Educated mainly in Cumberland, Ure started work aged 15 in the Glasgow marine engineering works of Robert Napier. This was under the management of David Elder, whose son John later married Ure's sister. Ure moved into land surveying before, in 1839, becoming chief assistant to Andrew Thomson, a leading civil engineer.
He then attended Glasgow University before working, from 1845, with J M Rendel of London. In 1852 he was appointed resident engineer to the Clyde Navigation and Harbour of Glasgow, where he proposed comprehensive extensions and improvements. This led to his 1858 appointment, again successfully, as engineer of the Tyne, where he received parliamentary sanction for major improvements in 1861.
Ure later became senior partner of the Govan shipbuilders John Elder & Co, where he oversaw the completion of the Fairfield yard before retiring in 1879. He died, unmarried, in the south of France on 3 May 1883.
AMONG the names of the engineers who, by their ability and skill, have carried out the great improvements of the River Clyde and formed a shallow, sanded-up stream into a world-famed inland navigation, conveying on its ample bosom vessels of the deepest draught and of all nationalities, and have thereby made Glasgow the great city of the present day, that of John F. Ure deserves a prominent place, albeit he controlled the destiny of its great river for the short period of six-and-a-half years, and gained his imperishable laurels on the Tyne.
Mr. Ure, born in Glasgow in the year 1820, was the only son of Mr. Alexander Ure, Writer. Educated chiefly at Greenrow Academy, Cumberland, he commenced his professional career at about the age of fifteen in the well-known marine engineering establishment of Robert Napier, Lancefield, then under the able management of David Elder, whose eminent son John subsequently married Mr. Ure's only sister, the liberal-minded and highly-esteemed Mrs. Elder, who has, in the most munificent manner, founded and endowed the Elder Chair of Naval Architecture in the University of Glasgow, added an endowment of £5000 to the Chair of Engineering there, bestowed on the inhabitants of Govan the Elder Park in memory of her husband, so early removed from the scene of his triumphs, and of his worthy father, and has gifted to the citizens of Glasgow the Queen Margaret College for Ladies.
A few months sufficed Mr. Ure at that time with marine engineering. He was destined, however, towards the close of his active life, to return to his first choice; and his predilection being towards Civil Engineering, he entered the office of Mr. William Kyle, land surveyor, Glasgow, and Surveyor to the Clyde Trustees, under whom and his successor, Mr. Thomas Kyle, he acquired thorough knowledge of surveying and levelling, and doubtless, also, an intimate acquaintance with the various plans for the improvement of the Clyde, then in Mr. Kyle's custody.
Leaving Mr. Kyle's office in 1839, he became chief assistant to Mr. Andrew Thomson, a well-known Glasgow civil engineer in his day, and with him gained valuable acquaintance with the construction of canals, roads, and railways, such as the Monkland Canal and the Garnkirk Railway. It was while Mr. Ure was in the office of Mr. Thomson that the latter designed and constructed the great St. Rollox chimney, a prominent object in the north-east of Glasgow, as its rival Townsend's is, farther west.
After spending a short time with Messrs. Gordon & Hill, civil engineers, and two sessions at Glasgow University studying Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, where he enjoyed the able teaching of Professor Lewis D. B. Gordon, and carried off several first-class prizes, he, in 1845, entered the service of Mr. J. M. Rendel, London, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He then found congenial employment in the great works that were being carried on by that distinguished engineer, spending some time in India on railway and river works, while at home he was engaged on the rivers Tyne and Lea, on railways in Lancashire and Cheshire, at the East and West India Docks, London, the Devonport Dockyard Steam Basin, the Guernsey Harbour Works, and the docks at Garston, Grimsby, and Birkenhead.
Thus trained, his ability and varied knowledge and experience got deserved recognition by his fellow-citizens and scope for further development by his appointment in 1852 to the important position of resident engineer of the Clyde Navigation and Harbour of Glasgow on the death of Mr. Bremner, scope which was unfortunately trammelled eventually by divergence of opinions and views less sound and far-seeing than his own on the part of Mr. Walker, of London, the Trustees' consulting engineer; but with a persistency which was one of Mr. Ure's marked characteristics, he strove with all his energy and determination to carry out to its utmost extent the Act of 1840 for the improvement of the river.
No complete survey of the river having been made since the Parliamentary Survey of 1839, he induced the Trustees to authorize Mr. Kyle to make one, which was completed in 1853. On this survey he laid down comprehensive schemes of harbour extension and river improvement, at an estimated cost of nearly £1,000,000.
He held more enlightened and, as events proved, more correct views of the rapid increase of the trade of the port and of the future size of vessels than most of his contemporaries; and his various reports to the Trustees on graving docks, and on tidal basins versus wet docks, recommending the former, are models of wise judgment and sound engineering. Only 752 lineal yards of quay were added to the harbour of Glasgow during his engineership, but he inaugurated many important works in the widening and straightening of the river, and began and completed the new straight channel opposite Port-Glasgow.
When Mr. Ure resigned office, the quayage of Glasgow Harbour extended from Victoria Bridge to Stobcross Ferry on the north side, and from Glasgow Bridge to 200 yards west of Stobcross Ferry on the south side of the river, together 4,376 lineal yards, or not quite 2½ miles; the water area of the harbour was 70 acres and the annual revenue £78,783, while as to docks they were only on paper.
The quayage on the north side now extends from Victoria Bridge to the River Kelvin, and on the south side from Glasgow Bridge to 900 yards west of Stobcross Ferry; and in addition Kingston Dock, with its 5 1/3 acres of water area and 930 lineal yards of quayage, was opened in 1867, and Queen's Dock, having 33¾ acres of water area and 3,334 lineal yards of quayage, was completed in 1882. The total quayage of Glasgow Harbour, including the two docks, is now 10,623 lineal yards, or 6 miles 63 yards, the water area is 153¾ acres, and the revenue last year was £291,638 - truly gigantic growths in 27 years.
The Clyde Trustees' first public graving dock, 560 feet long, with nearly 23 feet depth at high water, was opened in 1875, and a second of equal size is nearly completed.
Mr. Ure's fame as an able river and harbour engineer had now spread abroad, and the Clyde improvement works having become well and favourably known, he was called on to give evidence before the Royal Commissioners on the Tyne Navigation in 1855, and proved a most valuable witness in favour of the improvement of that river on the lines of the Clyde improvements; and the result of an inspection of the River Clyde by the Tyne Commissioners was his unanimous appointment in December, 1858, engineer of the Tyne.
London engineers of eminence one after another had tried their skill in the improvement of the Tyne, but with little or no good result, so that in 1854, in the words of Mr. Guthrie, historian of the River Tyne, "It was very nearly what it had been in its natural state for centuries previously."
High and, as the sequel will show, well-founded hopes were entertained by the Tynesiders of the results of Mr. Ure's advent. Enjoying the entire confidence of the Commissioners, receiving their loyal support, and freed from all professional interference, he entered zealously upon the onerous duties of his office, and setting to work with a will he informed himself fully of the past history and treatment of the river, got complete survey and soundings of the river made, and studied carefully the requirements of the traffic to be accommodated. He was thus enabled, in October, 1859, to lay before the Commissioners a complete and exhaustive scheme of river improvement, which, receiving the approval of that body, was sanctioned by Parliament in 1861.
The river was then in a wretched state, choked with sand banks and dangerous shoals dry at low water, while the depth on the bar at low-water spring tides was only 6 feet 8 inches; vessels of over 12 feet draft could only get to Newcastle at high water of spring tides; vessels of moderate draft were detained for weeks after loading unable to get to sea even at the top of high water, and the larger ships were rapidly deserting the Tyne for ports with greater depth of water.
Under Mr. Ure's master mind this serious state of matters speedily changed for the better. The irresistible power of the large steam dredgers and their attendant steam hopper barges, designed by him and built on the Clyde, quickly removed the sand banks, deepened the bar, widened the river, and cut off the quick bends, and brought the sea in yearly increasing depth and volume up to Newcastle, so that Captain Calver, R.N., Admiralty Surveyor, the best living authority on river works, after a minute survey in July, 1872, only 11 years after the passing of the Act of 1861, was able to report to the Commissioners that the bar had disappeared, that a depth of 27 feet at low water existed on the sailing track in from sea, that there was a depth of 25 to 30 feet on the sand banks which dried 3 feet in 1849, and where women formerly gathered a harvest of drift coal; that the channel to Newcastle Bridge had been deepened from 3½ to 22 feet at low water, and was now the most noteworthy example of river improvements within the bounds of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Ure did not stop his scheme of improvement at Newcastle Bridge, but carried it up the river past the famous Elswick works of Sir William Armstrong & Co., a distance of eight miles; and to allow for the passage of vessels above the bridge, he designed and ultimately got constructed a swing bridge, second to none in the kingdom, superseding the stone bridge, and only equalled by the swing railway bridge over the Ouse at Goole. Several important shipbuilding yards, including that of Messrs. Sir William Armstrong, Mitchell & Co., are now located above the site of old Newcastle Bridge.
The death of Mr. John Elder in 1869 led to the withdrawal of Mr. Ure from the active conduct of the further improvement of the River Tyne, and from the working out to completion of the large dock works he had designed for the development of the traffic of that important river. At the urgent solicitation of his sister he became senior partner of the well-known firm of John Elder & Co., marine engineers and shipbuilders, Govan, and resigning his position as resident engineer upon the Tyne, he accepted at the pressing request of the Commissioners the office of their consulting engineer. Returning to his native city he entered with his usual zeal into the completion of the great shipbuilding yard and marine engine works at Fairfield, and the construction of a large tidal basin there for the engining and fitting out of the yearly increasing number of steam vessels built by the firm for nearly all the important steamship Companies in the world; and he associated with himself in the partnership Mr. J. L. K. Jamieson (1) and Mr. William Pearce.
His health giving way, he decided, in 1878, to discontinue all responsibility for the great works he had inaugurated and so successfully carried out on the Tyne, but the Commissioners, unwilling that his connection with the river should wholly cease, induced him to accept a retaining fee of one hundred guineas per annum, so that he might still be consulted about their river works.
His life's work was, however, done. Although he lingered on, seeking health under the care of his devoted sister in the south of France, he never regained vigour sufficient to undertake further work, and died of paralysis on the 3rd May, 1883, unmarried; his remains lie alongside those of his brother-in-law. Mr. Ure and Mr. Jamieson had retired from the firm of Elder & Co. in 1879.
On the 17th of May, 1883, the Tyne Commissioners, on the motion of their chairman, Mr. J. C. Stevenson, M.P., a native of Glasgow, passed the following resolution:-
"Resolved, that the Commissioners record the expression of their sincere regret at the death of Mr. J. F. Ure, civil engineer, and their high appreciation of his remarkable ability and energy in designing and carrying out the magnificent scheme for the improvement of the River Tyne, propounded by him twenty-three years ago, and which, by its comprehensiveness and completeness, and its engineering and financial success, has sufficiently justified the confidence and support accorded to him both by the public and the Commissioners, and entitles him to rank amongst the greatest engineers of modern times;" and in supporting the motion the Chairman remarked "that Mr. Ure certainly planned and executed the most comprehensive course of river work ever accomplished, and which conferred the greatest benefit on the district served by the River Tyne;" and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on 21st August, 1884, in opening the Cobbe Dene Dock, designed by Mr. Ure, and naming it after himself, the Albert Edward Dock, made graceful allusion to Mr. Ure, saying:-
"Not five-and-twenty years ago vessels only of a tonnage of 400 tons were able to go up the river. You had only two docks then - the Tyne and the Northumberland Docks. Owing to the great perseverance and skill of that celebrated engineer, Mr. Ure - who we all deeply regret cannot be in our midst - immense improvement was made in our river. The natural disadvantages such as shoals and bars had to be overcome. The cost naturally was very great; but with skill and money these difficulties were got over, and I believe the dredging machines which were used during that time had as much employment as those used for making the Suez Canal. Now everything is different, and the largest vessels in the world are able to go up the river. You have neither sand banks to fear nor the storms at sea, unless they be very great, now to encounter. I must also allude to that remarkable work, the Swing Bridge, through which we passed to-day - a work that has not been copied or used elsewhere, though I hear that very shortly we may hope to have one in London a short distance below London Bridge. That Swing Bridge was also designed by Mr. Ure. I have now only before sitting down to say one word. Five-and-twenty years ago, the shipping tonnage, I believe, in 1859 amounted to 3,000,000 tons; last year it amounted to 6,250,000 tons. This great increase speaks itself for the great improvements that have been made on the river."
Self-contained and retiring in disposition, and engrossed with and devoted to business, Mr. Ure had neither time nor inclination to take a prominent part in public matters of any kind, but found his relaxation and pleasure in the society of a few intimate friends.
(1) Mr. Jamieson was a very remarkable man. He was born in 1826, became manager of the Drogheda Iron Works in 1850, then he undertook the management of the marine department of the Railway Foundry Co., Leeds; afterwards he entered the Royal Navy, served as engineer in the Baltic under Sir Charles Napier, and was at the battle of Bomarsund, for which he received a medal. Leaving the Navy in 1856 he received the important appointment of superintending engineer of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. at their repairing works at Taboga, and thereby came into intimate relationship with Randolph Elder & Co., who were then building the paddle-steamer "Valparaiso" and fitting her with their recently-patented compound engines. Retiring in 1866 from the superintendentship of the Pacific Navigation Co. he returned home, and after a short rest undertook the onerous position of general engineering manager to Messrs. Randolph Elder & Co., and on the dissolution of that firm in 1868 continued his services in the same capacity with Mr. John Elder.
On the death of Mr. Elder in 1869, Mr. Jamieson undertook the herculean task of directing and controlling the whole works, both at Centre Street and Fairfield, until the partnership between Mr. Ure, Mr. Pearce, and himself was formed. From this position he retired in 1879. From that time till his death in 1883 he took a deep interest in local affairs, especially in Anderson's College, of which he was chairman.
Mr. Jamieson was a splendid type of a Lowland Scot - large of build, possessing force of character and natural abilities of a high order, and fond of work for work's sake.
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