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Origins of the Crane
The Fairbairn Crane was erected in 1868, as part of the rapid expansion of port facilities that followed the arrival of the railways in Dover. Regular cross-Channel steamship sailings had begun in the 1850s, underwritten by a contract with the Royal Mail for the carriage of post between Britain and France. Most mail and passenger journeys began or ended in London, relying on the railway for their connecting inland legs, and two railway companies competed fiercely for the business. The Southeastern Railway Company had opened the first railway line to Dover in 1844, via Ashford and Folkestone. It enjoyed a monopoly on the route until 1861 when a second line, via Canterbury, was opened by the London Chatham and Dover Railway Company.
As a newcomer, the London Chatham and Dover Railway Company sought to break into the market by offering services which its longer-established competitor did not. In June 1867, its general manager James Staats Forbes asked that a 30-ton crane be provided in the harbour for loading heavy cargoes onto and off his ships. After assuring Forbes that it would look favourably on “anything that will be a convenience to your Company and to shipping generally or attract work to the town”, Dover Harbour Board set about devising a scheme that would meet his request.
The paddle-steamer “Etoile du Nord”, operated by the London Chatham and Dover Railway Company for whom the crane had been bought, berthed alongside it. Courtesy of the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums, ID: RNWS-42D-27.
Small cranes were already installed at various places around the docks, to supplement ships’ derricks in loading and unloading cargo, on wharves leased to tenants for their exclusive use and on quays that were open to all ships. Among these open quays was a crane yard on Esplanade Quay, on the south-eastern side of the Wellington Dock and next to the Admiralty’s Ordnance Wharf (where Cullin’s Yard restaurant is today). Working together over the summer over the summer of 1867 and in consultation with Forbes, the Harbour Master and principal engineer drew up a scheme to replace the old crane in the yard on Esplanade Quay with a much larger and more powerful wrought-iron crane. They specified a crane capable of reaching some 24 feet out from the quay and lifting loads weighing up to 30 tons. In late September 1867, tenders were invited accordingly, with prices and technical drawings. Ten tenders were received, the cheapest being from the Fairbairn Engineering Company of Manchester. After a careful review by the Port’s principal engineer, this tender was accepted. By the end of 1867, a contract had been signed for the supply of a 30-ton crane as per the specification for a sum of £986, with payment in instalments.
Ten tenders were received for the new crane. The Fairbairn Engineering Company’s was the cheapest.
Dover Harbour Board awarded the contract for the new crane to the Fairbairn Engineering Company on 13 November 1867.
Ironwork for the crane – the main box girder of the jib, wheels, ratchets, brakes and chains – was manufactured at the Fairbairn Engineering Company’s factory at Ancoats in Manchester in the early months of 1868. Meanwhile, having first dismantled the old crane on Esplanade Quay, Dover Harbour Board’s own engineers constructed a crane pit in the quayside: a cylindrical shaft, some 23 feet (7 meters) deep and 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter, lined with stone and with a foundation plate fixed to its floor. Once the new crane arrived in Dover in the early summer, its machinery was anchored into the new pit and its jib assembled and attached. On May 26th 1868, a test lift of a load weighing 40 tons (10 tons more than the crane’s design rating) was carried out in the presence of representatives from Dover Harbour Board and the two railway companies. The crane performed faultlessly, and entered service immediately.
Map of the Wellington Dock in 1912, showing the location of the Fairbairn Crane (the “30 tons crane”) on Esplanade Quay next to the Ordnance Wharf.
