Wandsworth and District Gas Company's SS Ewell in 1926 approaching London Bridge with her mast, funnel and wheelhouse folded downWandsworth and District Gas Company's SS Wandle steaming up the Thames on her maiden voyage in 1932 with her mast and funnel upSS Wandle in 1932 passing under Southwark Bridge with her mast, funnel and wheelhouse folded downGas Light and Coke Company's SS Suntrap at Woolwich in 1931, steaming upriver to Nine Elms Gasworks
A flatiron, or flattie, is a type of coastal trading vessel designed to pass under bridges that have limited clearance. Her mast(s) are hinged or telescopic, her funnel may be hinged, and her wheelhouse may also fold flat.
Until the middle of the 20th century flatirons were built with triple-expansion steam engines.[2] The largest steam flatirons were more than 1,550 gross register tons. The last steam-powered flatirons were built in the 1950s.[2]
After the middle of the 1960s the need for flatirons started to decline. In 1966 gas suppliers started to convert from coal gas to North Sea natural gas, so that by the early 1970s coal gas gasworks were being closed and demolished. Secondly the Central Electricity Generating Board reconfigured its generating capacity with small numbers of larger, more modern power stations away from the centre of London, which led to the decommissioning of Battersea A power station in 1975, Fulham Power Station in 1978 and Battersea B Power Station in 1983. By the mid-1980s the need to carry thousands of tons of coal on the Thames above the Pool of London had ceased.
Redundant flatirons were sold to private shipping companies who used them as conventional coasters. By the middle of the 1970s several had ended up with Greek or Cypriot owners. One, the SEGB's MV Kingston (1956), was renamed Tsimention in 1971 and survived until 1983 when she was broken up.[2]
Naval architecture – Engineering discipline dealing with the design and construction of marine vessels
References
^"Wandsworth (1950); Cargo vessel; Collier". Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved 24 May 2023. These vessels were designed to go under the Thames bridges and were known as 'flatties' or 'flatirons' and used for supplying the various power station on the river with coal.