Earle's Shipbuilding was an

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

company that was based in Hull,

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from 1845 to 1932.

Earle Brothers

The company was started in Hull in 1845 by two brothers,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and William Earle. The firm was made up of

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

s and focussed on

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other 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 befor ...

and

repair The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...

. Its most notable association was with the

Wilson Line Thomas Wilson Sons & Co. was a British shipping company, founded in 1840,Greenway (1986), p. 48 It evolved from a joint venture formed by merchants Thomas Wilson, John Beckinton and two unrelated partners named Hudson in 1822. The company expan ...

, for whom the yard produced many

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

s. Earle's also built vessels for many other British shipping firms, especially those operating on

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

routes such as the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

and the Hull & Netherlands Steamship Co. Ltd. In 1871, Earle's was restructured as a

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certificates ...

and for a short time Sir

Edward James Reed Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politicia ...

served as its chairman and managing director. Earle's built two steam yachts for Tsarevitch Alexander: ''Slavanka'' in 1873 and ''Czarevna'' in 1874. Also in 1874 Earle's built the unsuccessful ,

Sir Henry Bessemer Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years from 1856 to 1950. He ...

's experimental swinging-cabin

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

, which made its maiden (and only) public voyage in 1875. Earle's built the yacht ''Bosphorous'' for Khedive Isma'il of Egypt and later built other yachts for wealthy clients. Earle's was an early adopter of

triple-expansion engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up h ...

s, for example installing them in the liner that the company built for

in 1882. Reed had been chief constructor to the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

and helped Earle's to win a number of naval orders including the

ironclad warship An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. Th ...

s (1874) and (1875) for the

Chilean Navy The Chilean Navy ( es, Armada de Chile) is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso. History Origins and the Wars ...

Later naval orders included two s for the

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 F ...

(RN): launched in 1891 and launched in 1892. In 1895 the company built two s for the RN.

Liquidation and takeover

Earle's faced difficulties when Charles died and William was taken ill. In the latter part of the 1890s, the firm suffered both cash-flow problems and a labour shortage, and in 1900, it entered voluntary

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

. However, Charles Wilson bought the firm for about £170,000, keeping the Earle's name, but making it a wholly owned subsidiary of

. In 1904, Earle's built for the Peruvian Corporation, a UK-owned company that ran

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

's railways. She was built as a "knock down" ship; that is, she was bolted together at Earle's shipyard, then all her parts were marked with numbers, unbolted and packed into crates, and then shipped in kit form to Peru, where they were transported inland, reassembled with rivets, and in 1905 launched on

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...

, the highest navigable lake in the world. In the 1920s ''Inca'' needed a new bottom, so Earle's made one in kit form and shipped that to Peru as well. In 1929, Earle's built a larger "knock down" ship for the

Peruvian Corporation The Peruvian Corporation Ltd. (alternate: Peruvian Corporation of London) was registered under the Companies Act in London on 20 March 1890. Its board of directors included ten members led by Sir Alfred Dent G A Ollard, of Smiles and Co Solicitor ...

, , which was launched on Lake Titicaca in 1931. By now, manufacturing in the UK was declining in the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and after ''Ollanta'', Earle's built only three more ships. The UK government sponsored a rationalisation of the shipbuilding industry, and in 1932, the

National Shipbuilders Securities National Shipbuilders Security was a UK Government body established in 1930, under the Chairmanship of Sir James Lithgow, of the eponymous Clyde shipbuilding giant Lithgows. The remit of National Shipbuilders Security was to remove over-capacity ...

(NSS) took over Earle's. NSS sold Earle's tools and machinery, shipping the yard's large crane and other equipment to

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. The terms of Earle's closure included a restrictive covenant on the site of the yard proscribing any shipbuilding there for the following 60 years.

Surviving Earle's ship

At least one Earle's-built ship survives. ''Ollanta'', now retired from scheduled ferry service, is leased out by

PeruRail PeruRail is a railway operator providing tourist, freight, and charter services in southern Peru. It was founded in 1999 by two Peruvian entrepreneurs and the British company Sea Containers. The main line between the port of Matarani, Arequipa ...

for charter tourist cruises on Lake Titicaca.

References

{{Reflist Defunct companies of Kingston upon Hull Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1845 British companies disestablished in 1932 Industry in Kingston upon Hull