Green Blackwall Collection

The items relating to shipbuilding include lists of East India ships, 1715-1803; an account of materials and costs, circa 1740; a record of work performed at the Blackwall Yard in the period 1746-1818; dimensions of ships built, 1803-1860; some business letters, 1874; and various technical notebooks. The shipowning interests of the Green family are represented by an account of voyages of East India Company ships, 1836-1860; and bills of sale for vessels, 1839-1870.

The family and legal papers include a register of title deeds and other papers relating to property in the Poplar and Blackwall area circa 1779-1831; papers relating to the division of the Blackwall Yard, 1837-1843; and copies of wills (or part wills), 1751-1877. There is also a diagram showing the ancestry of the Green, Napier and Perry families.

Two items relate in particular to Henry Green (1808-1876), who became head of the firm of R. & H. Green. These are a navigational instruction workbook, 1824; and the logbook he kept as fifth officer on the East India Company ship VANSITTART, 1825-1826. There are also logbooks kept by the master mariner Charles Fisher Cooke (1814-1919) in the period 1865-1883. Cooke later married Alice Mary Green, the eldest daughter of Henry Green (1838-1900). There is a cartoon of Joseph Fletcher Green (1846-1923), as published in 'Vanity Fair' in 1890, also a photograph of the statue of Richard Green (1803-1863) at Poplar.

Administrative / biographical background
The first shipbuilder connected with Blackwall Yard was Sir Henry Johnson (d.1683), who passed it on to his son (d.1693). The yard then passed on to Philip Perry who passed the firm to his second son John Perry in 1776. The yard was then taken over by Sir Robert Wigram (1744- 1830), who bought the Perry shares. In 1819 he sold half the yard to George Green and his two sons Money and Henry Loftus Wigram retained the other half. George Green (1767-1849) was taken into partnership in 1796 and married his employer' s daughter (Miss Perry). He built the Green's Sailors' Home in the East India Dock Road in 1840-41 and the Trinity Schools and Trinity Chapel. In 1829, Richard Green (1803-1863), known as 'Dicky Green', was taken into partnership. The company became known as Green, Wigram & Green. In 1843 the eastern portion of the yard became R. & H. Green' s and the western portion Money Wigram and Sons. 'Dicky' left the practical side of the yard to his brother Henry who was trained as both shipwright and seaman. In 1858 the East India Company dissolved due to the Indian Mutiny. This led to much competition with individual firms and the Green's Blackwall line became occupied with purchasing and building vessels in the interests of valuable eastern trade and the Australian passenger trade. In 1855 the Greens became involved with the Crimean War, they built 14 screw gunboats over 200 tons. Dicky Green was a lover of teak and British oak and would not build using iron, but, after his death all opposition was removed and the firm built their first iron ship, the SUPERB (launched 1866). Money and Wigram & Sons shipyard closed in 1893, sold to the London Midland & Scottish Railway. The fleet was sold to Mr Allen Hughes. R. & H. Green, from the 1970's onwards built mainly paddle steamers; the final ship built was the AMY in 1903. R. & H. Green merged with Silley Weir Ltd in 1910 and became shiprepairers. In 1918 R. & H. Green & Silley Weir Ltd took over Cox & Co Ltd and acquired Falmouth Docks & Engineering Co. In 1977, London Graving Dock Co Ltd merged with R. & H. Green & Silley Weir Ltd and became the River Thames Ship Repairers Ltd (ceased trading 1982).