The Grangemouth Dockyard Company was a British

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 ship repair firm located at

Grangemouth Grangemouth ( sco, Grangemooth; gd, Inbhir Ghrainnse, ) is a town in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. Historically part of the county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, east of Falkirk ...

, on the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

History

The company was established in Grangemouth by William Miller and Samuel Popham Jackson in 1885. was the first ship constructed by the company. In 1887 the yard was visited by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

and his new wife

Louise Louise or Luise may refer to: * Louise (given name) Arts Songs * "Louise" (Bonnie Tyler song), 2005 * "Louise" (The Human League song), 1984 * "Louise" (Jett Rebel song), 2013 * "Louise" (Maurice Chevalier song), 1929 *"Louise", by Clan of ...

. While there they witnessed the christening and launch of the Mexican steamer ''Tabasqueño'', after which Carnegie gave a speech at the luncheon that followed. The company acquired another two yards in 1888, located in

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; educated Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; gd, Alamhagh, possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where ...

and

Ardrossan Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore ...

. This was followed by the acquisition of a yard in

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

in 1900, and the merging of the company with the pre-existing

Greenock Dockyard Company The Greenock Dockyard Company was a Scottish shipbuilding and ship repair firm located at Greenock, on the River Clyde. History The company was established by J E Scott of Greenock, with the yard at Cartsdyke being taken over in 1879 by Russel ...

. After eight years the company was incorporated as the Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Co. The Greenock yard was then sold to Cayzer, Irvine & Company, the operators of the

Clan Line The Clan Line was a passenger and cargo shipping company that operated in one incarnation or another from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. History Foundation and early years The company that would become the Clan Lin ...

, in 1918. In 1920 the Greenock yard was itself incorporated as the Greenock Dockyard Co Ltd, while upon the split in 1918 the Grangemouth-based yard became the Grangemouth Dockyard Co Ltd. The company continued to build merchant ships and some naval vessels during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, eventually producing 31 new ships during the war. 14 of the ships present at the

Normandy Landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

had been built at Grangemouth, while another 44 were repaired there. The facilities were also used to repair and maintain submarines of the

Royal Netherlands Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...

. The company continued to operate after the war, becoming part of

Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three powe ...

in 1967. The company ceased building ships in 1972, thereafter concentrating solely on ship repair. With the large scale nationalisation of British shipbuilding in the late 1970s Swan Hunter became part of

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 ...

, with the Grangemouth Dockyard Company as a subsidiary. The winding up of operations in the 1980s saw the re-emergence of the Grangemouth Dockyard Company as a private concern in 1984, but it was subsequently liquidated in 1987. Records and documents relating to the company and its activities are held by the

National Archives of Scotland The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) is the previous name of the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and are the national archives of Scotland, based in Edinburgh. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe ...

, and

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

Museums.

Notes

References

* * * *{{cite book , first=David, last=Nasaw , title=Andrew Carnegie, url=https://archive.org/details/andrewcarnegie00nasa, url-access=registration, publisher=Penguin, year=2006, isbn=0-14-311244-9

External links

Narrative of Alcides, a Ship built by Grangemouth Dockyard Co., Dyal 2008
Defunct shipbuilding companies of Scotland Grangemouth