p118-121 ch6 - Manx Worthies - William Kennish
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[taken from Chapter 6
Manx Worthies
,
A.W.Moore, 1901]
WILLIAM KENNISH (b. 1799, d. 1862),
who was a poet, and an inventor, as well as a practical engineer.
We have placed his name under the heading of "Science," as he was
certainly more distinguished as an engineer and an inventor than as a
poet, though he is best known to his countrymen, on this side of the
Atlantic, in the latter capacity. Born in the parish of Maughold, "
close by the foot of the bridge of Cornay," or the Corrany Bridge, as
we now call it, he was, in his own words, "a
Mannanagh
dooie"-
a true
Manxman. His father was a small farmer, and
his early years were spent partly in following the plough and partly
in learning the trade of a ship carpenter at Ramsey. It was not till
his twenty-second year that he entered the Royal Navy, doing so, it
is said, because he had been jilted. At that time he could scarcely
speak any English, and was unable either to read or write. So great,
however, was his natural ability and his technical knowledge of his
trade that, in the short period of seven years, he rose to the
position of master-carpenter of the whole British fleet in the
Mediterranean. During this time he acquired not only the rudiments of
education, but a considerable knowledge of science, as was soon to be
shown by his contributions to it.
In 1829, when on board H.M.S. "Hussar," on the North American
station, he invented " a method for concentrating the fire of a
broadside of a ship of war,"' for which he received the thanks of the
Admiralty and the
Isis
gold medal of the
Society of
Arts
and Commerce.
An account of this was published in a
pamphlet, together with a description of two of his other inventions,
viz. : "A method for Floating Guns on shore by means of Water Tanks,"
and "A Fuse intended to burst the shell on striking the object
without reference to distance". He also sent the society
communications respecting " an artificial horizon ; a Automatic
sounding instrument ; a method of drowning the magazine of a ship of
war ; an hydraulic ventilator ; discontinuing the use of black paint
on ships ; a hydrostatic diving machine," &c. In 1832, the
committee appointed by the Admiralty to report upon naval inventions,
recommended his pamphlet as a text book for use in the navy. " It was
at this time," says his son, " that steam was seriously thought of as
a propelling power in the navy, and the fertility of Mr. Kennish's
inventive mind is proved by the fact that he devised several marine
steam engines and submitted them to the consideration of the Lords of
the Admiralty. He also urged the adoption of the screw propeller, one
of which he also designed, and submitted a model of."
1
Another -invention of his, a pneumatic tube. which he suggested to
the Admiralty for the transport of letters in 1845, was not accepted
then, but a similar tube "is now used for the conveyance of of mails
to the General Post Office in London About 1840, KENNISH retired from
the navy and settled at Ballasalla, where, "to while away the tedium
occasioned by the abandonment of his scientific
pursuits,"
2
he took to composing poetry. This poetry is,
as its author remarks in his preface, distinctly "rude" but it
portrays many of the most characteristic Manx customs and
superstitions with truth and vigour.
In 1845. he became a schoolmaster, announcing his intention of
doing so as follows: "William Kennish, R.N., author of the ' Method
for concentrating the Fire of a ship's Broadside,' and of other
mathematical and mechanical inventions now in use in the British
Navy, also of '
Mona's Isle and other
Poems
,' begs to inform his countrymen of the southside of the
island that he has taken charge. of the Parochial School at
Ballasalla, where he intends teaching." The list of subjects which he
proposed to teach was a truly ambitious one, and yet, at the same
time, he was able to make a survey of the Manx coast for the British
Government, together with a plan for a
harbour
of refuge
.
3
To form this harbour, he proposed to join
the mainland and the Calf by way of the Thousla and Kitterland
islets, and to throw out a breakwater from the Calf towards Spanish
Head. In 1849, he emigrated to America in search of a larger field
for the exercise of his talents, and he seems to have speedily
obtained congenial employment in exploring the auriferous tracts in
New Grenada. When there, he was attracted by the problem of a canal
across the isthmus. Into the story of his repeated journeys we cannot
enter here, and it must suffice to say that they were accomplished at
terrible risk to his life, and with the greatest gallantry and
skill.
His final survey, in 1855, was highly approved by the United
States Government, and he then submitted, both to it and various
scientific bodies, a scheme for a canal which was to join the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by channels and a tunnel in connexion
with the rivers Atrato and Truando. In this remarkable scheme he
designed the canal without locks. "He was the first to assert," says
his son, " that the oceans were upon a level. . . .Up to this time no
canal had been projected without locks -it was an entirely new
thought; but to accomplish it he had to make one of the boldest
suggestions in the history of civil engineering namely "to cut a
tunnel through the dividing ridge, of sufficient capacity to admit of
the largest vessel passing, through without interruption." That his
scheme was considered a practicable one was shown by the fact that at
the De Lesseps banquet in New York, in 1880, a public tribute was
paid to W
ILLIAM
K
ENNISH
as an "able engineer," and the discoverer of "the first and only
feasible route without locks, gates, or dams, for a ship canal, two
hundred feet wide, and thirty feet deep, including a tunnel three
miles long through the Cordilleras."
4
The length of this
canal was estimated at 130 miles, and its cost at one hundred and
thirty million dollars. Who can say that it will not be the Manxman,,
scheme which may ultimately be adopted ? This scheme was duly set
forth by him in a pamphlet entitled, " The Practicability and
Importance of a Ship Canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans."
4
Nor did his mechanical inventions cease, since he sent an
"hydraulic and hydrostatic engine" to the international exhibition at
London in 1862.
5
Both of these inventions were afterwards
patented and manufactured by a Wakefield firm.
1 Preface to poems.
2 Paper by his son. This was read before several societies in America
(published in the
Mona's Herald of
Sept. 14, 1890). Our
readers are referred to it for further particulars
3 See the Paper by his son.
4 G. F. Nesbitt & Co., New York. Publishers.
5 These machines were brought over to England by his son-in-law, Mr.
C. S. Dawson, who has approved. of. the above sketch. We are glad to
learn that Mr. Dawson proposes issuing a new and largely increased
edition of Kennish's poems.
see also article by Mrs E G Quayle Proc
IoMNHAS vol 6 no 2 p181/191
1961
Poetry:
Mona's Isle
A Manxman's
Farewell
The bard's
lamentation
Awake my
muse
Dobberan Chengey-ny Mayrey Ellan Vannin
Lament of the Mother Tongue (another english translation -
Mannin Vol 1 pp49/50
)
Other References:
View of Cornaa Cottage
The Gob ny Scuit Boagane
Manx Soc Vol 21 p193/4
.
Ny Kirree fo-Sniaghtey
Manx Soc 16 p126
/133
Oiel Verry
Manx Soc 16 p157/165
Memorial for Harbours of Refuge
A Manxman to the very last (William Kennish b. 1799)
IoM FHS special issue
Vol 11 p17/19 1989 (description of biographical film)
Manx Liberal,
20 May 1840 p4, Letter re his employment at Woolwich (in Civil Architect dept) which work does
not agree with him and that he is looking to return to the Island..
Robert W. Stimpson
William Kennish Manninagh Dooie - True Manxman
Lily: Isle of Man 2011 (ISBN 978-1-90794508-3)
- a truely impressive and comphrehensive biography which include reprints of all known publications and poetry