Hot air, in the end
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (236) details the development of the local steam-packet excursion company during the 1880s and 1890s. The company underwent several restructurings before merging with a larger organisation. It operated both as a commercial business for its shareholders and to support the town’s aim of enhancing its status as a holiday destination.
Victorian Bournemouth (236): company history
1880s
In the 1860s, Bournemouth’s pier drew the town into the network of commercial excursion steamer companies. Within twenty years, a local company emerged. Soon, its ambitions extended to purchasing, rather than chartering, vessels. The Lord Elgin came on station. At the 1884 AGM, the directors paid a dividend of 8%. Then, there followed the Bournemouth, having more than twice the horsepower of its sister ship. The wreck of this expensive vessel created a financial crisis. Emerging from this, the company acquired the Brodrick Castle, which enjoyed success. The dividend climbed to 15%, and whispers about a third vessel arose. Directors’ fees advanced from £10 to £100. James McWilliam, a father of the town, helped secure the massive Windsor Castle. The 1890 AGM heard about their dividend of 6% plus a 2% bonus. In his address, McWilliam painted a dream: ‘The Castle Line’. Shareholders numbered 700, 500 Bournemouth residents.
1890s
In its second decade, Bournemouth’s native steam-packet company experienced turbulence and fundamental change. The dream sketched by old McWilliam died with him. At the 11th AGM, the chairman talked about ‘one of the worst seasons ever encountered’. Trips lost to bad weather and the Windsor Castle’s late delivery damaged the company. The chairman again mentioned problems in 1893, due ‘mainly to the diminished spending power of the public consequent upon the depression which has this year affected most commercial undertakings, particularly at seaside resorts’. Increased pressure caused the directors to charter out the Broderick Castle and sell Windsor Castle. The directors wound up the company, floating a replacement on the wreckage. Mixed results occurred in the late 1890s, resulting in occasional dividends. Cooperation with its erstwhile enemy, based in Weymouth, at first to fend off competition, appears to have become a merger by the new century. The dream evaporated.
Victorian Bournemouth (236): people
Directors
The early board reflected other governmental bodies found in Bournemouth. It combined men of perhaps humble backgrounds, but successful in commerce, with others having more respectable origins or wealthier positions. William Pettey, for example, a dairy farmer having over 1500 acres, had the biggest investment at one point. He left over £30,000, his widow more than £120,000. Other directors came from the local commercial world. Charles Dacre, a grocer’s son, managed The Criterion Hotel. Edward Barnes and perhaps his stepfather, William Towell, both worked as shoemakers. Confectioner Charles Fippard left an estate worth almost £25,000 at the end. Others came from different backgrounds: Mr Baring Young, M.P.; William Stevenson, having an indirect income. The company benefited from a quartet of men prominent in local civics: two mayors, a long-time candidate, and an established councillor. Henry Newlyn, the hotelier, James McWilliam and Henry Jenkins, and Joseph Cutler, the last three builders.
Detractors
Whenever the company did not pay good dividends, detractors appeared. Heated debates occurred at the AGMs. A confrontation between McEwan Brown, the Boscombe estate agent, and Walter Bacon, a Poole ironmonger, used the term ‘claptrap’. James Mackie, a coal merchant, thought ‘ … these steamboats were not gentlemen’s yachts …’. Crews should pay for their uniforms. The company’s management of its coal, he felt, lacked knowledge. He and others queried expenditure lines. At one point, they attempted to form a shareholders’ committee. A constant complaint concerned the extent to which directors supplied the company, thereby excluding other local traders. Mackie, perhaps, had found himself excluded from supplying the coal. They demanded a professional manager, but here, too, the directors’ choice faced criticism. ‘What was the use of a manager who walked about and smoked cigars and used a walking stick?’
Victorian Bournemouth (236): assessment
Dilettantes
Most of the time, the directors, otherwise competent businessmen, appeared to have little control over the company in which they had invested. Three income streams should have irrigated its success: excursions, season tickets, and the bar. Nevertheless, they made bad decisions about the vessels (and, perhaps, at least one captain), they gave away too many season tickets (clergymen frequent recipients), and they allowed the steward to run the bar for personal profit. They may have liked the idea of public association with such a prominent part of the town’s commercial terrain rather more than they wanted to take a direct role in its management. Their detractors on more than one occasion suggested the need for professional management, experienced in the business. They also suspected nest-feathering. In the end, commercial necessity wrought this change. The final restructuring reduced the board to a chairman and two directors, one much experienced in shipping.
Reputation
Frequent references in the reports suggest that the steam-packet company played an important role in the aggressive urban capitalism practised by Bournemouth’s managers. From its beginning, those guiding affairs, elected or not, followed a strategy of establishing the resort’s reputation within the country. The steam-packet company, both in its existence and its management, symbolised this behaviour. Time and again, directors discussed how the company could enhance the town’s reputation. McWilliam, the old man present almost from Bournemouth’s beginning, sold the dream of ‘The Castle Line’, the best fleet on the south coast. Not only did the directors invest in this vision, however. At one time, around 500 local people did the same, buying shares. They persisted with the company through its restructuring, which resulted in the write-off of asset value and required further capital from them. In the end, bad weather, bad decisions, and competitive pressures induced reality’s cold wind.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (236) examines the history of the local steam-packet company during the 1880s and 1890s. The company did not establish a well-defined mission, shifting among various aims. These included serving as a vanity project for its directors, seeking to compete with other companies for profits, and contributing to the town’s reputation. Multiple factors, such as adverse weather, an economic downturn in the early 1890s, and management challenges, contributed to the company’s closure.
References
For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). Thanks here for the image of The Lord Elgin. See also here.
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