Yarrow & Co Ltd, Scotstoun, Glasgow, Lanarkshire
Yarrow & Co have always been associated with the design and construction of naval vessels, for the Royal Navy and overseas navies. Alfred Yarrow started business in 1865 at Poplar on the River Thames. At the turn of the century he decided to move his shipyard from the Isle of Dogs to Scotstoun on the Clyde. Yarrow & Co moved from River Thames in 1908. He gave his reasons as the cost of materials and labor but widespread labor unrest on the Thames probably contributed to his decision. Yarrow signed the contract to move to Scotstoun in 1906 and the Isle of Dogs yard was gradually run down as machines and materials were moved north. Yarrow took 300 of his Poplar workers with him to Scotstoun. They did not like the new Scottish tenements where they were housed so Yarrow commissioned forty brick houses, aptly named "Yarrow Cottages", to be built with gardens.
When the Great War began in 1914, Yarrow's son Harold took over the running of the company and remained in charge until his death in 1962. The shipyard came to specialise in the design and build of warships for the Royal Navy and overseas navies. This private yard was building destroyers prewar; during the Great War it built 29 destroyers, 16 gunboats, 1 submarine, 3 hospital ships, floating workshop for RN. Output included twenty-nine destroyers and sixteen gunboats in the First World War and eighteen destroyers and eight sloops in the Second World War. The yard was badly damaged in a German air raid in March 1941. The end of each world war caused a slump in naval orders, but Yarrows survived by winning orders for merchant ships.
By the 1950s, the management realised that troubled times were ahead. In 1955 they launched a 5-year plan to modernise the yard in order to increase efficiency and remain competitive. This included developing facilities for prefabrication - workshops where 40-ton ship sections were welded together before being assembled in nearby building berths. In more recent years Yarrow Shipbuilders, now the largest shipbuilders in Scotland, had been the leading builder of Royal Navy frigates.
In 1975 the Government have decided that the objectives of public ownership will be achieved by nationalising companies incorporated in Great Britain which on 31st July 1974 were entitled, either alone or together with another company which was then a member of the same group of companies, to an interest in possession in a shipyard which on that date was being used for the construction of ships and in which in the period of three years ending on that date were completed ships the total tonnage of which, when aggregated with the total tonnage of ships completed in the same period in shipyards in which any other company in the same group was entitled to an interest in possession, exceeded either: 750 standard displacement tons in respect of warships, or 15,000 gross tons in respect of other ships, or 500 standard displacement tons in respect of warships and 10,000 gross tons in respect of other ships.
There was concern in the Yarrow yard in Glasgow that nationalisation in the shipbuilding industry might result in a change in the present arrangements, whereby the Government concentrate naval shipbuilding in Vosper's, Vickers and Yarrow. After nationalisation the policy of his Department of concentrating naval shipbuilding in these three yards continued. Yarrow was at the moment building six frigates for the Royal Navy and it is expected that it would be invited to tender in the future for similar vessels. It has also been chosen as the second builder for glass reinforced plastic. Neither of these was affected by the nationalisation Bill which was before Parliament.
In the year ended 31 March 1981 Yarrow Shipbuilders declared an interim dividend of £44,000for that year. In the year ended 31 March 1982 the company declared a final dividend of £20,475,000 for the previous year. This dividend took into account profits made by the company since nationalisation; no dividends, other than the interim dividend of £44,000 paid in the year ended 31 March 1981, having been paid previously. In the year ended 31 March 1983 the company declared a final dividend of £5,116,000 for the year ended 31 March 1982. In the year ended 31 March 1984 the company declared a final dividend of £4,067,000 for the year ended 31 March 1983. In the year ended 31 March 1985 the company declared a final dividend of £6,343,000 for the year ended 31 March 1984 and an interim dividend of £10 million in respect of the period 1 April 1984 to 22 February 1985.
In the 1980s the Yarrow ocean patrol ship designs had displacements of about 1800 t and 2500 t, and are suitable for service as patrol ships, ASW escorts, AA escorts, or in support of amphibious operations. The larger of these vessels, with a length (wl) of 105 m, has the main combatant features of a major warship. Twin-screw Combined Electric and Diesel (CODLAD) propulsion is employed, the main diesel engines being shut down and the ship propelled by 500-kW electric motors for silent running. As an alternative this hull could have combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion to increase the maximum speed from 24 knots to 31 knots.
By 1991 six type 23 frigates have been ordered from Yarrow Shipbuilders and four from Swan Hunter Shipbuilders. The four companies invited to tender for the supply of Sandown class minehunters were Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd., Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd., Vosper Thornycroft (UK) Ltd. and Swan Hunter.
INS Nilgiri, the first indigenously built Indian warship, was commissioned on 03 June 1972 by the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi. It was built at Mazagon Docks Limited, Mumbai in collaboration with Yarrow Shipbuilders, Glasgow. The collaboration involved designs of the Royal Navy's improved Type 12 general purpose frigate and technical and training support, for construction of six vessels. INS Nilgiri was India's first ever major warship built keel up. The ship was the lead ship in its class and was decommissioned in 1996.
The yard was sold to GEC in 1985, and became part of BAE Systems in 1999. With work for the Royal Navy continuing to be won, the immediate future of the yard looked secure at the beginning of the 21st century. BAE Systems operated three shipyards, Barrow-in-Furness in the northwest of England (BAE Systems Submarines) and Govan and Scotstoun on the Clyde in Scotland (BAE Systems Naval Ships). Barrow primarily built submarines, although it had built some surface ships in recent years. Govan was formerly owned by the Kvaerner group and has built both military and commercial ships. Scotstoun, formerly the Yarrow shipyard, built surface combatants, including ships for foreign military sales.
Yarrows in Canada
Alfred Yarrow was the head of Yarrow & Co., shipbuilders on the Clyde in Scotland. Anxious to settle the futures of his three sons he looked for a promising shipyard investment. The middle son, 22 year-old Norman, was sent in September 1913 on a scouting mission looking over shipyards and engineering works in the United States and eastern Canada with his friend E.W. Izard. By November they had reached the Pacific coast where they were joined by his father, Alfred Yarrow, and Robert Keay of Yarrow & Company. Receiving assurances that the Federal Government would build a new graving dock nearby the deal was struck.
By the end of World War One the Yarrows yard in Canada had grown to include a modern machine shop, a boiler shop, joiner shop, pattern shop, coppersmith and pipe shop, foundry, welding plant and a galvanizing plant. A 600 foot wharf equipped with shear legs capable of lifting 60 tons and a floating crane capable of lifting 10 tons were added features.
In 1985 Burrard Yarrows Corporation was renamed as Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. part of a Vancouver-based industrial group of comapnies. The Toronto-based Shieldings Inc. bought the Company from B.C. Pacific Capital Corp. This company closed the Vancouver Burrard-Yarrows Shipyrad in 1991 and renamed the Esquimalt operation as Yarrows Ltd. Accumulating debt spelled disaster for the company in the end. Although through good management the company was profitable it could not support the overall debt. The cancellation of the $650 million Polar 8 Icebreaker project in 1990 was definitely a major blow. Ironically some of the best and biggest projects taken on by the yard, the two Super Ferries were completed at the every end of the Company's life. It also marked the peak of employment with more workers than even the World War Two period.
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