British Shipbuilders

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British Shipbuilders Corporation was a public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 to 1986.

The corporation was founded as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 which nationalised British shipbuilding companies. The same act nationalised the large British aviation companies and grouped them in an analogous corporation, British Aerospace.

British Shipbuilders was privatised in 1983 under the terms of the British Shipbuilders Act 1983. The various divisions were sold to the private sector.

[edit] Assets subsumed by British Shipbuilders

• Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Troon (acquired in 1978, merged with Ferguson Shipbuilders to form Ferguson-Ailsa in 1981, assets transferred to Scott Lithgow)
• Cammell Laird and Company, Birkenhead
• Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow (merged with Ailsa in 1981 to form Ferguson-Ailsa)
• Govan Shipbuilders, Govan
• Northwestern Ship Repairers and Shipbuilding Limited (NSL), Merseyside
• Willian Doxford and Sons, Pallion
• Scott Lithgow, Greenock
• Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Limited , Wallsend (later renamed Swan Hunter)
• Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group, Barrow in Furness (later renamed Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited - VSEL)
• Vosper Thornycroft, Woolston and Portsmouth
• Yarrow Shipbuilders (YSL), Scotstoun
• Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Hebburn
• John Readhead and Sons, South Shields
• Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Wallsend
• John Brown & Company, Clydebank
• Harland and Wolff, Belfast (nationalised but outwith the management of British Shipbuilders)
• Smiths Dock Company, Middlesbrough

[edit] Denationalisation

• Cammell Laird - 1986 - as a subsidiary of VSEL, finished shipbuilding 1993, now part of NSL
• Ferguson Ailsa - 1986 - split and sold, Ailsa to Perth Corporation as Ailsa Perth Shipbuilders and Ferguson to Appledore Shipbuilders as Appledore Ferguson
• Govan Shipbuilders - 1988 - sold to Kværner as Kværner (Govan), to GEC-Marconi 1999 as part of Marconi Marine then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Naval Ships
• Scott Lithgow - 1981 - individual operating companies dissolved, sold to Trafalgar House in 1984, closed 2003
• Swan Hunter - ? - to recievership 1994, bought by Jaap Kroese
• YSL - 1985 - sold to GEC-Marconi as Marconi Marine (YSL) then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Naval Ships
• Vosper Thornycroft - 1985 - management buyout, now known as VT Group
• VSEL - 1986 - with Cammell Laird as a subsidiary. Acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1995 as part of Marconi Marine, then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Submarines
• Harland and Wolff - 1989

[edit] The evolution of British Shipbuilders

The evolution of British Shipbuilders, 1960 - present