The Four Idols

 

BELFAST ROPEWORKS

 

Cannabis sativa, also known as Hemp, has long been used for fibre, seeds and their oils,  leaves for use as a vegetable or juice,  medicinal purposes and for recreational uses. 

The hemp plant originated in Central Asia and has been recorded as being  grown in China in about 2800B.   Its cultivation spread to the Mediterranean countries in the early Christian era and throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.  It was planted in Chile in 1500AD and a century later in North America.

Hemp fibre is long and straight and is manufactured much the same way as linen.  The fibre is longer but less flexible than flax but its strength and durability make it the ideal material for cordage, sacking and canvas.  Not only does it have superior strength but it is  less susceptible to rot when immersed in salt water than other fibres   Because of its durability hemp became a crucial commodity in rope making.  During the “Age of Discovery” (early 15^th century to the end of the 17th century).  European adventurers began exploring the world by sea in search of new trade routes, wealth and knowledge, each sailing ship carried miles of rope so ropeworks grew up in the major ports of Europe.

In the 17^th century Belfast was the largest port in Ireland and until 1740 all cordage had to be imported from England.  Samuel Smiles (1846 – 1904), who had a small ropework in Belfast in 1871 went on to establish The Belfast Ropeworks at Connswater in 1876 employing 50 people.  He had three partners, one of whom was G. W. Wolff of Harland and Wolff shipbuilders, four years later Edward Harland joined as a major shareholder by which time the company had 300 employees.  Such was the company’s success that by 1892 it was the largest ropeworks in the world.  When W. H. Smiles died in 1904 the works spanned over 40 acres and employed 3,000 people.  The outbreak of war in 1914 saw Belfast Ropeworks making rope for the war campaign.   In one year alone the ropeworks produced 20,000 tons of twine, cord and rope and served over 100,000 customers.  During the inter-war years the company continued to produce high quality goods including ropes ranging in circumference from 28 inches down to the finest medical twine.  Orders for hawsers to tow  Thomas Sopwith’s  yacht “Endeavour” across the Atlantic to compete in the Americas cup  and traces for dog-sleigh harness for the British Graham Land expedition in the Antarctic were two of the unique orders received in this era. 

At the beginning of the second World War Belfast Ropeworks once again went to war making a quarter of a million camouflage nets, ropes for barrage balloons, clews for hammocks, handles for ammunition boxes, fenders for ships, guys for telegraph poles and scramble nets as well as rope for agriculture , fisheries and other cordage.  The company produced one third of all the ropes used by the Allies.  Production became difficult with the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese and the subsequent loss of raw material.  Russia had also been a pre-war exporter of hemp to Belfast.   

On the 15^th April 1941 5 high explosive bombs and hundreds of incendiary devices fell on the 40 acres of the ropeworks.  At the height of the blitz bales of hemp, balls of binder twine and coils of rope were hurled into the air like a fireworks display.  The factories blazed for a week whilst fire brigades from Eire ,Scotland England and Northern Ireland worked to quench the fires.  Despite the devastation there were no casualties.

Although this was not the end of Belfast Ropeworks ,the advent of  synthetic yarns saw the end of hemp as a rope making materials.  The company closed in 1979.