Martin Samuelson and Co
of Hull, ship builders and maker of hydraulic presses
of London
1849 Martin Samuelson started in business in Hull as a marine and general engineer under the style of Martin Samuelson and Co.
1854 The Company was enlarged when his brother, Alexander Samuelson, joined the firm. The work was shipbuilding and the application of steel to marine engineering, as well as the manufacture of hydraulic presses, in place of the old stamper presses, for seed-crushing, the staple industry of Hull.
1856 the firm made steel boilers for use on land for Marriott, Atkinson and Co’s works at Sheffield, which were in use for twenty years without any material repairs.
1861 the partnership was dissolved; Alexander Samuelson moved to London.
1860-1862 Built two early steel vessels - the Annie (classed after considerable difficulty as 'A 1 Experimental' on Lloyd’s register) and the Latona. The firm also built the Spurn the Gertrude and the Lord Cardigan the first cargo steamers to run from Hull to St. Petersburg without having to unload at Cronstadt.
Within 10 years, ninety-seven vessels, principally steamers, were built in the yard.
1864 The works were sold to the Humber Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company.
Mr. Martin Samuelson then took general engineering works in Neptune Street, Hull, and amongst other work built the North Bridge over the River Hull. This is an hydraulic draw-bridge, which is pulled back into the roadway when required to be opened.
He also constructed machinery for the blast furnaces of Messrs. B. Samuelson and Company at Middlesbrough, and travelling rolls for their Britannia Mill. This latter machinery was in regular use until 1892, when it was removed and electric power substituted.
1873 The works in Neptune Street were sold to Amos and Smith.
1907 'THE FIRST STEEL SHIP AND HIGH-TENSILE STEEL.
To the Editor of Engineering.
Sir.— In his paper on ‘The Use of High-Tensile
Steel,” read in the Shipbuilding Section of the recent
Engineering Conference, Mr. A. E. Seaton stated “the
first steel ship, the Annie, was built by Samuelson, of
Hull, in 1864, of Bessemer plates.”
Seven years previously, however - in 1857 - a steel ship
was built at Birkenhead for the Livingstone Expedition
— namely, the little paddle-steamer Ma Robert — and I
have always been under the impression that this was
“the first steel ship.”
The late Mr. J. B. Howell, of Sheffield, claimed this
distinction for the Ma Robert in a paper on “Steel as
Applied to Shipbuilding,” read thirty-six years ago — in
March, 1871 — at the twelfth session of the Institution of
Naval Architects.
As far back as 1853 Mr. Howell called the attention of
shipbuilders and engineers to the value of “mild cast
steel ” for shipbuilding and kindred purposes, and in
1855 introduced it as “Howell’s homogeneous metal.”
This was, Mr. Howell stated, the origin of the successful application of steel for ships, boilers, tubes, &c., and
the use of this metal in the hull and boilers of the Ma
Robert was the first instance of the application of steel
for shipbuilding.
It was something more, which is especially interesting in the present connection. It was also the first instance
of the use for shipbuilding of what is now called “ high-tensile steel,” the strength in tension of this steel being
about 36 tons per square inch, with a limit of elasticity
of about 23 tons.
Mr. Howell, however, called it “mild cast steelhis
“high-tensile steel” being of about 46 tons per square
inch tensile strength, and having a limit of elasticity of
about 30 tons—a quality which was successfully used for
locomotive fire boxes on the Scottish Central Railway, for which purpose it was first adopted in 1862.
Yours faithfully, J. F. Lacon
Birkenhead, July 4, 1907'[1]