 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
| Founded | 1851; 175 years ago (1851) |
| Defunct | 1986; 40 years ago (1986) |
| Fate | Shipyard amalgamated intoUpper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS), 1968 |
| Successor | Shipyard sold by UCS to Marathon Manufacturing Company, 1972 John Brown Engineering bought byTrafalgar House, 1986 |
| Headquarters | Clydebank, Scotland |
Key people | George Thomson (founder) James Thomson (founder) Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway (Chairman) Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway (Chairman) Charles McLaren, 3rd Baron Aberconway (Chairman) |
| Products | Naval ships Merchant ships Submarines marine engines |
| Parent | John Brown & Company (1899–1968) |
| Subsidiaries | Coventry Ordnance Works |
John Brown and Company ofClydebank was a Scottishmarine engineering andshipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships includingRMS Lusitania,RMS Aquitania,HMS Hood,HMS Repulse,RMS Queen Mary,RMS Queen Elizabeth andQueen Elizabeth 2.
At its height, from 1900 to the 1950s, it was one of the most highly regarded, and internationally famous, shipbuilding companies in the world.[1] However thereafter, along with other UK shipbuilders, John Brown's found it increasingly difficult to compete with the emerging shipyards in Eastern Europe and the far East. In 1968 John Brown's merged with other Clydeside shipyards to form theUpper Clyde Shipbuilders consortium, but that collapsed in 1971.
The company exited from shipbuilding but its engineering arm remained successful in the manufacture of industrialgas turbines. In 1986 it became awholly owned subsidiary ofTrafalgar House, which in 1996 was taken over byKvaerner. The latter closed the Clydebank engineering works in 2000.
Marathon Manufacturing Company bought the Clydebank shipyard from UCS and used it to buildoil rig platforms for theNorth Sea oil industry. Union Industrielle d'Entreprise (UIE) (part of the FrenchBouygues group) bought the yard in 1980 and closed it in 2001.
Two brothers — James andGeorge Thomson, who had worked for the engineerRobert Napier — founded the engineering and shipbuilding company J&G Thomson. The brothers founded the Clyde Bank Foundry in Anderston in 1847. They opened the Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard atCessnock,Govan, in 1851 and launched their first ship,Jackal, in 1852. They quickly established a reputation in building prestigious passenger ships, buildingJura forCunard in 1854 and the record-breakingRussia in 1867.[2][3][4] Several of the ships they built were bought by theConfederacy forblockade running in the American Civil War, includingCSSRobert E. Lee andFingal, which was converted into the ironcladAtlanta.[5]
The brothers separated their business association in 1850 and, after an acrimonious split, George took over the shipbuilding end of the association. James Thomas started a new business. George Thomson died in 1866, followed in 1870 by his brother James.[6] They were succeeded by the sons of the younger brother George, called James Rodger Thomson and George Paul Thomson. Faced with the compulsory purchase of their shipyard by the Clyde Navigation Trust (which wanted the land to construct the newPrinces' Dock), they established a new Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard further downriver at the Barns o' Clyde, near the village ofDalmuir, in 1871. This site at the confluence of the tributaryRiver Cart with theRiver Clyde, at Newshot Island, allowed very large ships to be launched. The brothers soon moved their iron foundry and engineering works to the same site. The connection to the area was so complete that James Rodger Thomson became the first Provost of Clydebank. Despite intermittent financial difficulties, the company developed a reputation based on engineering quality and innovation. The rapid growth of the shipyard and its ancillary works, and the building of housing for the workers, resulted in the formation of a new town which took its name from that of the shipyard which gave birth to it —Clydebank.[2]
One of their final ships was the 1779 ton SY 'Mayflower' built in 1897 to a design byGeorge Lennox Watson forOgden Goelet. This was within a year sold to the US Navy and in 1902 was recommissioned and refitted to serve as the US Presidential yacht. Ogden's brother,Robert Goelet, commissioned a sister ship, 'SY Nahma' .[7]
In 1899 the steelmakerJohn Brown and Company ofSheffield bought J&G Thomson's Clydebank yard for £923,255 3s 3d.[2]
John Brown was born inSheffield in 1816, the son of a slater. At the age of 14, unwilling to follow his father's plans for him to become adraper, he obtained a position as anapprentice with Earle Horton & Co. The company subsequently entered thesteel business and at the age of 21, John Brown with the backing of his father and uncle obtained a bank loan for £500 to enable him to become the company's sales agent. He was so successful, he made enough money to set up his own business, the Atlas Steel Works.[8]
In 1848 Brown developed and patented the conical springbuffer forrailway carriages, which was very successful. With a growing reputation and fortune, he moved to a larger site in 1856. He began to make his owniron fromiron ore, rather than buying it, and in 1858 adopted theBessemer process for producing steel. These moves all proved successful and lucrative, and in 1861 he started supplying steelrails to the rapidly expanding railway industry.[8]
His next move was to examine theiron cladding used on French warships. He decided that he could do better, and built a steelrolling mill that, in 1863, was the first to roll 12-inch (300 mm)armour plate for warships. By 1867 his iron cladding was being used on the majority ofRoyal Navy warships. By then, his workforce had grown to over 4,000 and his company's annual turnover was almost £1 million.[8]
Despite this success, however, Brown was finding it increasingly difficult working with the two partners and shareholders he took into the company in 1859.William Bragge was an engineer, andJohn Devonshire Ellis came from a family of successful brass founders inBirmingham. As well as contributing a patented design for creating compound iron plate faced with steel, Ellis brought with him his expertise and ability in running a large company. Together, the three partners created John Brown & Company, a limited company. Brown resigned from the company in 1871. In subsequent years he started several new business ventures, all of which failed. Brown died impoverished in 1896, aged 80.[8]
The company Brown had set up with his partners, however, John Brown & Company, continued steadily under the management of Ellis and his two sons (Charles Ellis andWilliam Henry Ellis).
In 1899 the company bought theClydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding shipyard fromJ & G Thomson, and embarked on a new phase in its history, as ashipbuilder.[8] The Director at this stage wasJohn Gibb Dunlop from Thomsons, who took charge of the ship design.[9] A legal case resolved in 1904 by theHouse of Lords between Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding and Don Jose Ramos Yzquierdo y Castaneda, a minister in theSpanish government, dealt with a situation in which
a party to an agreement has admittedly broken it, and an action was brought for the purpose of enforcing the payment of a sum of money which, by the agreement between the parties, was fixed as that which the defenders were to pay in the event that has happened,[10]
a significant case in the history of legal rulings onpenalty clauses andliquidated damages.[11]
In the early 1900s, the company innovated marine engineering technology through the development of the Brown-Curtisturbine, which had been originally developed and patented by the U.S. company International Curtis Marine Turbine Co. These engines' performance impressed the Admiralty, which consequently ordered many of the major Royal Navy warships from John Brown. The first notable order was for thebattlecruiserHMS Inflexible, followed by the battlecruisersHMAS Australia,HMS Tiger and the battleshipHMS Barham.
Clydebank also becameCunard Line's preferred shipbuilder, building its flagship linersRMS Lusitania andRMS Aquitania. Prior to construction commencing onLusitania in 1904 the shipyard was reorganized to accommodate her so that she could be launched diagonally across the widest available part of the river Clyde where it met a tributary (theRiver Cart), the ordinary width of the river being only 610 feet (190 m) compared to the 786-foot (240 m) long ship. The new slipway took up the space of two existing ones and was built on reinforcing piles driven deeply into the ground to ensure it could take the temporary concentrated weight of the whole ship as it slid into the water. In addition, the company spent £8,000 to dredge the Clyde, £6,500 on a new gas plant, £6,500 on a new electrical plant, £18,000 to extend the dock and £19,000 for a new crane capable of lifting 150 tons, as well as £20,000 on additional machinery and equipment.[12]
In 1905 Brown's established theCoventry Ordnance Works joint venture withYarrow Shipbuilders and others. In 1909 the company bought a stake inSociedad Española de Construcción Naval.
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By the early 1900s, the Clydebank works had expanded to cover 80 acres (32 ha) spread along Dumbarton Road, consisting of the East and West yards, which were separated by a fitting out basin, where once launched the hulls are fitted out with the aid of two cranes each capable of lifting 150 tons. The east yard contained five building slipways, each of which could accommodate the building of the largest battleship, with one slip long enough to build a ship of over 900 ft (270 m). The west yard was used to build smaller ships such as destroyers.
Associated with the shipyard was the engine works where the company built turbines and boilers both for its own ships and for other companies.
Apart from a brief period in 1917, the works manager throughout the entire First World War wasThomas Bell. He was knighted in 1918 for his efforts.[13]
Despite being an essential industry the works had difficulty obtaining suitable workers to build all the ships on its order books. In an attempt to reduce the labour shortage it employed women in a number of jobs under a scheme called "dilution" whereby it was agreed with the unions that once the war ended the women would give up their jobs. Throughout the war the company employed on average 10,000 workers at Clydebank works, of which 7,000 were in the shipyard and 3,000 in the engine works.[14] In January 1918, 87 of these were women.
To increase productively, throughout 1914–18 the company continually invested in new facilities and tools. In 1915 it introduced pneumatic riveting which needed only one riveter whereas previously two had been required.
During the war, the company was almost exclusively occupied in building warships. With the exception of the battlecruisersRepulse andHood, this warship building was concentrated on destroyers. By the end of the war, it had built more destroyers than any other British shipyard and set records for their building withHMS Simoom taking seven months from keel laying to departure,HMS Scythe six months andHMS Scotsman five and a half months.[15] The company estimated that during the entire war period it produced a total of 205,430 tons of shipping and 1,720,000 hp (1,280,000 kW) of machinery.[15]
The end of the First World War and subsequent shortage of naval orders hit British shipbuilding very hard and John Brown only just survived. Three great ships saved the yard:RMS Empress of Britain, and the giant Cunard White Star LinersRMS Queen Mary andRMS Queen Elizabeth. A fictionalised account of the hardships of the industry is portrayed in the 1939 feature filmShipyard Sally.
Although Glasgow's history as a major shipbuilding city made it a prime target for the GermanLuftwaffe, and despite theClydebank Blitz, the yard made a valuable contribution in the Second World War, building and repairing many battleships including the notable and highly successfulHMS Duke of York. The first few years after the war saw a sudden reduction in warship orders, but it was balanced by a prolonged boom in merchant shipbuilding to replace tonnage lost during the war. The most notable vessels built in this period were theRMS Caronia and the royal yachtHMY Britannia.
By the end of the 1950s, however, shipbuilding in other European nations, and in Korea and Japan, was newly recapitalised and had become highly productive by using new methods such asmodular design. Many British yards had continued to use outmoded working practices and largely obsolete equipment, making themselves uncompetitive. At Clydebank the company tendered for a series ofbreak-even contracts, most notably the linerKungsholm, in the hope of surviving the competition and maintaining production in anticipation of a new high-profile contract from Cunard for a new liner. However, due to rising costs and inflationary pressures, the company suffered major and unsustainable losses, in contrast with the positive portrayal of the industry in theAcademy Award-winning filmSeawards the Great Ships. By the mid 1960s John Brown & Co's management warned that the shipyard was uneconomic and risked closure. Its lastRoyal Navy order was for theFearless-class landing platform dockHMS Intrepid, which was launched in 1964 and underwent trials and commissioning in 1967. The final passenger liner order eventually came from Cunard forQueen Elizabeth 2.
In 1968 the yard merged intoUpper Clyde Shipbuilders,[16] but this consortium collapsed in 1971.[17] The last ship to be built at the yard, theClyde-class bulk grain carrierAlisa, was completed in 1972.[18]
In 1972 UCS's liquidator sold the Clydebank shipyard toMarathon Manufacturing Company.Union Industrielle d'Entreprise (UIE) (part of the FrenchBouygues group) bought the yard in 1980, using it to buildJack-up andSemi-submersible rigs forNorth Sea oil fields. UIE closed the yard in 2001.[19]
The commercially successful John Brown Engineering division of the company, which madepipelines and industrialgas turbines and included other subsidiaries such asMarkham & Co., continued to trade independently until 1986, when the industrial conglomerateTrafalgar House took it over.[20]
In 1996Kvaerner bought Trafalgar House.[21] It later was split, withKvaerner retaining some assets, including the Clydebank-based John Brown Engineering — which became Kvaerner Energy, andYukos buying John Brown Hydrocarbons and Davy Process Technology, both based in London.[22] In 2000 Kvaerner Energy closed its gas turbine works in Clydebank with the loss of 200 jobs, finally ending the link between John Brown and Clydebank. The site was demolished in 2002. John Brown Hydrocarbons was sold toCB&I in 2003 and renamed CB&I John Brown, and later CB&I UK Limited.[23] A newgas turbine servicing and maintenance company formed by former management of John Brown Engineering, headed by Duncan Wilson and other engineers from the Clydebank site, named John Brown Engineering Gas Turbines Ltd, was re-established inEast Kilbride in 2001.[24]
A comprehensive regeneration plan for the site is being implemented byWest Dunbartonshire Council andScottish Enterprise. This includes making theClydebank waterfront more accessible to the public. Restoration of the historicTitan Crane — built bySir William Arrol & Co. for the shipyard — was completed in 2007.[25] A new campus forClydebank College was opened in August 2007. Regeneration plans also include improved infrastructure, modern offices, a light industrial estate and new housing, retail and leisure facilities. It was hoped that as part of the planQueen Elizabeth 2 would be returned to the city and river where she was built, but on 18 June 2007Cunard Line announced that she would be sold toDubai as a floating hotel.[26]
See:List of ships built by John Brown & Company
55°53′52″N4°24′16″W / 55.897786°N 4.404423°W /55.897786; -4.404423
Shipyards of theClyde | |
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