Appledore Shipbuilders is a shipbuilder in Appledore, North Devon,

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History

Bulbous Bow of HMS Queen Elizabeth MOD 45157100

The Appledore Yard was founded in 1855 on the estuary of the

River Torridge The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England; it rises near Meddon. The river describes a long loop through Devon farming country where its tributaries the Lew and Okement join before meeting the Taw at Appledore and flowing into the Bristo ...

. The Richmond

Dry Dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

was built in 1856 by William Yeo and named after Richmond Bay on the north coast of

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

in Canada, where the Yeo family's shipping fleet was based. The business was led by Philip Kelly Harris during the early part of the 20th century and known as P.K. Harris & Sons until 1963, when it became Appledore Shipbuilders. In 1964 the company was acquired by

Court Line Court Line was a 20th-century British tramp shipping company that was founded in 1905. In the 1960s it diversified into shipbuilding and charter aviation. Its merchant shipping interests were based in London. Its shipyards were at Appledore in ...

, a shipping and airline business.James Venus: Obituary
''The Independent'', 2 September 1992 A new shipyard was built on a

greenfield site Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low po ...

in Appledore at a cost of about £4m, opening for business in 1970. Court Line collapsed in 1974 and Appledore Shipbuilders was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

, subsequently being subsumed into

British Shipbuilders British Shipbuilders (BS) was a public corporation that owned and managed the shipbuilding industry in Great Britain from 1977 through the 1980s. Its head office was at Benton House in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. History The corporation was ...

. By the late 1980s the only yards still held in state ownership were the smaller Appledore and Ferguson yards. In 1989, Appledore Shipbuilders was sold to Langham Industries. In the late 1990s the two

square-rigged Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called ''yards'' and ...

sail training ships of the

Tall Ships Youth Trust Tall Ships Youth Trust is a sail training organisation in the United Kingdom that currently owns and operates four 22m/72 ft Challenger class racing yachts, a Catamaran and a Ketch. Tall Ships Youth Trust, formerly the Sail Training Ass ...

, the ''

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'' and the , were completed at Appledore, by performing substantial modifications to two bare hulls begun in Germany. Appledore built two ''Róisín''-class patrol boats for the

Irish Naval Service The Naval Service ( ga, An tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh) is the maritime component of the Defence Forces of Ireland and is one of the three branches of the Irish Defence Forces. Its base is in Haulbowline, County Cork. Though preceded by earlier mar ...

: was completed in 1999 and in 2001. In 2010, Ireland ordered a further two, ,

offshore patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

s from Babcock with an option for a third, to be built at Appledore. The first s was commissioned in May 2014. In June 2014, the Irish government took up the option for the third ship to be built at Appledore (delivered in 2016) and ordered a fourth in 2016 (delivered in 2018). In October 2003, the Appledore shipyard went into receivership, and in early 2004 was acquired by DML, the operators of Devonport dockyard. The company was reconstituted as Appledore Shipbuilders (2004) Limited and was run by the DML subsidiary DML Appledore. During this period the yard's main activity was the installation of machinery packages and other systems for luxury yachts for Devonport Yachts Ltd. In June 2007,

Babcock International Group Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

acquired DML, including its operations at the Appledore Shipyard, renaming them Babcock Marine Appledore. A Royal Navy contract secured 300 jobs in Appledore until 2015. The Appledore yard constructed elements of the two s. Bow sections for were completed in April 2010 and were barged to Rosyth Dockyard for integration with other modules. The yard then built flight deck

sponson Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercraft On watercraft, a spon ...

s and centre blocks for ''Queen Elizabeth''. From 2012, Appledore built similar sections for ''Queen Elizabeth''s

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

. Babcock announced in November 2018 that it had no future for the shipyard, which closed on 15 March 2019. The last vessel to be built at the yard was the , an Irish Naval Service vessel. In August 2020, InfraStrata (owners of Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff) bought the dormant shipyard for £7 million. The deal saw the shipyard renamed H&W Appledore. In July 2022, the shipyard won a £55 million contract to refit former Royal Navy mine-hunting ship which is expected to be passed to the

Lithuanian navy The Lithuanian Navy ( lt, Lietuvos Karinės jūrų pajėgos) is the naval arm of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Though formally established on 1 August 1935 its roots stretch back as far as naval engagements on the Baltic Sea in the Medieval perio ...

in 2024.

Ships built at Appledore

The company built more than 350 vessels, including small and medium-sized military craft,

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

LPG carrier LPG may refer to: Science * Liquefied petroleum gas, a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases * Lipophosphoglycan, a class of molecule found on the surface of some eukaryotes, in particular protozoa Music groups * La Perdita Generacio, a Swedish a ...

s, superyachts, ferries, and oil-industry support vessels. Specific ships include:

References

{{British Shipbuilders evolution Companies based in Devon Shipbuilding companies of England Former defence companies of the United Kingdom 1855 establishments in England 2019 disestablishments in England Industrial archaeological sites in Devon Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2019 Manufacturing companies established in 1855 British Shipbuilders