McManus 168

The reputation of the ships built under William’s direction attracted the attention of shipowners throughout Britain, including Joseph Soames & Co., for whom he built almost exclusively for several years.^[22][26] Iron construction started to supersede wood and he took up the new method with great success. This led to the enlargement of the yard at Marine Parade on several occasions.^[22] He also built ships for the Dundee Clipper Line including the Lochee, Duntrune, Glamis, Southesk and Maulesden. The latter made a remarkably fast passage of sixty-nine days from the Clyde to Australia in 1883, beating the times of the Cutty Sark, Loch Torridon and other famous ships.^[26] The Glasgow operations of the firm at the Kelvinhaugh yard moved to a new site at Linthouse in 1870.^[26] In the early 1870s William Stephen and his family moved from Airlie Place^[30] to take up residence at Helenslea, West Ferry. This would remain William’s home for the rest of his life.^[31]William’s father, Alexander Stephen, died aged 80 at Corona House, his Broughty Ferry home in 1875,^[32] thus leaving the Dundee yard completely under the control of William. The business continued to trade as Alexander Stephen & Sons.^[33]

William also began to appear in the directories as owner of a number of vessels: Arctic,^[34] Aurora,^[35] Corona,^[36] Cyphrenes,^[37] The Earl of Dalhousie,^[36] Helenslea,^[36] Woodlark,^[36] Terra Nova,^[38] Thetis,^[39] Doris,^[40] Eudora^[41] and Galena.^[42] Not all of these vessels were of iron, as wooden vessels remained important to the whaling industry. The company described itself as iron and wood shipbuilders.^[43] William was given the credit for the resuscitation of the Dundee whaling industry: building steam whalers^[22] and diversifying his business to deal with some of the products of the industry. In addition to shipbuilding Alexander Stephen & Co. also became seal and whale oil merchants and a separate firm William Stephen and Co., Arctic Yard, Marine Parade, Dundee was established for this business.^[44] Another firm: William Stephen & Sons, tanners and curriers, Arctic Tannery, Marine Parade, Dundee was established to deal with skins and furs from the Arctic.^[45]

William and Jean had at least five daughters and four sons, although some of them died quite young.^{[46][47][48][49]} William’s first wife, Jean, also died relatively young aged 47 in 1877 and the following year he married Elizabeth Margaret Henderson, the daughter of the late John Henderson of Ganthorpe, Yorkshire. The importance of William to the whale industry and trade is demonstrated by how widely his second marriage was reported in Newfoundland, Canada.^[4] They had a further two sons and a daughter. Some of William’s sons from his first marriage entered into the family businesses: Andrew Henderson Stephen (1861-1921) was a tanner,^[50][51] William Stephen junior (1863-1888) was part of Alexander Stephen & Sons^[52][48] and their younger brother, Frederick Somerville Stephen (1870-1926) followed in due course.^[53][54]

William died during a family tour of the Highlands. He took ill while at his sister’s in Grantown-on-Spey, dying there on 7 September 1893. He was described as the sole partner of Alexander Stephen & Sons, shipbuilders, Dundee; William Stephen & Sons, tanners there and William Stephen & Co., seal and whale oil merchants there and at St. John’s, Newfoundland.^[55] He left a widow, four sons and two daughters.^[22] The value of his estate was £219,296 17s. 4d.^[56]