John Brown & Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Brown and Company of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, was a pre-eminent shipbuilder, responsible for building many notable ships.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
The shipyard was founded by the James and George Thomson, brothers who had worked for the famous engineer Robert Napier. The Thomson brothers named the yard J&G Thomson after their Glasgow foundry, established in Anderston in 1847. In 1851 they opened a shipyard at Cessnock, launching their first ship, the Jackal in 1852. They quickly established a reputation in building prestigious passenger ships, building the Jura for Cunard in 1854 and the record breaking Russia in 1867.
The company moved to the Barns o' Clyde (later re-named Clydebank) near the village of Dalmuir in 1871. The location at the confluence of the River Clyde, with the tributary River Cart at Newshot Isle, allowed very large ships to be launched. Despite severe financial difficulties the company developed a reputation based on engineering quality and innovation.
In the early 1900s, the company innovated marine engineering technology through the development of the Brown-Curtis turbine, which had been originally developed and patented by the U.S. company International Curtis Marine Turbine Co. The performance of these engines impressed the Royal Navy which, as a consequence, placed orders for many of its major warships with John Brown.
[edit] Golden Age
John Brown and Company, a Sheffield steel-maker took over the yard in 1899, and it became one of the leading shipbuilding yards in the world. Many notable warships and liners were built here including:
- RMS Lusitania - Cunard Liner (torpedoed and sunk in 1915)
- RMS Aquitania - Cunard Liner
- HMS Hood - iconic pre-WW2 battlecruiser
- HMS Tiger - battlecruiser
- HMS Repulse - battlecruiser
- HMS Barham - Queen Elizabeth class battleship
[edit] Interwar recession
The end of the war, and the subsequent famine of naval orders hit British shipbuilding extremely hard, and John Brown only just survived. Two great ships saved the yard, they were the giant Cunard Liners:
[edit] World War II and After
The yard made a valuable contribution to the war effort, building amongst others:
- HMS Duke of York - battleship
- HMS Vanguard - the last battleship built in the world
- HMS Indefatigable - aircraft carrier
The immediate post war period saw a severe reduction in warship orders which was balanced by a prolonged boom in merchant shipbuilding. By the end of the 1950s, however, the rise of other shipbuilding nations, recapitalised and highly productive, made many European yards uncompetitive. At Clydebank, a series of loss-making contracts were booked in the hope of weathering the storm. By the mid 1960s, John Brown & Co, warned that its shipyard was uneconomic and potentially faced closure.
The last passenger liner order came from Cunard with RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, but the yard had since merged into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, which collapsed amidst much controversy in 1971. The last true ship to be built at the yard, the bulk grain carrier, Alisa, was completed in 1972. The Clydebank facility continued to operate under various owners until 2001, constructing oil platforms in support of the North Sea oil fields. The commercially successful John Brown Engineering division of the company was acquired by Trafalgar House. In 1996 it was purchased by Kvaerner. It later was split, with Kvaerner retaining the some assets, and [Yukos] obtaining John Brown Hydrocarbons and Davy Process Technology, both in London (Paddington). John Brown Hydrocarbons was sold to CB&I in 2003. The business was renamed CB&I John Brown, and later CB&I UK Limited.
[edit] Regeneration of the site
A comprehensive regeneration plan for the site is currently being implemented by West Dunbartonshire Council and Scottish Enterprise. The masterplan is based around making the Clydebank waterfront more accessible to the public, and the plans include; restoring the historic Titan Crane originally designed by Sir William Arrol for the Clyde shipyard, the construction of a new campus for a local college, improved infrastructure, modern offices and a light industrial estate, new housing, retail and leisure facilities, and even more ambitious proposals mooted for the eventual return of the QE2 to the river of her birth when she is retired as a landmark tourist attraction, in a similar arrangement to an older Cunarder, the RMS Queen Mary at Long Beach, California.
[edit] Other notable ships built by John Brown and Company
- HMY Britannia - the Royal Yacht Britannia, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh
- HMS Enterprise (D52)
- HMS Lynx (F27)
- HMAS Australia (1911)
- HMAS Australia (1927)
- HMS Icarus
- HMS Icarus (D03)
- Gangut class battleship
[edit] References
- Clydebank Restoration Trust - Restoring Heritage & Pride
- http://www.theclydebankstory.com/story_TCSC03.php - A summary of the history of the company.
- R.D. Thomas, B.Patterson, Dreadnoughts in Camera 1905-1920, 1998, Sutton Publishing
- Clyde built ships data base - lists all ships built on the Clyde - http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/index.asp
- Regeneration Masterplan
