Swan Hunter

Swan Hunter was a major shipbuilding companies of the United Kingdom. The shipyard in Wallsend in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear had to file for bankruptcy in November 2006.

History

Foundation

1852 Charles Mitchell founded a small shipyard in Walker -on- Tyne, an eastern suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the two years later Henry Frederick and Charles Sheridan Swan brothers boarded. The company expanded rapidly and acquired additional land in 1873 in Wallsend, about a kilometer downstream. George Burton Hunter participated in 1880 in the company, which is now identified as C. S. Swan & Hunter Ltd.. changed its name.

Rise

By buying up more land and competing shipyards C. S. Swan & Hunter in 1897 to the largest shipyard on the River Tyne and one of the largest in the United Kingdom. In the same year the company began as one of the first in the world with the manufacturing of floating docks. At this time, could be built at the shipyard only vessels with a maximum length of 170 meters, was that in 1902 started the construction of two dry docks with a length of 225 meters. In June 1903, the C. S. Swan & Hunter Ltd. merged. with Wigham Richardson & Company Ltd. whose shipyard Neptune Shipyard and Engine Works was founded in Walker -on- Tyne in 1860 by John Wigham Richardson and had specialized early on in the construction of steamboats.

The new company, Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Ltd.. (in short: Swan Hunter) bought in the same year on several neighboring competitors. Thereby, the hitherto lying separately shipyards in Walker -on- Tyne and Wallsend have been merged into a single shipyard that extended over almost two kilometers along the Tyne.

Heyday

Also in 1903, the shipyard received an order to build the Mauretania, as at that time the largest ship in the world was in Wallsend launched in 1906. Already in the following year she won the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic, and held that title for 22 years to 1929. To expand the business bought Swan Hunter 1912 Situated on the Clyde shipyard Barclay, Curle and Company, which maintenance, repair and modernization carried out by ships. During both world wars Swan Hunter built a total of over 100 warships for the Royal Navy, including aircraft carriers and battleships.

In the 1950s, the shipyard began a large-scale modernization program to keep pace with technological advances can. These investments paid off and in 1966 was able to Swan Hunter shipyard on buying up the last independent Tyne and rose to become the largest shipbuilding company in England. The company name was now. Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd. but changed to 1967 also acquired the shipyard Grangemouth Dockyard Company, this set five years later, a shipbuilding. On 1 January, the Furness Shipbuilding Company was taken over in Haverton Hill. Were built at Swan Hunter now mainly oil tankers and container ships, however, continue warships for the Royal Navy, as the destroyer of the Blackwood class. In 1973, the company occupy approximately 12,000 employees, and received in 1976 the prestigious contract to build the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and two years later the sister ship HMS Ark Royal.

Shipyard crisis

To counteract the onset shipyard crisis, the government decided nevertheless to nationalize much of the British shipyards on July 1, 1977 in the British Shipbuilders Corporation, as well as Swan Hunter Shipbuilders. However, this was short-lived, as the subsequent government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1983 privatized the yard again. The success of the previous decades now missing however, and the company was forced to close or sell large parts of the shipyard site. End of the 80s, the situation seemed to improve, when the yard of the Royal Navy contract to build four frigates of the Duke class and supply ship Fort George received, but this could only temporarily improve the financial situation of the ailing shipyard. Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in 1993, competed unsuccessfully for the construction of the helicopter carrier Ocean and had to file for bankruptcy the following year for the first time.

Bankruptcy

The yard was eventually taken over in 1995 by Jaap Kroese investor and renamed Swan Hunter. Now they specialized in the construction of oil rigs and supply vessels, but also tried to continue to receive orders from the Navy. On 26 October 2000 Swan Hunter was awarded the contract to build two Docklandungsschiffen the Bay class for the Royal Navy, and hoped by this prestigious project, the crises of the past few years to be able to leave behind. However, during the construction of the two ships RFA Largs Bay and RFA Lyme Bay there were multiple delays due to technical problems and massive budget overruns. Finally brought the construction of the Bay class of the yard, a loss of more than 25 million pounds. 2005 informed the Ministry of Defence against previous announcements finally with that Swan Hunter would not be involved in the construction of new aircraft carriers of the Queen Elizabeth class, a project that the shipyard had already scheduled.

On September 3, 2005 ran with the Lyme Bay the last ship at Swan Hunter from the stack. An attempt to rescue the company by restructuring and specialization in ship scrapping failed. In November 2006, the shipyard announced final bankruptcy. In April 2007, the entire equipment of the shipyard was sold to India.

Known ships

• Carpathia - 1902
• Mauretania - 1906
• Ceylan - 1907
• Laconia - 1911
• Laconia - 1921
• Sidi Bel Abbes - 1929
• Anson - 1940
• Vengeance - 1944
• Derbyshire - 1976
• Illustrious - 1981
• Ark Royal - 1981

54.987135 - 1.528519Koordinaten: 54 ° 59 ' 14 " N, 1 ° 31' 43 " W

• Former shipyard ( England)
• Former company ( Tyne and Wear )
• Swan Hunter