McTay Marine was a

shipbuilder 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 ...

Bromborough Bromborough is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, it is situated on the Wirral Peninsula, to the south east of Bebington and to the north of Easth ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

from 1974 to 2016.

History

McTay Engineering had been set up in 1963 by James McBurney and Jim Taylor. McTay Engineering specialised in the construction of storage tanks and associated plant. Taylor and McBurney had, prior to the formation of McTay Engineering been employed by another shipbuilding company, and in 1973 they began to consider the building of small workboats and launches, which led to the formation of the subsidiary McTay Marine Ltd in 1974. The group was acquired by

Mowlem Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006. History The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generati ...

in the late 1970s and by Daniel Contractors of

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

in 2006. McTay Marine Ltd was founded as a subsidiary of McTay Engineering. Over the following 39 years the company went on to build over 120 vessels. Among them is the building of the first beam trawler in the United Kingdom, which was also the largest built up till that time. The first tug built by the company was the United Kingdom's first "Voith" tug, and the second built was the UK's first "Azimuth" fitted tug to be built. The McTay built tug ''Trafalgar'' became the world's most powerful "Voith" tug on its completion and delivery in 1998. The company went into liquidation in 2015 and the shipyard was taken over by Carmet Marine Ltd.

Facilities

McTay Marine Limited was involved in the design, build and delivery of specialised ships and workboats since 1974. Located at its 6-acre site at Bromborough on the banks of the River Mersey this longstanding icon in small ship construction built over 120 complex vessels over a period spanning well over thirty-years. The shipyard is now owned by Carmet Marine Ltd. The shipyard has a build hall and engineering workshop; build hall is 80 metres in length by 25 metres in height with 10.4-metre-high doors opening directly onto the slipway. Engineering shop is 50 metres in length and is directly adjacent. Overhead cranage is available in the form of one 25- and two 5-ton travelling cranes; engineering shop has similar capacities to hand. The slipway is again fully equipped and has a maximum 300-tonne capacity, and can be used for both vessel repairs and also launch activities. Mobile cranes, elevating work platforms and forklifts are also available to support both build and repair activities.

Ships built

''Shannon'' is a harbour and coastal tug, originally built in 1981 as the ''Eldergarth''. The tug is noteworthy as the first British-built Azimuthing Stern Drive tug. Shannon has been acquired by Emu Limited and re-equipped in Southampton with a suite of specialist winches and a stern mounted 'A' frame. During heavy rain, London's sewage storm pipes overflow into the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

, sending dissolved

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

levels plummeting and threatening the species it supports. Two dedicated McTay vessels, oxygenation barges ''Thames Bubbler'' and ''Thames Vitality'' are used to replenish oxygen levels, as part of an ongoing battle to clean up the river, which now supports 115 species of fish and hundreds more invertebrates, plants and birds. The £6.5M contract, to build the superstructure and assemble CRV ''Leonardo'' for NATO, safeguarded the jobs of McTay's 60-strong workforce. The Coastal Research Vessel now monitors submarine activity in the Mediterranean.

References

{{reflist Defunct shipbuilding companies of England Companies based in Merseyside