a striker armed with whiskers to ensure engagement with the skin of an enemy vessel, should the torpedo strike a glancing blow. The head was formed of phosphor-bronze sheet and contained the explosive charge of damp gun-cotton with a dry gun-cotton primer and a cap. 

The cap was fired when the striker was driven back by contact with the target. The air vessel was a steel flask capable of working at pressures of 150 atmospheres and the air was delivered to the engine via a pressure regulator. The engine was of the three cylinder type and the exhaust air was led away to the aft end extremity through a hollow engine shaft. The engine shaft was carried through the tail section to the left and right hand propellers, driven at the same speed but in opposite directions, to prevent rotation of the torpedo due to torque reaction. There was also a depth control mechanism, and a gyroscopic steering device.
Right from the start the workforce was very active in forming groups for entertainment, recreation and sports, although it is not known when the Sports and Athletics Club was formally established. The event that the early workers of Whitehead's always made a major contribution towards was the Weymouth Carnival procession, with the funds raised being given to the Weymouth and District Hospital. A series of photographs showing several carnival floats making their way along Portland Road was published in the June 1900 edition of "The Navy and Army Illustrated". One photograph depicts "The Largest Torpedo Ever Made" and the float was manned by officials and artisans from the Whitehead Factory. In the background can be seen the Isolation Hospital, which is now an integral part of a Holiday Park. Older residents maintain that a lot of the Hospital patients died of some pretty nasty illnesses and were buried in the immediate vicinity.
The second picture shows a carnival float called "A Model of the Powerful" and it was manned by sailors of the Royal Navy. The new row of Ferrybridge Cottages, built alongside Portland Road for the workers at the Factory, can be seen on the left in the background.
Walking and cycling were popular pastimes and on Saturday 25th of July 1903 a "Whitehead's Walk" was arranged, with competitors starting from the Wyke Hotel at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, walking via Weymouth to Dorchester and back to the King's Statue. There is no record of which of the thirty competitors won the first prize of £33.0.0, given by Messrs Whitehead & Co. and presented by Captain Payne Gallwey. Captain Gallwey seems to have played a leading role in the life of Wyke Regis, for he was also a Churchwarden of All Saints Church. Football was the most popular sport at the Works and undoubtedly the first sport organised by the workers, for as early as the l2th of December 1891 Messrs Whitehead and Co. played a Weymouth Second Eleven, at Wyke, probably on a pitch laid out in the fields of Lyndale, on the opposite side of Portland Road.
There were some extremely successful Whitehead sides in the early years, with the most successful season being 1896-97, which was also the first year of the Dorset League competition. Weymouth football historian, Joe Townsend, dug into his copious records to provided the following information about early Whitehead teams:

"The first year of the Dorset League has not only thoroughly tested the usefulness of the (League) competition, but it has proved that it can live side-by-side with the three existing cup competitions, which do not appear to have materially suffered by the diversion of interest. There has been a good deal of in and out form, but this remark will certainly not apply to the Whitehead's football team who have not lost a single game and well deserve the title of First Champions of the League. 
Their record is one to be proud of - Played 14; Won 12; Drawn 2; Lost 0; Points 26. To commemorate their achievement a heavy plaque was cast in the Works foundry and it is now in the possession of Mr Townsend". The players in that season were Lewis (Goalkeeper), R. Weaver and J. Weaver (Fullbacks), J. Tailor, J.Newport, McGinn, S. Boardman (Halfbacks); Christmas, Hamlin, G. Boarman, J. McHugh, Stubbins, Emsly, Copestake, Gunsley (Forwards). Several players were selected to play for the Dorset County.

In April 1898 Whitehead's won the Dorset Senior Cup, playing Weymouth College in front of a crowd of 1100 spectators and in 1900-1901 they won it again, beating Poole 2-1 on Dorchester's Ground in front of a crowd of some 900 people. Their winger, Sargent, played for the County sixteen times. The next year the Whitehead "Reds" lost to Poole 2-0 in the final, but in 1904-O5 they defeated their old rivals Weymouth 5-1 before 1500 spectators, on Dorchester's Recreation Ground. The Whitehead line-up was Penn, Mitchell, McKendrick, Gordon, Barron, Le-Petit, Sargent, Hicks, Bird, Bown, and Williams.
In the 1907-08 season Whitehead's won the Dorset League, only losing one game. They also won the Dorset Senior Cup by beating Longfleet St.Marys 2-0 in the final - a record that any team would be proud to own.

With the Ferrybridge Works well established in England, Robert Whitehead, now almost eighty years of age, decided to take his eldest son, John, into full partnership, along with his Hungarian son-in-law, Count George Hoyos and the business traded as Whitehead and Company. When Whitehead retired to Paddockhurst, his home in Berkshire, in the late 1890's, John Whitehead took control of the Company, but he unexpectedly died in 1902 and Count Georg Hoyas was forced to re-assume a leading role in running the Whitehead empire. Unfortunately the strain quickly told and he died in 1904, leaving Captain Payne Gallwey in virtual control of the whole organisation. Captain Gallwey was assisted in his efforts by a talented young Scottish engineer called A. E. (Fiume) Jones, who was destined to spend much of his later career at the Ferrybridge Works, designing and building torpedoes.

In 1905 the Americans placed a large torpedo order at the Ferrybridge Works, which secured its immediate future. In the same year the business was incorporated under Hungarian law, with titles in four languages, the English title being Whitehead and Company Limited, with a capital of 7,350,000 Austrian Crowns, in 735 shares of 10,000 Crowns each. It was also in 1905, in a Conveyance dated lst November, that Robert Whitehead signed over his share of the Company to his successors. A map of the premises which was included in the Deeds shows that the factory site had virtually assumed its final form, along with the triangular shaped Ferrybridge Cottages and the Foremans houses further along Portland Road at West View. The Company also owned two small parcels of land in the old village area, at High Street and in Shrubbery Lane. A few days later, on Tuesday, the l4th November 1905, at the age of eighty two, Robert Whitehead died. His death was reported in almost every magazine and newspaper in the world. In Britain the papers made much of the fact that, despite his great achievements, he had never been honoured by his native land, despite having received high awards from nine other appreciative countries.

The Company seemed as though it would continue to prosper, despite Whitehead's death, because it was in the capable hands of Captain Gallwey. However, when he died suddenly in 1906 it meant that none of the original team of experienced engineers and managers were now alive and the remaining members of the Whitehead family became increasingly concerned about the Company's future and they began to cast about for prospective buyers. Fortunately the British Admiralty were also concerned that such a great Company should not fall under the control of a foreign Government. Their solution was to drop a strong hint that the Company was for sale, to Sir Trevor Dawson, Managing Director of Vickers and to Sir George Armstrong, of Armstrong Whitworth and Co. Ltd.