Yarrow Shipbuilders

Origins in London

The company was founded by Alfred Yarrow, later Sir Alfred Yarrow, 1st Baronet, in the year 1865 as Yarrow & Company, Limited.^[1] Originally it was based at Folly Wall, Poplar, then in 1898 as the company grew, Yarrow moved his shipyard to London Yard, Cubitt Town.^[2][3] Hundreds of steam launches, lake and river vessels, and eventually the Royal Navy's first destroyers, the Havock class, were built at Yarrow's London shipyards between 1869 and 1908. Yarrow was also a builder of boilers, and a type of water-tube boiler developed and patented by the company was known as the "Yarrow boiler", first used in a torpedo boat in 1887 and later used for a number of applications, from the propulsion plant of RMS Queen Mary to the LNER Class W1 locomotive.^[4] The diversification into boiler manufacturing, including large boilers for electricity generation, meant that the company survived the lean years for shipbuilding. Alfred Yarrow was an inventive naval engineer, and was responsible for a number of novel introductions into service which led to the development of increasingly fast warships. Ultimately in the Royal Navy and abroad it became known that a "Yarrow ship was a fast ship", with the company building the first naval vessel globally to exceed 30 knots and then, later, 40 knots. Sir Alfred Yarrow was knighted for services to the war effort in 1916. He was a notable benefactor to many charities.

Move to Glasgow

An advertisement for Yarrow & Co. Ltd. in the 1923 Brassey's Naval Annual, featuring the S-class destroyer HMS Tyrian and the Fly-class gunboat

General arrangement of the Charger-class destroyers built by Yarrow & Co. at Poplar, London, 1894–95.

A Thyella-class destroyer for the Royal Hellenic Navy being launched at Yarrow's London Yard in Cubitt Town, 1906.

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 Scotstoun in the west of Glasgow, beginning in 1906.^[1] Between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of material had to be transported, from models to heavy machine tools. A train-load of from forty to fifty wagons left the works at Poplar every day. The first vessel launched from the new works at Scotstoun on 14 July 1908 was the lead ship of the Pará-class destroyers for the Brazilian Navy.^[5] Sir Harold Yarrow, eldest son of Sir Alfred, supervised the move to Scotland whilst still in his early twenties, and ran the company in Scotland. The company also established the Coventry Ordnance Works joint venture in 1905, building a large factory near to its Scotstoun Shipyard in 1910. During the First World War, the company developed the pioneering Erskine artificial limb with Sir William Macewen and Sir Harold Yarrow was one of the founders of the Erskine Hospital for disabled ex-servicemen. Yarrow workshops were used to manufacture artificial limbs at no profit.

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 Clyde-built Ship Database.

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 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders^[10] which collapsed in 1971.^[11] Yarrows had already left the UCS joint venture by April 1970 however, as the only profitable division of the joint venture. In 1974 it acquired the neighbouring Elderslie Dockyard, owned by Barclay Curle, which lay to the west of the Yarrow yard and included an extensive complex of three drydocks originally built in 1904 (No. 1 Dry Dock), 1933 (No. 2 Dry Dock) and 1965 (No. 3 Dry Dock). During this period Yarrow was involved in the Type 12I Leander-class frigate programme as well as the Condell-class frigate for the Chilean Navy and the design of the Nilgiri-class frigate for the Indian Navy.

The long-term investment in facilities and strong manufacturing credentials, combined with the development of the Yarrow Admiralty Research Department (YARD) 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 Type 21 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

June 1979 Polish ships under construction.

In 1977 the Labour government of James Callaghan passed the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 which nationalised Yarrow (Shipbuilders), Limited, and grouped it with other major British shipyards as a division within British Shipbuilders.^[12] Nationalisation was opposed by the owners, and by the minority Conservative party. The last ship launched under private ownership was HMS Battleaxe, a Type 22 launched by Audrey Callaghan, wife of the Prime Minister. Investment continued in the yard, with the construction of a large GRP fabrication hall at the western end of the yard, adjacent to the Elderslie dry docks during the late 1970s. Dry dock No.1 was also covered over. This was in preparation for the Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel project, although only two vessels of the class were eventually built at Yarrow. The long-disused hall was subsequently demolished in 2008. The parent company, Yarrow PLC, retained ownership of non-shipbuilding assets, including YARD Ltd. Yarrow plc was subsequently sold to CAP Ltd in the mid-1980s, and in turn was owned by Sema Group PLC and Schlumberger.

Privatisation

Launch of HMS Daring, a Type 45 destroyer from the former YSL yard, now BAE Systems in 2006.

The succeeding government of Margaret Thatcher began a privatisation programme and the profitable Yarrow was one of British Shipbuilders' early divestitures. It was sold in 1985 to GEC's GEC-Marconi division, becoming Marconi Marine (YSL). GEC began a programme of major capital investment, culminating in the construction of a large Module Hall, north of the covered building berths, in 1987.^[12] The principal work undertaken during this period was on the Type 22 Broadsword class and Type 23 Duke class frigates for the Royal Navy and the Lekiu-class frigate for the Royal Malaysian Navy as well as the Type 45 Destroyers for the Royal Navy. In 1999 Marconi Electronic Systems was sold to British Aerospace, creating BAE Systems. Marconi Marine (YSL) then became part of BAE Systems Marine.^[12] Since 2009, YSL is part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, a BAE Systems subsidiary.

Yarrows in Canada

Yarrows Ltd. was a major ship yard located in Esquimalt, British Columbia on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Established in 1893 as the Esquimalt Marine Railway Co., later B.C. Marine Railway Co., by W. Fitzherbert Bullen, it ran small marine railways in Victoria and Vancouver. Sir Alfred Yarrow purchased the yard in 1913, renamed it Yarrows Ltd., and installed as manager his son, Norman Yarrow. From its early start building ships for the Canadian Pacific Railway, the yard expanded during the First World War to repair and refit many vessels for the Royal Navy, employing up to 800 men. In the late 1920s, the larger Esquimalt graving dock was completed. During the Second World War the company produced corvettes, frigates, landing ships, and transport ferries for the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy, as well as freighters. Other work included arming civilian ships and refitting at least one as a troop carrier. At its peak, 3,500 men and women worked for Yarrows in the yard. After the war, the Yarrow family sold the yard to Burrard Dry Dock.^[13] The yard was closed in 1994 and the graving dock and property are now part of the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt.^[14]

Discover more about History related topics

Alfred Yarrow

Alfred Yarrow

Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, 1st Baronet, was a British shipbuilder who started a shipbuilding dynasty, Yarrow Shipbuilders.

Poplar, London

Poplar, London

Poplar is a district in East London, England, now part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.

London Yard

London Yard

London Yard was a shipyard in London, in use between around 1856 and 1908 by various shipbuilding companies, including Westwood, Baillie and Yarrow Shipbuilders.

Cubitt Town

Cubitt Town

Cubitt Town is a district on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs in London, England. This part of the former Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was redeveloped as part of the Port of London in the 1840s and 1850s by William Cubitt, Lord Mayor of London (1860–1862), after whom it is named. It is on the east of the Isle, facing Royal Borough of Greenwich across the River Thames. To the west is Millwall, to the east and south is Greenwich, to the northwest Canary Wharf and to the north, across the Blue Bridge, is Blackwall. It is in Blackwall & Cubitt Town Ward of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council.

Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.

Destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or battle group and defend them against powerful short-range attackers. They were originally developed in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.

Havock-class destroyer

Havock-class destroyer

The Havock class was a class of torpedo boat destroyer (TBD) of the British Royal Navy. The two ships, Havock and Hornet, built in London in 1893 by Yarrow & Company, were the first TBDs to be completed for the Royal Navy, although the equivalent pair from J.I. Thornycroft, Daring and Decoy, were ordered five days earlier.

RMS Queen Mary

RMS Queen Mary

The RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that sailed primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard-White Star Line and was built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Queen Mary, along with RMS Queen Elizabeth, was built as part of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg and New York. The two ships were a British response to the express superliners built by German, Italian and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

LNER Class W1

LNER Class W1

The LNER W1 No. 10000 was an experimental steam locomotive fitted with a high pressure water-tube boiler. Nigel Gresley was impressed by the results of using high-pressure steam in marine applications and so in 1924 he approached Harold Yarrow of shipyard and boilermakers Yarrow & Company of Glasgow to design a suitable boiler for a railway locomotive, based on Yarrow's design.

S-class destroyer (1917)

S-class destroyer (1917)

The S class was a class of 67 destroyers ordered for the Royal Navy in 1917 under the 11th and 12th Emergency War Programmes. They saw active service in the last months of the First World War and in the Russian and Irish Civil Wars during the early 1920s. Most were relegated to the reserve by the mid-1920s and subsequently scrapped under the terms of the London Naval Treaty. Eleven survivors saw much action during the Second World War.

Fly-class gunboat

Fly-class gunboat

The Fly-class river gunboats, collectively often referred to as the "Tigris gunboat flotilla", were a class of small well-armed Royal Navy vessels designed to patrol the Tigris river during the Mesopotamian Campaign during the First World War.

Charger-class destroyer

Charger-class destroyer

The three Charger-class destroyers were all ordered by the British Admiralty on 12 October 1893 and on completion in early 1896 they served with the Royal Navy until 1911.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

Clyde-class RNLI lifeboats

• Charles H Barrett (70-001)
• Grace Paterson Ritchie (70-002)

Royal Malaysian Navy

• KD Hang Tuah (F76) ex-Black Star, ex-HMS Mermaid
• KD Rahmat (F24)
• Lekiu-class frigates
  • KD Jebat (F29)
  • KD Lekiu (F30)

Discover more about Ships built by Yarrow related topics

NMS Rândunica

NMS Rândunica

NMS Rândunica was the first torpedo boat of the Romanian Navy. A small British-built spar torpedo boat, she was commissioned in 1875 and fought during the Romanian War of Independence and during World War I.

Chilean torpedo boat Colo Colo

Chilean torpedo boat Colo Colo

Colo Colo was a Colo Colo-class torpedo boat built for the Chilean Navy in 1880. The torpedo boat participated in the War of the Pacific, where it fought in the blockade of Callao and patrolled Lake Titicaca in the final phase of that war.

Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka

Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka

Kotaka was a torpedo boat of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was ordered in 1885 from the shipbuilder Yarrows in London, Great Britain, where she was built in parts along Japanese specifications, and then assembled in Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japan.

Havock-class destroyer

Havock-class destroyer

The Havock class was a class of torpedo boat destroyer (TBD) of the British Royal Navy. The two ships, Havock and Hornet, built in London in 1893 by Yarrow & Company, were the first TBDs to be completed for the Royal Navy, although the equivalent pair from J.I. Thornycroft, Daring and Decoy, were ordered five days earlier.

HMS Havock (1893)

HMS Havock (1893)

HMS Havock was a Havock-class torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy built by the Yarrow shipyard. She was one of the first destroyers ordered by the Royal Navy, and the first to be delivered.

HMS Hornet (1893)

HMS Hornet (1893)

HMS Hornet was a Havock-class torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She was launched in 1893 and sold in 1909 for scrapping. Although the Daring-class torpedo boat destroyers were ordered first, Havock and Hornet were completed faster, making them the first destroyers ever built.

Ikazuchi-class destroyer

Ikazuchi-class destroyer

The Ikazuchi-class destroyers was a class of six torpedo boat destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which were built in Britain in 1897-99. All were named after celestial phenomena.

PS Waimarie

PS Waimarie

The Paddle Steamer Waimarie is an historic riverboat based on the Whanganui River in New Zealand. She is the only coal–fired paddle steamer still operating in New Zealand. Waimarie was built in 1899 by Yarrow & Co. in London and transported to New Zealand in kitset form to be assembled at Whanganui. She operated on the Whanganui River for 49 years before being laid up. In 1952 she sank at her moorings and lay in the mud for the next 40 years.

River-class destroyer

River-class destroyer

The River-class destroyer was a class of torpedo boat destroyer built for the Royal Navy at the turn of the 20th century, and which saw extensive service in World War I. The class introduced new features to destroyer design, placing a greater emphasis on seakeeping and endurance and less on a high maximum speed in good weather. All the ships were named after British and Irish rivers, and as such were the first Royal Navy destroyer class to be named systematically.

HMS Teviot (1903)

HMS Teviot (1903)

HMS Teviot was a Yarrow type River Class Destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1902 – 1903 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Teviot in southern Scotland near the border with England, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy. She served during World War 1, primarily on anti-submarine duty in the Channel, and was sold for breaking up in 1919.

HMS Usk (1903)

HMS Usk (1903)

HMS Usk was a Yarrow type River Class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901 – 1902 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Usk in Wales flowing through Newport, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy.

HMS Ribble (1904)

HMS Ribble (1904)

HMS Ribble was a Yarrow-type River-class destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1901 – 1902 Naval Estimates. Named after the River Ribble in northern England, she was the first ship to carry this name in the Royal Navy.