William Wain

William Wain (1819-1882)

Born in Bolton, 31 March 1819. In 1849 he became Chief Engineer of the Royal Danish Navy, and became Assistant Director of the Royal Dockyards in 1862. He became a partner in Burmeister and Wain in 1865 . He died on 1st May 1882

1882 Deaths: 'On the 1st inst., at Copenhagen, William Wain, Esq., Commodore, of Denmark, formerly of Rose-lane, in this city [Norwich]; beloved and respected by all who knew him. He was the first man who built an iron ship in Denmark.'

From the Danish Wikipedia entry:

'He was apprenticed to a machine shop in his native town and completed his apprenticeship in the nearby town of Wigan. At the age of 20 he was employed as a foreman in a large machine shop in Norwich. He then went to London, where he immediately obtained a similar foremanship. When this factory closed, and N. E. Tuxen, a Danish first lieutenant, was in London on behalf of the Danish navy, the unemployed Wain was engaged by the Danish postal service.

'As an employee of the postal service, he was, among other things, employed for a time on the mail boat Gejser , which was originally built as a naval ship . It was transferred back to the navy, and Wain followed. He had already completed tasks for the navy, as since his arrival he had been the practical leader in the construction of the machine shop that was established at the Naval Shipyard.

'In 1862 he became deputy director at the Naval Shipyard with the rank of lieutenant captain. However, Wain had also become involved with Baumgarten & Burmeister's Machine Establishment, which, among other things, supplied the machinery for several ships built at the shipyard.

'When Hans Heinrich Baumgarten retired in 1861 , Wain became Carl Christian Burmeister's partner. As deputy director of the Naval Shipyard, he was a member of a government commission that, among other things, had to control the work that Burmeister & Wain delivered. Wain was consequently dismissed from the navy, although he continued as a specially paid consultant. In 1872, B & W's Iron Shipbuilding Company [Jærnskibsbyggeri] was converted into a limited liability company.

'Wain took out several patents , including for a floating dock, and the construction of Knippelsbro (built 1867 - 69) was carried out according to new principles formulated by Wain.

'Wiliam Wain was married twice. The first time in England to a daughter of a kirkevinduesmaler [translated as 'church window painter'. See below] After her death he married a daughter of the prominent Freemason, the priest C.H. Visby. In 1858 he was granted Danish citizenship. In 1871 he was appointed Councillor of State and Dannebrogsmand, in 1874 he received the Gold Medal of Merit, in 1858 he became a Knight of the Dannebrog and in 1879 he received the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog.

'He is buried at Holmen Cemetery.'

Marriage: William married Agnes Drake in the parish of St. George, Tombland, on 20 April 1841. Her father, Thomas Samuel Drake (1790-1869), was described on William's marriage certificate as a plumber, although another source states that he was an insolvent debtor in 1841. An obituary stated that at some point he was a plumber, glazier and painter.

William Wain's Employment in the UK

Wain's employer in Wigan is not known. Possibly the Haigh Foundry.

Translated from a Danish source, 1873 : 'William Wain was born on March 31, 1819, in the factory town of Bolton, near Manchester. His father, who was an engineer, died when the son was barely 12 years old, and it was therefore under the care of an older brother and that Wain received his first education in a factory in his native town. Since it is very difficult to get a versatile development in one of the factories in England, he soon left his first apprenticeship to learn in another factory in a neighboring town, and then got a place in Torraldo's factory in Norwich, where shortly after, only 5 months over 20 years old, he was employed as foreman over the entire establishment, which employed about 200 people. He was in Norwich for 2 years, and then he went to London, where he immediately, despite his great youth, which aroused the displeasure of the older staff, took over a foreman's position in Brettewith's factory. However, the business here did not last long. The owner of the factory had embarked on far too daring experiments, which, when other circumstances also happened, resulted in the factory having to stop, and Wain being unemployed. This situation became the turning point in his life. At the same time, the current director of the Naval Shipyard, N. E. Tuxen, was in London to place orders for the Danish Navy, and he also had the task of recruiting a trusted man for the Postal Service, who would be given the prospect of entering the Navy as soon as an opportunity arose, and this man was Wain. — In March 1844, Wain was engaged and now for a number of years sailed as an engineer, first (1844) with the "Frederik den sjætte" and then with the "Gejser", .....'

An official company history published in 1906 provides no more detail about Wain's British employer

A strong possible candidate for Wain's employer in Norwich is James Watts and Co. Their foundry and machine shop was on Rose Lane. The 1873 Danish source gives Rose Lane as Wain's address. It also names his employer there as 'Torraldos', which makes no sense. It names his employer in London as 'Brettewith'. This may have been John Braithwaite .

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