John Brown & Company
Encyclopedia
John Brown and Company of Clydebank
was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering
and shipbuilding
firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the (often referred to as the QE2). At their height, from 1900 to the 1950s, they were one of the most highly regarded, and internationally famous, shipbuilding companies in the world. However after that time, along with other UK shipbuilders, they found it increasingly difficult to compete with the emerging shipyards in Eastern Europe and the far East.
In 1968, they merged with other Clydeside shipyards to form the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
consortium, but that collapsed in 1971. John Brown and Company ceased its involvement with shipbuilding. The engineering wing of the company continued successfully and was eventually bought out by Trafalgar House
in 1986. It continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Trafalgar House until 1996, when Trafalgar House was acquired by Kvaerner, which later closed the Clydebank engineering works in 2000. The Clydebank shipyard was purchased from UCS initially by Marathon Oil
, and subsequently taken over in 1980 by UiE Scotland (part of the French Bouygues
group), and was used for the construction of oil rig platforms
for the North Sea oil
industry, until finally being closed down in 2001.
– who had worked for the famous engineer Robert Napier
. The Thomson brothers established the "Clyde Bank Foundry" in Anderston in 1847. In 1851 they opened a shipyard – the Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard – at Cessnock
, launching their first ship, the , in 1852. They quickly established a reputation in building prestigious passenger ships, building the for Cunard
in 1854 and the record breaking in 1867.
By the start of the 1870s, the original brothers had retired from the business, which was now being run by the sons of the elder brother, also called James and George Thomson. Faced with the compulsory purchase of their shipyard by the Clyde Navigation Trust (which was running out of space for commercial quays to handle the growing trade and industry in Glasgow
), they set up a new "Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard" further down river at the Barns o' Clyde, near the village of Dalmuir
, in 1871. This location at the confluence of the tributary River Cart
with the River Clyde
, at Newshot Island, allowed very large ships to be launched. Despite intermittent financial difficulties the company developed a reputation based on engineering quality and innovation. They soon moved their iron foundry and engineering works to the same location. The rapid expansion of the shipyard and its ancillary works, and the construction of housing for the workers, resulted in the formation of a new town which took its name from the name of the shipyard which had given birth to it - Clydebank
.
John Brown & Company
, a Sheffield
-based steel
-manufacturer bought J&G Thomson's Clydebank yard in 1899 for the sum of £923,255 3s 3d.
was born in Sheffield
, in 1816, the son of a slater. At the age of 14, unwilling to follow his father's plans for him to become a draper
, he obtained a position as an apprentice with Earle Horton & Co. The company subsequently entered the steel
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.
In 1848, Brown developed and patented the conical spring buffer
for trains carriages, which was extremely successful. With a growing reputation and fortune, he moved to a larger site in 1856. He began to manufacture his own iron
from iron ore, rather than buying it in, and in 1858 adopted the Bessemer process
for producing steel
. These moves all proved successful and lucrative, and in 1861 he started supplying steel rails
to the rapidly expanding railway
industry.
His next move was to examine the French "iron cladding
" used on its warship
s. He decided that he could do better, and built a steel rolling mill which, in 1863, was the first to roll 12 inches (304.8 mm) armour plate for warships. By 1867, his iron cladding was being used on the majority of British warships. By then, his workforce had grown to over 4,000, and the annual turnover in the company was almost £1 million.
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, and John Devonshire Ellis came from a family of successful brass founders in Birmingham
. As well 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 the years that followed, he started several new business ventures, all of which failed, and he died, impoverished, in 1896, at the age of 80.
The company he set up with his partners, however, John Brown & Company, continued steadily under the management of Ellis and his two sons (Charles Ellis and William Henry Ellis
). In 1899 it bought the Clydebank shipyard from J & G Thomson, and embarked on a new phase in its history, as a shipbuilder.
In the early 1900s, the company innovated marine engineering technology through the development of the Brown-Curtis turbine
, which had been originally developed and patented by the U.S. company International Curtis Marine Turbine Co. The performance of these engines impressed the Royal Navy which, as a consequence, placed orders for many of its major warships with John Brown. The first notable order was for the battlecruiser
HMS Invincible
, followed by the battlecruisers HMAS Australia
, HMS Tiger
and the battleship HMS Barham.
They also became the shipbuilders of choice for the Cunard Line
, building their flagship liners: the and . The company also established the Coventry Ordnance Works
joint venture with Yarrow Shipbuilders
and others in 1905. In 1909, the company also bought a stake in Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval
.
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By the early 1900s the Clydebank works had expanded to cover 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) 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 using the services of two cranes each capable of lifting 150 tons. The east yard contained five building slips, each of which was capable of accommodating the construction of the largest battleship, with one slip capable of constructing a ship of over 900 ft (274.3 m). The west yard was used for the construction of smaller ships such as destroyers.
Associated with the shipyard was the engine works where the company built not only turbines and boilers for its own ships but also for other companies.
Except for a brief period in 1917 the works manager throughout the entire war period was Thomas Bell. He was knighted in 1918 for his efforts.
Despite being an essential industry the works had difficulty obtaining suitable workers to construct all the ships on their order books. In an attempt to address this issue, woman were employed in a number of areas 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 its Clydebank works divided between 7000 in the shipyard and 3000 in the engine works. Of these in January 1918, 87 were woman.
To increase productively the company throughout the 1914-18 period continually invested in new facilities and tools. In 1915 it introduced pneumatic riveting which need only one riveter whereas previously two had been required.
During the war the company was almost exclusively occupied with the manufacture of warships which, with the exception of the battlecruisers Repulse and Hood, were concentrated on the building of destroyers. By the end of the war it had produced more destroyers than any other British shipyard and set records for their construction with HMS Simoom taking 7 months from keel laying to departure, HMS Scythe 6 months and HMS Scotsman 5.5 months. The company estimated that during the entire war period it produced a total of 205,430 tons of shipping and 1720000 hp of machinery.
The end of World War I, and the subsequent famine of naval orders hit British shipbuilding extremely hard, and John Brown only just survived, with a fictionalised account of the hardships of the industry portrayed in the popular 1939 film Shipyard Sally
. Three great ships saved the yard however. They were the and the giant Cunard White Star Liners: the and the .
_being_launched.jpg)
The yard made a valuable contribution to the war effort, building and repairing many battleships, including the notable and highly successful . The immediate post war period saw a severe reduction in warship orders which was balanced by a prolonged boom in merchant shipbuilding to replace tonnage lost during the war, the most notable vessels constructed during this period were the and the royal yacht HMY Britannia
. By the end of the 1950s, however, the rise of other shipbuilding nations in Europe, Korea and Japan, newly recapitalised and highly productive, using new methods such as Modular design
, made many British yards, which had continued to use outmoded working practices and largely obsolete equipment, uncompetitive. At Clydebank, the management pursued a strategy of tendering for a series of break-even
contracts, most notably the liner, in the hope of weathering the storm and maintaining production in anticipation of a new high-profile contract from Cunard for a new liner, but due to rising costs and inflationary pressures, the company suffered major and unsustainable losses as a result, despite the positive portrayal of the industry in the Academy Award-winning film Seawards the Great Ships
. By the mid 1960s, John Brown & Co's management, warned that its shipyard was uneconomic and potentially faced closure. The last order for the Royal Navy
came in the form of the Fearless class landing platform dock
, , which was launched in 1964 before undergoing trials and commissioning in 1967.
The last passenger liner order eventually came from Cunard with , but in 1968 the yard merged into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
,Government's shipbuilding crisis BBC News, 1 January 2002 which collapsed in 1971.Parliamentary debates Hansard, 4 June 1971 The last true ship to be built at the yard, the Clyde-class bulk grain carrier, , was completed in 1972. The Clydebank shipyard continued to operate from 1972 under the ownership of Marathon Oil
and then UiE Scotland (part of the French Bouygues
group) from 1980 until 2001, constructing oil platforms in support of the North Sea oil
fields.Clyde Waterfront Heritage: John Brown Shipyard
The commercially successful John Brown Engineering division of the company, which manufactured pipelines
and industrial gas turbine
s and included other subsidiaries like Markham & Co.
, continued to trade independently until 1986, when it was acquired by Trafalgar House
, who also owned the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
.
In 1996 Trafalgar House itself was purchased by Kvaerner. It later was split, with Kvaerner retaining some assets, which became Kvaerner Energy, and Yukos
obtaining John Brown Hydrocarbons and Davy Process Technology, both based in London. In 2000 Kvaerner Energy closed its gas turbine manufacturing in Clydebank with the loss of 200 jobs, finally ending the link between John Brown and Clydebank, with the site demolished in 2002. John Brown Hydrocarbons was sold to CB&I in 2003 and renamed CB&I John Brown, and later CB&I UK Limited. A new Gas Turbine
servicing and maintenance company formed by former management headed by Mr. Duncan Wilson and engineers from John Brown Engineering, named John Brown Engineering Gas Turbines Ltd was re-established in East Kilbride
in 2001.
and Scottish Enterprise
. The masterplan is based around making the Clydebank
waterfront more accessible to the public, and the plans include; restoration of the historic Titan Crane
originally built by Sir William Arrol & Co.
for the Clyde shipyard, the construction of a new campus for Clydebank College
which opened in August 8, improved infrastructure, modern offices and a light industrial estate, and new housing, retail and leisure facilities. It was hoped that the Queen Elizabeth 2 would have been brought back to the city and the river of her birth as part of the plan. On 18 June 2007 the Cunard Line
announced that the ship would be sold to Dubai
as a floating hotel.
Clydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...
was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering
Naval architecture
Naval architecture is an engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction, maintenance and operation of marine vessels and structures. Naval architecture involves basic and applied research, design, development, design evaluation and calculations during all stages of the life of a...
and shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the (often referred to as the QE2). At their height, from 1900 to the 1950s, they were one of the most highly regarded, and internationally famous, shipbuilding companies in the world. However after that time, along with other UK shipbuilders, they found it increasingly difficult to compete with the emerging shipyards in Eastern Europe and the far East.
In 1968, they merged with other Clydeside shipyards to form the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders was a British shipbuilding consortium created in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of five major shipbuilders of the River Clyde in Scotland...
consortium, but that collapsed in 1971. John Brown and Company ceased its involvement with shipbuilding. The engineering wing of the company continued successfully and was eventually bought out by Trafalgar House
Trafalgar House (company)
Trafalgar House Public Limited Company was a British conglomerate with interests in property investment, property development, engineering, construction, shipping, hotels, energy and publishing...
in 1986. It continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Trafalgar House until 1996, when Trafalgar House was acquired by Kvaerner, which later closed the Clydebank engineering works in 2000. The Clydebank shipyard was purchased from UCS initially by Marathon Oil
Marathon Oil
Marathon Oil Corporation is a United States-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Principal exploration activities are in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Canada. Principal development activities are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway,...
, and subsequently taken over in 1980 by UiE Scotland (part of the French Bouygues
Bouygues
Bouygues S.A. is a French industrial group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by Francis Bouygues and since 1989 has been led by his son Martin...
group), and was used for the construction of oil rig platforms
Oil platform
An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...
for the North Sea oil
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
industry, until finally being closed down in 2001.
The shipyard
The shipyard was founded by J&G Thomson, an engineering and shipbuilding company started by two brothers – James and George ThomsonGeorge Thomson (shipbuilder)
George Thomson was a Scottish marine engineer and shipbuilder, born at Partick, Glasgow.He served his apprenticeship with a Mr Graham in Partick before entering the works of Mr Robert Napier, where he quickly gained the best knowledge in marine engineering available.He then went into business with...
– who had worked for the famous engineer Robert Napier
Robert Napier (engineer)
Robert Napier was a Scottish engineer, and is often called "The Father of Clyde Shipbuilding."-Early life:Robert Napier was born in Dumbarton at the height of the Industrial Revolution, to James and Jean Napier...
. The Thomson brothers established the "Clyde Bank Foundry" in Anderston in 1847. In 1851 they opened a shipyard – the Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard – at Cessnock
Cessnock, Glasgow
Cessnock is an area of Glasgow, Scotland located south of the River Clyde. Cessnock's main street is Paisley Road West, this road leads down to Paisley.-Transport:...
, launching their first ship, the , in 1852. They quickly established a reputation in building prestigious passenger ships, building the for Cunard
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
in 1854 and the record breaking in 1867.
By the start of the 1870s, the original brothers had retired from the business, which was now being run by the sons of the elder brother, also called James and George Thomson. Faced with the compulsory purchase of their shipyard by the Clyde Navigation Trust (which was running out of space for commercial quays to handle the growing trade and industry in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
), they set up a new "Clyde Bank Iron Shipyard" further down river at the Barns o' Clyde, near the village of Dalmuir
Dalmuir
Dalmuir is an area on the western side of Clydebank, in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.-Location:It is neighboured by the village of Old Kilpatrick, the Mountblow and Parkhall areas of Clydebank, as well as the town centre...
, in 1871. This location at the confluence of the tributary River Cart
River Cart
The River Cart is a tributary of the River Clyde, Scotland, which it joins from the west roughly midway between the towns of Erskine and Renfrew....
with the River Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
, at Newshot Island, allowed very large ships to be launched. Despite intermittent financial difficulties the company developed a reputation based on engineering quality and innovation. They soon moved their iron foundry and engineering works to the same location. The rapid expansion of the shipyard and its ancillary works, and the construction of housing for the workers, resulted in the formation of a new town which took its name from the name of the shipyard which had given birth to it - Clydebank
Clydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...
.
John Brown & Company
Firth Brown Steels
Firth Brown Steels was initially formed in 1902, when Sheffield steelmakers John Brown and Company exchanged shares and came to a working agreement with neighbouring company Thomas Firth & Sons...
, a Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
-based steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
-manufacturer bought J&G Thomson's Clydebank yard in 1899 for the sum of £923,255 3s 3d.
John Brown & Company
John BrownJohn Brown (industrialist)
Sir John Brown , British industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was known as the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade....
was born in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, in 1816, the son of a slater. At the age of 14, unwilling to follow his father's plans for him to become a draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
, he obtained a position as an apprentice with Earle Horton & Co. The company subsequently entered the steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
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.
In 1848, Brown developed and patented the conical spring buffer
Buffer (rail transport)
A buffer is a part of the buffers-and-chain coupling system used on the railway systems of many countries, among them most of those in Europe, for attaching railway vehicles to one another....
for trains carriages, which was extremely successful. With a growing reputation and fortune, he moved to a larger site in 1856. He began to manufacture his own iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
from iron ore, rather than buying it in, and in 1858 adopted the Bessemer process
Bessemer process
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly...
for producing steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
. These moves all proved successful and lucrative, and in 1861 he started supplying steel rails
Rail tracks
The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast , plus the underlying subgrade...
to the rapidly expanding railway
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
industry.
His next move was to examine the French "iron cladding
Ironclad warship
An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...
" used on its warship
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
s. He decided that he could do better, and built a steel rolling mill which, in 1863, was the first to roll 12 inches (304.8 mm) armour plate for warships. By 1867, his iron cladding was being used on the majority of British warships. By then, his workforce had grown to over 4,000, and the annual turnover in the company was almost £1 million.
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
William Bragge
William Bragge, F.S.A., F.G.S., was a civil engineer, antiquarian, and author. He established a museum and art gallery. He was notable in his day for collecting a library containing the entire literature on tobacco...
was an engineer, and John Devonshire Ellis came from a family of successful brass founders in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. As well 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 the years that followed, he started several new business ventures, all of which failed, and he died, impoverished, in 1896, at the age of 80.
The company he set up with his partners, however, John Brown & Company, continued steadily under the management of Ellis and his two sons (Charles Ellis and William Henry Ellis
William Henry Ellis
Sir William Henry Ellis, GBE was a British civil engineer and steel maker.Ellis was born on 20 August 1860 in Pitsmoor, Sheffield, Yorkshire. He was the son of John Devonshire Ellis and, his wife, Elizabeth Bourne...
). In 1899 it bought the Clydebank shipyard from J & G Thomson, and embarked on a new phase in its history, as a shipbuilder.
John Brown & Company, shipbuilders
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
, which had been originally developed and patented by the U.S. company International Curtis Marine Turbine Co. The performance of these engines impressed the Royal Navy which, as a consequence, placed orders for many of its major warships with John Brown. The first notable order was for the battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
HMS Invincible
HMS Invincible (1907)
HMS Invincible was a battlecruiser of the British Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class of three, and the first battlecruiser to be built by any country in the world. She participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight in a minor role as she was the oldest and slowest of the British battlecruisers...
, followed by the battlecruisers HMAS Australia
HMAS Australia (1911)
HMAS Australia was one of three s built for the defence of the British Empire. Ordered by the Australian government in 1909, she was launched in 1911, and commissioned as flagship of the fledgling Royal Australian Navy in 1913...
, HMS Tiger
HMS Tiger (1913)
The 11th HMS Tiger was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy, built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, and launched in 1913. Tiger was the most heavily armoured battlecruiser of the Royal Navy at the start of the First World War although she was still being finished when the war began...
and the battleship HMS Barham.
They also became the shipbuilders of choice for the Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
, building their flagship liners: the and . The company also established the Coventry Ordnance Works
Coventry Ordnance Works
Coventry Ordnance Works was a British manufacturer of heavy guns, particularly naval artillery. The firm was based in the English city of Coventry.-History:...
joint venture with Yarrow Shipbuilders
Yarrow Shipbuilders
Yarrow Limited , often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde...
and others in 1905. In 1909, the company also bought a stake in Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval
Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval
From 1909 up until the Spanish Civil War, the naval construction in Spain was monopolized by the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval - also Spanish Society for Naval Construction was largely owned by the British , and therefore almost all ships were designed after Royal Navy vessels...
.
World War I
Associated with the shipyard was the engine works where the company built not only turbines and boilers for its own ships but also for other companies.
Except for a brief period in 1917 the works manager throughout the entire war period was Thomas Bell. He was knighted in 1918 for his efforts.
Despite being an essential industry the works had difficulty obtaining suitable workers to construct all the ships on their order books. In an attempt to address this issue, woman were employed in a number of areas 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 its Clydebank works divided between 7000 in the shipyard and 3000 in the engine works. Of these in January 1918, 87 were woman.
To increase productively the company throughout the 1914-18 period continually invested in new facilities and tools. In 1915 it introduced pneumatic riveting which need only one riveter whereas previously two had been required.
During the war the company was almost exclusively occupied with the manufacture of warships which, with the exception of the battlecruisers Repulse and Hood, were concentrated on the building of destroyers. By the end of the war it had produced more destroyers than any other British shipyard and set records for their construction with HMS Simoom taking 7 months from keel laying to departure, HMS Scythe 6 months and HMS Scotsman 5.5 months. The company estimated that during the entire war period it produced a total of 205,430 tons of shipping and 1720000 hp of machinery.
Between the wars
Shipyard Sally
Shipyard Sally is a 1939 British musical comedy film directed by Monty Banks and starring Gracie Fields, Sydney Howard, Norma Varden, Morton Selten and Joan Cowick. Sally, a failed music hall performer, and her father take over a pub near the John Brown & Company shipyard at Clydebank...
. Three great ships saved the yard however. They were the and the giant Cunard White Star Liners: the and the .
World War II and after
HMY Britannia
Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former Royal Yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She was the 83rd such vessel since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. She is the second Royal yacht to bear the name, the first being the famous racing cutter built for The Prince of Wales...
. By the end of the 1950s, however, the rise of other shipbuilding nations in Europe, Korea and Japan, newly recapitalised and highly productive, using new methods such as Modular design
Modular design
Modular design, or "modularity in design" is an approach that subdivides a system into smaller parts that can be independently created and then used in different systems to drive multiple functionalities...
, made many British yards, which had continued to use outmoded working practices and largely obsolete equipment, uncompetitive. At Clydebank, the management pursued a strategy of tendering for a series of break-even
Breakeven
In economics & business, specifically cost accounting, the break-even point is the point at which cost or expenses and revenue are equal: there is no net loss or gain, and one has "broken even"...
contracts, most notably the liner, in the hope of weathering the storm and maintaining production in anticipation of a new high-profile contract from Cunard for a new liner, but due to rising costs and inflationary pressures, the company suffered major and unsustainable losses as a result, despite the positive portrayal of the industry in the Academy Award-winning film Seawards the Great Ships
Seawards the Great Ships
Seawards the Great Ships is a 1961 short documentary film directed by Hilary Harris. It won an Academy Award in 1962 for Best Short Live Action Subject, the first Scottish film to win an Oscar...
. By the mid 1960s, John Brown & Co's management, warned that its shipyard was uneconomic and potentially faced closure. The last order for the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
came in the form of the Fearless class landing platform dock
Fearless class landing platform dock
The Fearless class amphibious assault ships were the first purpose built amphibious warfare vessels in the Royal Navy. The class comprised only two ships: and ....
, , which was launched in 1964 before undergoing trials and commissioning in 1967.
The last passenger liner order eventually came from Cunard with , but in 1968 the yard merged into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders was a British shipbuilding consortium created in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of five major shipbuilders of the River Clyde in Scotland...
,Government's shipbuilding crisis BBC News, 1 January 2002 which collapsed in 1971.Parliamentary debates Hansard, 4 June 1971 The last true ship to be built at the yard, the Clyde-class bulk grain carrier, , was completed in 1972. The Clydebank shipyard continued to operate from 1972 under the ownership of Marathon Oil
Marathon Oil
Marathon Oil Corporation is a United States-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Principal exploration activities are in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Canada. Principal development activities are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway,...
and then UiE Scotland (part of the French Bouygues
Bouygues
Bouygues S.A. is a French industrial group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by Francis Bouygues and since 1989 has been led by his son Martin...
group) from 1980 until 2001, constructing oil platforms in support of the North Sea oil
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
fields.Clyde Waterfront Heritage: John Brown Shipyard
The commercially successful John Brown Engineering division of the company, which manufactured pipelines
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
and industrial gas turbine
Gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
s and included other subsidiaries like Markham & Co.
Markham & Co.
Markham & Co. is an ironworks and steelworks company near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England.- History :The Victoria Foundry near Chesterfield, Derbyshire was owned and successfully run by father and son partnership John and William Oliver from the mid-1850s until 1862 when, following the death of...
, continued to trade independently until 1986, when it was acquired by Trafalgar House
Trafalgar House (company)
Trafalgar House Public Limited Company was a British conglomerate with interests in property investment, property development, engineering, construction, shipping, hotels, energy and publishing...
, who also owned the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company is a renowned bridge building and structural engineering company based in Darlington, England. It has been involved in many major projects including the Victoria Falls Bridge and the Humber Bridge.-History:...
.
In 1996 Trafalgar House itself was purchased by Kvaerner. It later was split, with Kvaerner retaining some assets, which became Kvaerner Energy, and Yukos
YUKOS
OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...
obtaining John Brown Hydrocarbons and Davy Process Technology, both based in London. In 2000 Kvaerner Energy closed its gas turbine manufacturing in Clydebank with the loss of 200 jobs, finally ending the link between John Brown and Clydebank, with the site demolished in 2002. John Brown Hydrocarbons was sold to CB&I in 2003 and renamed CB&I John Brown, and later CB&I UK Limited. A new Gas Turbine
Gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
servicing and maintenance company formed by former management headed by Mr. Duncan Wilson and engineers from John Brown Engineering, named John Brown Engineering Gas Turbines Ltd was re-established in East Kilbride
East Kilbride
East Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area, in the West Central Lowlands of Scotland. Designated as Scotland's first new town in 1947, it forms part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation...
in 2001.
Regeneration of the Clydebank site
A comprehensive regeneration plan for the site is currently being implemented by West Dunbartonshire CouncilWest Dunbartonshire
West Dunbartonshire is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. Bordering onto the west of the City of Glasgow, containing many of Glasgow's commuter towns and villages as well as the city's suburbs, West Dunbartonshire also borders onto Argyll and Bute, Stirling, East...
and Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise
Scottish Enterprise is a sponsored non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, enterprise, innovation and investment in business...
. The masterplan is based around making the Clydebank
Clydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...
waterfront more accessible to the public, and the plans include; restoration of the historic Titan Crane
Titan Clydebank
Titan Clydebank is a high cantilever crane that was built in 1907 in Clydebank, Scotland. It was designed to be used in the lifting of heavy equipment, such as engines and boilers, during the fitting-out of battleships and ocean liners at the John Brown & Company shipyard, then the biggest...
originally built by Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co. was a leading Scottish civil engineering business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.-Early history:...
for the Clyde shipyard, the construction of a new campus for Clydebank College
Clydebank College
Clydebank College is a further education college in Clydebank, to the west of Glasgow, Scotland. It offers a wide range of courses, including, admin, business, computing, child care, media, social sciences, beauty therapy, hairdressing, art and science....
which opened in August 8, improved infrastructure, modern offices and a light industrial estate, and new housing, retail and leisure facilities. It was hoped that the Queen Elizabeth 2 would have been brought back to the city and the river of her birth as part of the plan. On 18 June 2007 the Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
announced that the ship would be sold to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
as a floating hotel.
Further reading
- Johnston, Ronald. Clydeside capital, 1870-1920: a social history of employers (2000)
- McKinstry, Sam. "Transforming John Brown's Shipyard: The Drilling Rig and Offshore Fabrication Business of Marathon," Scottish Economic and Social History, 1998, Vol. 18 Issue 1, pp 33–60
- Peebles, Hugh B. Warshipbuilding on the Clyde: Naval Orders & the Prosperity of Clyde Shipbuilding Industry, 1889-1939 1987,
- Shields, John. Clyde built: a history of ship-building on the River Clyde (1949)
- Slaven, A. "A Shipyard in Depression: John Browns of Clydebank 1919–1938," Business History, July 1977, Vol. 19 Issue 2, pp 192–218
External links
- The Story of the Clyde Bank Shipyard, Shipping Times, 30 November 1997
- Chris' Cunard Page
- Clyde-built ships database — ships and shipbuilders on the River Clyde
- Clydebank Re-built Ltd. — regeneration of Clydebank; in particular, redevelopment of the riverfront areas previously given over to shipbuilding and marine engineering
- Clydebank Restoration Trust
- Clyde Waterfront Heritage — John Brown's Shipyard
- Post-Blitz Clydebank — documentary about Clydebank from 1947 to 1952
- Clydebank Through A Lens — documentary about Clydebank from the 1960s to the 1980s