Yarrow Shipbuilders
Parent Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (1968–1970) | Yarrow & Co. Ltd. (1970–1977) British Shipbuilders (1977–1985) GEC Marconi (1985–1999) BAE Systems (1999–present) | |
Subsidiaries | Coventry Ordnance Works (1905–1925) |
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Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the
History
Origins in London
The company was founded by
Move to Glasgow
Despite a move of yards, Yarrows outgrew its London site and this and the cost of land and labour in London led to a second move to what was at that time a greenfield site at
The Yarrow company was one of the world's leading builders of destroyers and frigates from early on, building ships for both the Royal Navy and numerous export customers. For many years until the 1960s Yarrow also built a large number of merchant ships, specialising particularly on Riverboat vessels for the rivers and lakes of Burma, India, Africa and South America.
Several of these vessels were built to serve on lakes that had no navigable access to deliver them by sea. They were therefore built as "knock downs"; that is, they were assembled temporarily in the shipyard, disassembled into a large number of sections and transported to the lake, and there assembled permanently and launched. Yarrow's Scotstoun yard built the "knock down" ferry MV Ilala for Nyasaland in 1949. She was completed and launched on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in 1951. The yard built three "knock down" ferries for Lake Victoria in East Africa. RMS Victoria was built in Scotstoun in 1960[6] and reassembled at the Kenyan port of Kisumu on the lake in 1961.[7] The train ferries MV Umoja and MV Uhuru were built in Scotstoun in 1965[8][9] and reassembled at Kisumu in 1965 and 1966.
In total Yarrow built approximately 400 ships on the Clyde – these can be traced in detail in the
The yard continued to expand during the post-war period, acquiring and integrating the shipyard of the neighbouring Blythswood Shipbuilding Company, which had itself been founded in 1919, to the east of the Yarrow yard in 1964. The new acquisition was used by Yarrow to extend their Shipyard, with the construction of three covered building berths and a six-storey Technical Office Block undertaken in the former Blythswood shipyard site during the late 1960s, with the aid of a government grant. Other neighbouring yards was acquired to lengthen the waterfront and provide additional facilities, the price of one being negotiated by Sir Eric Yarrow on the golf course with Sir John Hunter. Eric Yarrow had followed his father on his death as chairman in 1962, becoming the third generation of the family to lead the firm.
During this period, Yarrow was involved in designing and building many of the Royal Navy's post-war escort fleet; including the Type 81 Tribal class, Type 14 Blackwood class and the Type 12M Rothesay-class frigates. The company was also involved in the Leander class programme. During the 1960s ships were built for the navies of South Africa, Chile, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and Iran.
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders and aftermath
In 1968 the Company became part of
The long-term investment in facilities and strong manufacturing credentials, combined with the development of the Yarrow-Admiralty Research Department (Y-ARD) from 1946 ensured that when the number of warship yards was dramatically reduced by the Navy in the 1970s, Yarrows was chosen as one of mainstream contractors alongside Swan Hunter, Vosper (for the Type 21s) and Cammell Laird. The Yarrow Admiralty Research Department (YARD) relocated to the new Charing Cross Tower in central Glasgow in 1976. The Type 21 frigate was the first type in the Navy to be a combined Gas Turbine and Diesel design, using the marine variant of the Rolls-Royce Olympus gas turbine (also used in Concorde). 5 out of 8 Type 21s, 10 out of 14 Type 22s, 12 out of 16 Type 23s and all the Type 45s were built at Scotstoun, demonstrating the firm's dominance in the market for medium-sized RN surface vessels. The sleek, good looks and the sporting performance of the Type 21 frigates led to the captains of the ships being called "boy racers". The vessel could stop from full speed in twice the length of the ship. HMS Ardent was destroyed by Argentinian aircraft in Falkland Sound in May 1982. All of the Yarrow built Type 21s served in the Falklands
Nationalisation
In 1977 the Labour government of
Privatisation
The succeeding government of
Ships built by Yarrow Shipbuilders
Clyde-class RNLI lifeboats
- Charles H Barrett (70-001)
- Grace Paterson Ritchie (70-002)
- KD Hang Tuah (F76) ex-Black Star, ex-HMS Mermaid
- KD Rahmat (F24)
- Lekiu-class frigates
Yarrows Ltd. (Canada)
Yarrows Ltd. was a major ship yard located in
References
- ^ a b University of Glagow Archive Service: Yarrow Shipbuilders[permanent dead link]
- ^ History of London Yard by Angela Brown and Ron Coverson, 2001
- ^ BAE Systems, 1842 Alfred Yarrow
- ISBN 1-4179-5263-6
- ISBN 0-8369-0102-9
- ^ Brown, D.C. (1960). "Check Point". IMechE Proceedings. 50. Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
- ^ von Kienlin, Markus (17 December 2007). "RMS Victoria". Katalog. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Eisenbahngeschichte. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
- ^ Cameron, Stuart (2004). "Umoja". Clyde-built Database. Archived from the original on 23 September 2006. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Cameron, Stuart (2004). "Uhuru". Clyde-built Database. Archived from the original on 23 September 2006. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Government's shipbuilding crisis BBC News, 1 January 002
- ^ Parliamentary debates Hansard, 4 June 1971
- ^ a b c What do you know about Govan? Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine Evening News
- ^ Leon Steyn, "Old Older Oldest - Long Serving Ships of the South African Navy", Military History Journal Vol 18 No 3 December 2018, SA ISSN 0026-4016.
- ISBN 978-0920277836.
- ^ a b "Dave Obee, Shipyards played key role in war effort, Times Colonist (newspaper), 27 June 2010". Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
- ^ Roland H. Webb, Burrard Drydock Co. Ltd.: The Rise and Demise of Vancouver's Biggest Shipyard, The Northern Mariner, Vol. Vi, 1996. Retrieved 10 October 2010
- ^ Yard changes due Monday