Cammell Laird logo.

Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. The British Empire was the largest empire in history and for over a century was the foremost global power. See also Shipbuilding (song. Shipbuilding is the construction of Ships It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. Sheffield ( is a city and Metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England

History

William Laird had founded the Birkenhead Iron Works in 1824 and was joined by his son, John Laird in 1828. William Laird (1780 - October 27 1841 was a Scottish shipbuilder and developer who was responsible for what later became the Cammell Laird shipyard and for starting John Laird ( 14 June 1805 – 29 October 1874) was a Scottish shipbuilder and key figure in the development of the town John realised that the techniques of making boilers could be applied to making ships. The company soon became pre-eminent in the manufacture of iron ships and made major advances in propulsion.

Johnson Cammell & Co. was founded by Charles Cammell and Henry and Thomas Johnson. Thomas Johnson, Tom Johnson or Tommy Johnson may refer to Public officials Thomas Johnson (Liverpool merchant (1664&ndash1728 The company made, amongst many other metal products, iron wheels and rails for Britain's railways.

The businesses of Messrs. Cammell and Laird merged to create a company at the forefront of shipbuilding. Between 1829 and 1947, over 1,100 vessels of all kinds were launched from the Cammell Laird slipways into the River Mersey. See also Mersey River (Tasmania and Mersey River (Nova Scotia. Among the many famous ships made by the companies were the world's first steel ship, the Ma Roberts, built in 1858 for Dr. Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, Cunard's second Mauretania of 1939, and the first all-welded ship, the Fullagar built in the 1920s. The Zambezi (also spelled Zambesi) is the fourth-longest River in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa RMS Mauretania was launched on 28 July 1938 at the Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead, England and was completed in May 1939

Post 1945

The post Second World War years were turbulent for Cammell Laird. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Cammel Laird's covered warship hall building and cranes.

It was nationalised along with the rest of the British shipbuilding industry as British Shipbuilders in 1977. British Shipbuilders Corporation was a Public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 and through the 1980s In 1986, it returned to the private sector as part of VSEL another of the nationalised companies. Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built VSEL and Cammell Laird were the only British shipyards capable of production of nuclear submarines. In 1993, it completed HMS Unicorn (S43) – now HMCS Windsor (SSK 877) – that to this day that is the last ship completed at the yard. Design HMCS Windsor's displacement is approximately 2200 tons surfaced and 2400 tons submerged

Closure

After experiencing financial difficulties, partly due to the failure of a £50 million cruise ship contract with Costa Crociere, the company was forced to enter receivership, and the Birkenhead, Gosport, Teesside and Tyneside shipyards were subsequently acquired by the A&P Shiprepair Group during 2001. Carnival Corporation & PLC, a British-American - Panamanian corporation is the world's largest Cruise operator comprising 11 cruise brands including Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. History The Rowner area of the peninsula was known to have been settled in Saxon times mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles as Rughenor (Rough bank or slope Teesside is the name given to the Conurbation in the North East of England made up of the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees Tyneside is a Conurbation in northern England, which is home to over 80% of the Metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. A&P has since sold the 140-acre Birkenhead site to Northwestern Shiprepairers in 2003, but continue to operate the other three yards as an integral part of their ship repair and conversion operations. The Cammell Laird brand continues to survive today through the Royal Dockyard facility in Gibraltar, which was acquired through a management buy-out in 2001. Dockyards of the Royal Navy are harbours where either commissioned ships are based or where ships are overhauled and refitted Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar

Rebirth

In 2007, it was announced that the current occupiers of Cammell Laird Dock, Northwestern Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders has acquired the rights to the name^[1]. The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC is the current incarnation of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board which itself had replaced Liverpool Dock Trustees who

In February 2008 it was announced that the company had won a £28m Ministry of Defence contract to overhaul the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Fort Rosalie. The Ministry of Defence ( MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ( RFA) is a component of the Naval Service that keeps the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom running around the world ^[2].

References

See also

• Mersey-built ships
• Metro Cammell
• Cammell Laird Gibraltar
• Grayson Rollo and Clover Docks

External links

• Cammell Laird: Shipbuilders to the World (1824 - 1993)
• Wirral Archives: Cammell Laird
• Cammell Laird Football Club
• 1909 Map of Cammell Laird Docks