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Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird is one of the most famous names in British industry. The company was founded in 1828 and is based on the River Mersey in the Liverpool City Region on the west coast of Britain. The company’s Birkenhead site expands across 130 acres and includes four dry docks, a large modular construction hall and extensive covered workshops. It is also at the center of a marine and engineering cluster with easy access to support services classification societies and port state authorities.

Cammell Laird is in a perfect location. It is situated on what is still one of the major rivers of the United Kingdom, and has good motorway links with the A41—a good road—the Mersey tunnel and the M53 motorway. Across the River Mersey from Liverpool, the cranes were long part of the urban scene.

Today the company is rapidly expanding as a cutting edge engineering services specialist. Its highly skilled workforce and extensive world class facilities are used to support a broad range of sectors and projects. Cammell Laird has continued to develop its capability in the marine sector, and is a world leader specialising in military ship refit, commercial ship repair, upgrade and conversion and shipbuilding.

The business is further active in the industrial services and energy sector. It has become a hub of the off shore wind industry seeing major investment in its port side infrastructure and facilities. The company is also working in the civil nuclear sector where it has built upon it’s core engineering strengths, to demonstrate how its modular construction facility can deliver optimised solutions for the planned new nuclear new power plants across the UK and Europe. The company has further recognised the benefits of modular construction and delivery techniques for the nuclear decommissioning sector. In addition the firm can offer its services to the off shore oil and gas sector, the petrochemical industry and a wide range sectors requiring of engineering and heavy fabrication work.

All of the activities that the company conducts are underpinned by a comprehensive and accredited Health and Safety System OHSAS 18001:2007. Quality Management Systems are operated in accordance with ISO9001:2008, and Environmental Management System 14001:2004, and with site security being Department of Transport ISPS compliant.

Cammell Laird led the way in shipbuilding, and was a byword for innovation. In its time, the Cammell Laird yard has been at the forefront of shipbuilding techniques—it was on the cusp of their evolution. It was at the forefront of the switch from wooden ships to iron ones, from sails to steam, from riveting to welding. It is also noticeable that its history has been marked by a regular mix of merchant and military shipbuilding.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when Cammell Laird was at its height, 50 percent of the ships produced in the world were produced in Great Britain. By 1950, that figure had declined to 40 percent, and by 1989, Britain was producing less than 1 per cent. of the world tonnage in shipping.

Known across the globe the company has been operating since the late 1820s after being founded by Scottish entrepreneurs William Laird and his son John. It has built more than 1350 ships including many famous and innovative vessels. The company played a key role in both World Wars in building and repairing vessels. During World War II alone the shipyard produced nearly 200 vessels both commercial and military in support of the UK war effort. Including HMS Rodney, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Ark Royal.

Cammell Laird has an illustrious history of building aircraft carriers and over the years has built many famous ships. Many vessels built at the yard are famous for the innovative technology they embraced, others gained celebrity for their subsequent careers at sea. The list of notable vessels built by Laird’s includes:

• the Robert F. Stockton, launched 1838, the first screw steamer to cross the Atlantic.
• the Dover of 1840, the first iron ship owned by the British Government.
• HMS Birkenhead 1846, famed for her tragic sinking at the Cape of Good Hope and the bravery of troops ordered to ‘stand fast’ whilst the women and children aboard were saved.
• the Ma Robert, built in 1858 for David Livingstone’s expedition to the Zambesi, and quoted by some sources as the first ever steel ship.
• CSS Alabama, 1862, probably the most famous and most successful Confederate warship of the Americian Civil War.
• The Fullager, 1920, the first all-welded ship in the world.
• HMS Ark Royal, 1938, (28,480 tons 244m x 29m 31 knots) the first British warship to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier and the third ship to be called Ark Royal. She was built to carry 60 aircraft, 1500 crew and was armed with 16, 4.5in guns, 32 two pounders and 32 0.5 guns. Her aircraft were responsible for two torpedo hits on German battleship Bismarck in May 1941 but she was torpedoed and sunk by German U boat U-81 14 November 1941 off Gibraltar. An official enquiry after the war concluded the ship could have been saved with proper applications of counter flooding.
• HMS Ark Royal 1955, (53,060 tons 220m x 34m 32 knots) the second aircraft carrier of the same name built by Cammell Laird launched by the Queen Mother. She became the Royal Navy’s first large post war aircraft carrier and saw 25 years of service eventually being sold to be broken up in 1980.
• The Cunard White Star passenger liner Mauretania, at the date of her launch in 1938, the largest ship ever built in an English shipyard.
• HMS Devonshire, 1960, Britain’s first guided missile destroyer.

At its peak, the work force totalled 12,000, but 1992 was the first year the century when it fell below 2,000. Indeed, the only other time when the work force dropped below 2,000 was in 1931, at the height of the great depression. The next few months will be vital to the yard. By 1970, the shipbuilding subsidiary, which had made profits in earlier years, found itself faced with heavy losses and the parent company, although possessing valuable assets, was unable to make available the cash required for the normal operation of its shipbuilding business. The real cause of this serious crisis for the whole group arose from a number of factors—outside the shipbuilding yard, among other things—but inside the yard itself most dramatically by the realisation of the immense losses that would inevitably occur on the fulfilment of fixed-price contracts which the company had undertaken.

Consequently, the group faced a liquidity crisis which jeopardised the future of the 20,000 it employs in its various activities. The Shipbuilding Industry Board's powers to assist the re-equipment and reorganisation of the yard were not appropriate to solve the wider problems of the group. The Government agreed to provide the finance for a 50 per cent. shareholding in the shipbuilding company at a price to be settled by independent valuation. Legislation and Supplementary Estimates as necessary will be submitted to the House in due course and any funds required immediately in connection with the purchase of shares will be provided from the Civil Contingencies Fund.

In 1977, the shipyard was nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders and the decision was made to concentrate more on military contracts. That concentration may have caused its later difficulties. Its magnificent covered construction yard, which is still one of the finest in the world, was built the year after.

In the early days of the Thatcher Government, the yard faced a real fear that the unspoken agenda of the Department of Trade and Industry was to close the yard and other yards on the basis that there were too many shipyards in the United Kingdom. Suspicions against the Tory Government on Merseyside are very old, because people recall that, in 1981, after visiting Toxteth, the President, who was then Secretary of State for the Environment with responsibility for Merseyside, prepared a report called "It Took a Riot". It was prepared after someone in Toxteth told him that it had taken a riot to get him there. In Locket's restaurant, just along the way, the noble Lord Howe, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer, worked against the right hon. Member for Henley and managed to get the Government to oppose any real efforts for Merseyside. Indeed, Lord Howe has been quoted as saying that to put money into Merseyside was to throw good money after bad.

Cammell Laird merged with Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. [VSEL] in June 1985, and, as a VSEL subsidiary, was subsequently privatised as a warship builder in March 1986. When the yard was denationalised in 1985, it was bought for only £1, and the value placed on it by VSEL, still rankled in the local area. There were two problems with the settlement. The first was that, as it was designated exclusively as a warship yard, it did not have access to the intervention fund. No one would argue that that lack of access has been a major problem. The European Commission, in its 1985 agreement with the United Kingdom Government, insisted that those shipyards which were privatised as warship yards could not gain access to intervention funding. Because of its designation as a warship yard, it has been badly affected by the unforeseen but welcome developments summed up in "Options for Change" in the post-cold-war world.

The defence sector then faced a situation similar to that which the merchant sector had faced previously. There was over-capacity in warship building, accompanied by a steeply declining order book. That meant that Cammell Laird's order book consisted virtually entirely of the construction of diesel submarines for the Ministry of Defence. Cammell Laird under VSEL's ownership was successful in bidding for an order for three conventional submarines. It is also important to register that almost no yard other than Cammell Laird or VSEL could have undertaken the work.

Therefore, VSEL, following the announcement of "Options for Change" announced, as early as October 1990, that Cammell Laird was for sale. At the same time, a necessary programme of redundancies was to be undertaken at Birkenhead and later Barrow. The United Kingdom Government, in an attempt to help VSEL in its efforts to sell Cammell, informed possible overseas buyers and United Kingdom industry of the availability of the yard through its British overseas posts, and day-to-day discussions with industry.

Part of the VSEL announcement in October 1990 stated that, if a purchaser could not be found for the Cammell Laird shipyard, it would close in the summer of 1993 following delivery of the last of the diesel submarines. At that time, it was much hoped that the yard could be sold as a whole. Due to the shipbuilding market and partly due to the recession, no party interested in the yard could be found. VSEL therefore decided that it might be a better option to sell Cammell Laird in small plots under a zonal selling strategy. Although there were one or two approaches, still no serious bids were received for any of the plots.

The Department continued to approach the Commission in order to see whether it would change its mind on the availability of intervention fund for warship builders. In 1990, they sought to persuade the Commission that warship builders should have access to the intervention fund. The Commission would not agree to that, but did agree that United Kingdom merchant yards should be allowed to return to unsubsidised merchant shipbuilding. Circumstances conspired in such a way that it was not possible to undertake profitable shipbuilding at Cammell Laird.

It can be argued that VSEL had a fundamental conflict of interest when it took over the yard, because, naturally, it wanted to preserve its yard at Barrow, and it has always been suspected that it had a vested interest in not exerting itself too much to save shipbuilding on the Mersey. That is still a problem. I believe that the closure announcement gives the yard a window of opportunity to get away from that deadly embrace and to try to make its future elsewhere. The closure announcement was a pretty stark example of the company giving up the ghost and signalling to all that it would no longer try to get work after June 1993.

The future of Cammell Laird was in the news in December 1992 because of the announcement by its current owners, Vickers Shipbuilders and Engineering Ltd., that it had effectively given up the ghost. It said that it would no longer seek orders once the current order book runs out in June next year. The Cammell Laird yard, which is an important and historic yard in my part of the world, the Wirral, will finally close its doors after 160 years. That time has been marked by the yard's and its employees' record of vital service and achievement in the interests of the country. The closure would not only lead directly to the loss of 1,000 jobs; the local council estimates that it would lead indirectly to a further loss of up to 6,000 jobs, threatening 600 local suppliers. Lairds had always supported the local area and bought its materials locally. It is estimated that the closure could withdraw up to £30 million in spending power from the local economy, and could lead overnight to a 2 per cent. increase in the local unemployment rate.

The company was planning to asset-strip the yard, and at the same time to destroy a potential competitor. VSEL does not want the yard to pass out of its hands and to be able to bid against it for scarce work. The local community wanted the yard to be returned to the local community for the £1 that VSEL paid for it when it took over in 1985. It had essentially given up trying to provide a secure future for the yard. There was all-party support on the Wirral and on Merseyside for the idea that the yard has a viable future.

In June 2008 Cammell Laird signed a ‘through-life support agreement’ with Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for the maintenance of a collection of ships in Royal Fleet Auxiliary for up to 25 years subject to five year reviews. In December 2012 following the first five year review the agreement was extended for Cammell Laird to continue its maintenance contract for nine ships in the RFA Flotilla until at least 2018. The Through Life support contract exists because the RFA wanted a change of approach to drive greater continuity across a broad range of areas. Critically the RFA to forge a closer more collaborative relationship between itself and the marine engineering suppliers.

Five years into the contract and the benefits are crystallising. The Cluster Support Team (CST) has a hub in Cammell Laird where RFA staff work side by side, week in week out, with Cammell Laird staff building deep and lasting working relationships. By working together we are learning from experience. The positive outcomes of this close working relationship cannot be understated. From more precise specifications to delivery of those specifications with greater expertise and efficiency. There is further a fundamental change in mindset so engineering decisions are jointly made and problems jointly owned.