The latest edition of the Transactions of the Naval Dockyards Society has arrived. It includes an article by Philip Macdougall on three fires in Naval Dockyards in 1840 -'Blame it on the Chartists'. One of these fires was at Woolwich.
This was the third fire - the first two were at Sheerness and Plymouth - and it took place on 6th October. Sadly there is much less recorded about the Woolwich fire than the others - but they were seen as the possible result of some sort of suberversion. A contemporary comment on the Woolwich fire is quoted - 'two foreigners were seen by Royal Arsenal artificers to be wandering at their leisure in the open face of daylight, about that vast emporium of war'.
- but what people walking about in the Arsenal were to do with fires in the Dockyard is far from clear to me!
This is a fascinating article and there are many more in this edition giving all sorts of information and insights into Naval Dockyards.
See www.hants.org.uk/navaldockyard
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