Shipyard

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Small shipyard in Klaksvík (Faroe Islands), reparing fishing vessels
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Small shipyard in Klaksvík (Faroe Islands), reparing fishing vessels
Fish ladder and shipyard in Grave, the Netherlands
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Fish ladder and shipyard in Grave, the Netherlands
Construction hall of Schichau Seebeck Shipyard, Bremerhaven
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Construction hall of Schichau Seebeck Shipyard, Bremerhaven
Gdynia shipyard
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Gdynia shipyard

Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial construction. The terms are routinely used interchangeably, in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles.

Countries with large ship building industries include South Korea, Japan, China, Germany and Russia. The ship building industry tends to be more fragmented in Europe than in Asia. In European countries there are more smaller companies, compared to the fewer, larger companies in the ship building countries of Asia.

Most ship builders in the United States are privately owned, the largest being Northrop Grumman, a multi-billion dollar defense contractor. The publicly owned shipyards in the US are Naval facilities providing basing, support and repair.

Shipyards are constructed by the sea or by tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. In the United Kingdom, for example, shipyards were established on the River Thames (King Henry VIII founded yards at Woolwich and Deptford in 1512 and 1513 respectively), River Mersey, River Tyne, River Wear and River Clyde - the latter growing to be the World's pre-eminent shipbuilding centre. Sir Alfred Yarrow established his yard by the Thames in London's Docklands in the late 19th century before moving it northwards to the banks of the Clyde at Scotstoun (1906-08). Other famous UK shipyards include the Harland and Wolff yard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was built, and the naval dockyard at Chatham, England on the Medway in north Kent.

The site of a large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes, dry docks, slipways, dust-free warehouses, painting facilities and extremely large areas for fabrication of the ships.

After a ship's useful life is over, it makes its final voyage to a shipbreaking yard, often on a beach in South Asia. Historically shipbreaking was carried on in drydock in developed countries, but high wages and environmental regulations have resulting in movement of the industry to developing regions.

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[edit] History

The world's earliest dockyards were built in the Harappan port city of Lothal circa 2400 BC in Gujarat, India. Lothal's dockyards connected to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert was a part of the Arabian Sea. Lothal engineers accorded high priority to the creation of a dockyard and a warehouse to serve the purposes of naval trade. The dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archaeologists as an engineering feat of the highest order. It was located away from the main current of the river to avoid silting, but provided access to ships in high tide as well.

Ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, in the Venice Arsenal, Venice, Italy. The Arsenal apparently mass produced nearly one ship every day using pre-manufactured parts, and assembly lines and, at its height, employed 16,000 people.

[edit] Historic shipyards

[edit] Prominent dockyards and shipyards

  • Cochin Shipyard is the largest shipyard in India. Currently an aircraft carrier, the Indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) is under construction at Cochin shipyard.
  • Devonport Dockyard [1] [2], located in the city of Plymouth, England in the county of Devon is the largest naval base in Western Europe. It has 15 dry docks, four miles (6 km) of waterfront, 25 tidal berths, five basins and covers 650 acres (2.6 km²). It is the main refitting base for Royal Navy nuclear submarines and also handles work on frigates. It is the base for seven of the Trafalgar class nuclear powered hunter-killer submarines and many frigates, exploiting its convenient access to the Atlantic Ocean. It supports the Vanguard class Trident missile nuclear ballistic missile submarines in a custom-built refitting dock. It houses the HMS Courageous, a nuclear powered submarine used in the Falklands War and open to the general public[3]. Facilities in the local area also include a major naval training establishment and a base for the Royal Marines.
  • Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan Shipyard, in South Korea, is currently the largest in the world and has the capability to build a variety of vessels including Commercial Cargo, Offshore and Naval vessels.
Aerial view of Norfolk Naval Shipyard
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Aerial view of Norfolk Naval Shipyard
  • Yantai Raffles [4] is the largest ship builder in China located in Yantai. It has built numerous cargo ships, tugboats and support vessels, as well as pleasure vessels such as yachts.

[edit] External links

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