John Brown & Company

John Brown and Company of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, was a pre-eminent shipbuilder, responsible for building many notable ships.

Origins

The shipyard was founded by the James and George Thomson, brothers who had worked for the famous engineer Robert Napier. The Thomson brothers named the yard "J&G Thomson" after their Glasgow foundry, established in Anderston in 1847. In 1851 they opened a shipyard at Cessnock, launching their first ship, "the Jackal" in 1852. They quickly established a reputation in building prestigious passenger ships, building the "Jura" for Cunard in 1854 and the record breaking" Russia" in 1867.

The company moved to the Barns o' Clyde (later re-named Clydebank) near the village of Dalmuir in 1871. The location at the confluence of the River Clyde, with the tributary River Cart at Newshot Isle, allowed very large ships to be launched.Despite severe financial difficulties the company developed a reputation based on engineering quality and innovation.

In the early 1900s, the company innovated marine engineering technology through the development of the Brown-Curtis turbine, which had been originally developed and patented by the U.S. company International Curtis Marine Turbine Co. The performance of these engines impressed the Royal Navy which, as a consequence, placed orders for many of its major warships with John Brown.

Golden Age

"John Brown and Company", a Sheffield steel-maker took over the yard in 1899, and it became one of the leading shipbuilding yards in the world. Many notable warships and liners were built here including:
*RMS "Lusitania" - Cunard Liner (torpedoed and sunk in 1915)
*RMS "Aquitania" - Cunard Liner
*HMS "Hood" - iconic pre-WW2 battlecruiser
*HMS "Tiger" - battlecruiser
*HMS "Repulse" - battlecruiser
*HMS "Barham" - "Queen Elizabeth" class battleship
*RMS "Queen Mary" - Cunard Liner (Now a floating hotel and convention center, Long Beach CA)
*RMS "Queen Elizabeth" - Cunard Liner (Burned and sank in Hong Kong Harbour 1972)
*RMS "Queen Elizabeth 2" - Cunard Liner

Interwar recession

The end of World War I, and the subsequent famine of naval orders hit British shipbuilding extremely hard, and John Brown only just survived. Two great ships saved the yard, they were the giant Cunard White Star Liners:
* RMS "Queen Mary"
* RMS "Queen Elizabeth"

World War II and After

The yard made a valuable contribution to the war effort, building amongst others:
* HMS "Duke of York" - battleship
* HMS "Vanguard" - the last battleship built in the world
* HMS "Indefatigable" - aircraft carrier

The immediate post war period saw a severe reduction in warship orders which was balanced by a prolonged boom in merchant shipbuilding to replace tonnage lost during the war. By the end of the 1950s, however, the rise of other shipbuilding nations in Europe, Korea and Japan, newly recapitalised and highly productive, using new methods such as Modular design, made many British yards, which had continued to use outmoded working practices and largely obsolete equipment, uncompetitive. At Clydebank, the management pursued a strategy of tendering for a series of break-even contracts, most notably the Kungsholm liner, in the hope of weathering the storm and maintaining production in anticipation of a new high-profile contract from Cunard for a new liner, but due to rising costs and inflationary pressures, the company suffered major and unsustainable losses as a result. By the mid 1960s, John Brown & Co's management, warned that its shipyard was uneconomic and potentially faced closure.

The last passenger liner order eventually came from Cunard with RMS "Queen Elizabeth 2", but the yard had since merged into Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, which collapsed amidst much controversy in 1971. The last true ship to be built at the yard, the bulk grain carrier, "Alisa", was completed in 1972. The Clydebank facility continued to operate under various owners until 2001, constructing oil platforms in support of the North Sea oil fields. The commercially successful John Brown Engineering division of the company was acquired by Trafalgar House. In 1996 it was purchased by Kvaerner. It later was split, with Kvaerner retaining some assets, and Yukos obtaining John Brown Hydrocarbons and Davy Process Technology, both in based in London. John Brown Hydrocarbons was sold to CB&I in 2003. The business was renamed CB&I John Brown, and later CB&I UK Limited.

Regeneration of the site

A comprehensive regeneration plan for the site is currently being implemented by West Dunbartonshire Council and Scottish Enterprise. The masterplan is based around making the Clydebank waterfront more accessible to the public, and the plans include; restoring the historic Titan Crane originally designed by Sir William Arrol for the Clyde shipyard, the construction of a new campus for the local college, improved infrastructure, modern offices and a light industrial estate, and new housing, retail and leisure facilities. It was hoped that the "Queen Elizabeth 2" would have been brought back to the city and the river of her birth as part of the plan. Sadly, on 18 June 2007 the Cunard Line announced that the ship would be sold to Dubai as a floating hotel.

Other notable ships built by John Brown and Company

*HMY "Britannia" - the Royal Yacht "Britannia", Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh
*HMS "Enterprise"
*HMS "Lynx"
*HMAS "Australia" (1911)
*HMAS "Australia" (1927)
*HMS "Icarus"
*"Gangut" class battleship

References

* [http://clydebankrestoration.com/ Clydebank Restoration Trust - Restoring Heritage & Pride]
*http://www.theclydebankstory.com/story_TCSC03.php - A summary of the history of the company.
* R.D. Thomas, B.Patterson, Dreadnoughts in Camera 1905–1920, 1998, Sutton Publishing
* Clyde built ships data base - lists all ships built on the Clyde - http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/index.asp
* [http://www.clydebankrebuilt.co.uk/ Regeneration Masterplan]