Cammell Laird is a British
shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of
Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of
Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway
rolling stock until 1929, when that side of the business was separated and became part of the
Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage & Wagon Company.
History
Formation from merger of Laird Company and Cammell & Co.
![Cammell Laird advertisement Brasseys 1915](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Cammell_Laird_advertisement_Brasseys_1915.jpg)
The Laird Company was founded by
William Laird, who had established the Birkenhead Iron Works in 1824. When he was joined by his son,
John Laird John Laird may refer to:
* John Laird (American politician) (born 1950), California State Senator
* John Laird (footballer) (1935–2016) Australian rules footballer
* John Laird (philosopher) (1887–1946), Scottish philosopher
* John Laird (ship ...
in 1828, their first ship was an iron barge.
John realised that the techniques of making boilers could be applied to making ships. The company soon became pre-eminent in the manufacture of iron ships and also made major advances in propulsion. In 1860, John Laird was joined in the business by his three sons, renaming the company John Laird, Sons & Co. The sons continued the business after their father's death in 1874 as Laird Brothers.
Johnson Cammell & Co. was founded by Charles Cammell and Henry and Thomas Johnson: it made, amongst many other metal products, iron wheels and rails for Britain's railways and was based in
Sheffield.
![Dkbkpl32](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Dkbkpl32.jpg)
In 1903 the businesses of Messrs. Cammell and Laird merged to create a company at the forefront of shipbuilding.
[ The company also built a number of vehicles for the London Underground. An order was placed for 20 trailer cars and 20 control trailer cars in 1919, which were known as 1920 Stock, and were the first tube cars to be built with doors operated by compressed air. They ran with converted French motor cars, originally built in 1906. The doors were fitted with a sensitive edge, designed to re-open the door if someone became trapped in it, but the mechanism was too sensitive, and was removed after an initial trial period. The cars continued in operation until 1938, eight years after the motor cars were withdrawn, but following withdrawal, five cars became a mobile training school. Cammell Laird also built a number of Standard Stock vehicles for the Underground. They were one of five builders approached to build a sample car to a general specification, which were put into service in February 1923, and three of the builders subsequently built production runs. The company supplied 41 motor cars and 40 trailer cars in 1923, 25 control trailers in 1924, and a further 48 motor cars in 1925.
In 1927, they built 160 passenger coaches for use in India. To transport them, Cammell Laird asked Watsons of Gainsborough to build five dumb barges. The coaches were loaded onto the barges at ]Clifton
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
* Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia ...
, near Nottingham on the River Trent, and towed in pairs downriver by a twin-screwed tug named ''Motorman'', built by Henry Scarr
Henry Scarr Ltd. was an English shipbuilding company based in the East Riding of Yorkshire at Hessle on the Humber. Henry Scarr took over an existing shipyard in 1897, and continued to build ships there until 1932, when the site was bought by Ri ...
of Hessle
Hessle () is a town, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, west of Kingston upon Hull city centre. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area consisting of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of ...
in 1925. They were taken to Hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
for export. In 1929, the railway rolling stock business of Cammell Laird was spun off and merged to become Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage & Wagon Company.
Between 1829 and 1947, over 1,100 vessels of all kinds were launched from the Cammell Laird slipways into the River Mersey. Among the many famous ships made by the companies were the world's first steel ship, the ''Ma Roberts'', built in 1858 for Dr. Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, that was built in 1862 for the Confederate States of America, that holds the record fastest build time of any significant warship (nine months from her keel being laid till her launch), the first all-welded ship, the ''Fullagar'' built in 1920, Cunard's second , the aircraft carrier (1937) the battleship (1941) and the largest vessel to have been built for the Royal Navy up to that time, (1950).
In 1898, Cammell provided the half-inch armour plate used to fabricate the four Fowler Armoured Road Trains built during the Second Anglo-Boer War. The armoured road train was the first self-propelled, free-roaming, armoured military land vehicle ever built, predating the tanks of World War One by nearly two decades.
Post 1945 and 1993 closure
The company was nationalised along with the rest of the British shipbuilding industry as 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 ...
in 1977. The yard was subject to a labour dispute in 1984 triggered by the yard making nearly 1,000 redundancies. This led to some of the workers occupying a partially built gas rig, ''AV-1''. 37 workers were later arrested, jailed and sacked for their roles in the protest.
In 1986, it returned to the private sector as part of Barrow-in-Furness-based Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering
Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construct ...
(VSE). VSE and Cammell Laird were the only British shipyards capable of producing nuclear submarines. In 1993, it completed HMS ''Unicorn'' (S43) – now .[ After the end of the ''Upholder''-class submarine building programme in 1993, the owners of Cammell Laird, VSE, announced the yard's closure. This was strongly opposed by the workforce through trade union campaigners including the GMB, led by communist firebrand official Barry Williams.
]
Re-establishment and ship repair
Part of the shipyard site was leased by the Coastline Group as a ship repair facility. Coastline eventually bought part of the shipyard and adopted the Cammell Laird name, before floating on the London stock exchange in 1997 and acquiring dockyards at Teesside, Tyneside and Gibraltar
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.
After experiencing financial difficulties, partly due to the late withdrawal from a £50 million refit contract for the cruise ship '' Costa Classica'' cruise ship by Costa Crociere
S.p.A. (), operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line founded in 1854 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2000. Based in Genoa, Italy, the cruise line primarily caters to the Italian cruise ...
, the company was forced to enter receivership in April 2001, and the Birkenhead, Teesside and Tyneside shipyards owned by Cammell Laird shiprepair were acquired by the A&P Shiprepair Group in 2001. Cammell Laird Gibraltar, the Royal Dockyard
Royal Navy Dockyards (more usually termed Royal Dockyards) were state-owned harbour facilities where ships of the Royal Navy were built, based, repaired and refitted. Until the mid-19th century the Royal Dockyards were the largest industrial ...
facility in Gibraltar
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, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
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, was disposed of through a local management buyout
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...
.
Second rebirth as Cammell Laird Shiprepair
A&P Group sold its Birkenhead subsidiary (A&P Birkenhead) to Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders
Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders was a British shiprepair company based in Birkenhead on the River Mersey.
History
The Company was founded by John Syvret, a former Cammell Laird manager, in 2001. In 2002 50% of the business was sold t ...
in 2005. Peel Holdings
The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...
, owners of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and 50% owners of Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders, purchased the Cammell Laird shipyard site and surrounding land in January 2007, to facilitate the proposed Wirral Waters development, although Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders continue to maintain a long-term lease on the shipyard facilities, which will form an integral part of the regeneration scheme.
In 2007, it was announced that the occupiers of Cammell Laird Dock
The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), formerly the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB), owns and administers the dock facilities of the Port of Liverpool, on the River Mersey, England. These include the operation of the enclosed nort ...
, Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders, had acquired the rights to the Cammell Laird name. On 17 November 2008, Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders officially renamed itself Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Limited, stating that recent economic success had made the time right, and that "Cammell Laird is an internationally recognised brand which carries tremendous goodwill when bidding for contracts."
In February 2008, it was announced that the company had won a £28m Ministry of Defence
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
contract to overhaul the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship .
In January 2010, it was announced that Lairds had received a £44m order for the flight decks of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier .
In May 2012, it was announced that complete shipbuilding was set to return to the yard with the awarding of preferred bidder status for two new car ferries for Dunoon-based operator, Western Ferries. Construction of and began in October 2012.
In April 2014, the government authorised procurement of a Royal Research Ship
A Royal Research Ship (RRS) is a merchant navy vessel of the United Kingdom that conducts scientific research for His Majesty's Government. Organisations operating such ships include; the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the British ...
for the British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of global issues, and to provide an active presence in the Antarctic on ...
, at an estimated cost of £200 million. Cammell Laird won the construction contract in 2015. The vessel, named began sea trials in 2020; she took her maiden voyage to Antarctica in November 2021.
It was announced in October 2017 that Cammell Laird had struck a 'teaming agreement' with BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
to bid for Ministry of Defence contracts to build the Royal Navy's Type 31e frigates.
In 2018, Red Funnel
Red Funnel, the trading name of the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Limited,[keel laying
Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship.
Keel laying is one o ...]
ceremony on 31 May and the vessel entered service a year later.
In October 2018 it was announced that the yard had won 'Lot 3' of an MOD contract to maintain the four new of tankers for the RFA in a deal worth an estimated £262m. A new contract worth £357m was also announced that would see Cammell Laird continue to maintain the five RFA ships it currently supports.
The yard was named as part of a consortium to build the Royal Navy's new Type 26 Frigate in September 2023. BAE System are the primary contractor, but Cammell Laird will be used to build sections of HMS ''Birmingham''.
In popular culture
The shipyard is referenced in Jules Verne's novel '' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' as "Laird's of Liverpool". (though it is located in Birkenhead, not Liverpool) Verne visited Birkenhead in 1859 and 1867 and states in the story that some of the iron plates for the ''Nautilus'' were made there.
Birkenhead band Half Man Half Biscuit
Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Cr ...
's ninth album is called '' Cammell Laird Social Club''.
Ships built by Cammell Laird
See: List of ships built by Cammell Laird
See also
* ROF Nottingham
* Metro-Cammell
* Cammell Laird Gibraltar
Gibdock is a shipyard in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It formerly operated as a Royal Navy Dockyard.
Royal Navy Dockyard
HM Dockyard, Gibraltar was first developed in the 18th century. After the Capture of Gibraltar, victuall ...
* Grayson Rollo and Clover Docks
The Grayson Rollo and Clover shipyard was a ship repair and dry dock facility based at Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It was situated on the River Mersey between the former Cammell Laird yard and Woodside Ferry.
During the Secon ...
* Cammell Laird Social Club (album by Half Man Half Biscuit)
* Hong Kong Railways Company Ltd- Cammell Model, Last Service in May 2022, Operated at MTR 12 Cars at East Rail Line.
Notes
References
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
*
Cammell Laird: Shipbuilders to the World (1824–1993)
Wirral Archives Service
Cammell Laird Football Club
1909 Map of Cammell Laird Docks
*
{{Authority control
Birkenhead docks
Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United Kingdom
Former defence companies of the United Kingdom
Marine engine manufacturers
Military history of Merseyside
Shipbuilding companies of England
1828 establishments in England
British Shipbuilders
Companies based in Wirral
Former submarine builders