Worshipful Company of Shipwrights

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WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF SHIPWRIGHTS

London Guild
Established: 1782 (but dating from the 14th century)

Official blazon

Arms : Azure, in a sea proper the hull of a ship Or and for difference in the dexter chief point a sword erect, point upward, of the last; on a chief argent a cross gules charged with a lion passant guardant Or.
Crest: On a wreath of the colours, On an ark sable resting upon a mount vert, a dove bearing an olive branch proper, and for difference in the prow of the ark a sword as in the Arms. Mantled gules, doubled argent.
Motto: Within the Ark safe for ever. |}

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted on March 2, 1920, supporters were added in 1982.

The Company was granted its livery in 1782, but the origins of the Shipwrights’ Company in the City of London date back before 1387.

In the late 16th century, a company of ‘foreign’ shipwrights was founded at Redrith (Rotherhithe) on the south bank of the Thames. Since its membership most probably derived from the Royal Dockyard at Deptford it was clearly a rival to the Free Shipwrights of London on the north bank. By 1578 it was prospering sufficiently to petition for a charter from the Crown which it received in 1612. In 1605, it had been made a grant of arms, which form the basis of the present blazon.

The arms from 1605

In 1684, after a prolonged legal battle, in which the Free Shipwrights had the support of the City the foreign shipwrights’ company was suppressed and its charter cancelled. The Free Shipwrights promptly adopted the foreign shipwrights’ arms and, from the evidence of the arms engraved on the beadle’s silver staff head (1702), used them undifferenced and without authority until 1920 when King George V ordered that the situation should be regularised in accordance with the rules of heraldry.

The arms on a Wills's cigarette card, 1913

The differences granted by the College of Arms in that year consisted of adding the sword from the City of London’s arms on the prow of the Ark on both the shield and the crest. The supporters were not granted.

The arms from 1920

In 1982, to commemorate the bicentenary of the grant of Livery, the Company was finally granted the supporters of two shipwrights, one carrying an axe, the other a caulking hammer, as they had been in unofficial use for 200 years.

Literature: Bromley and Child, 1960; Menu card issued by the company, described by Martin Davies in The Heraldry Gazette, New Series 157, September 2020.