Steel, Ships and Men: Cammell Laird, 1824-1993In its heyday, Cammell Laird of Birkenhead was one of a small group of British firms with operations spanning steelmaking, engineering ordnance, armour manufacture, and both merchant and naval shipbuilding, for which the company became best known. This is an account of its shipbuilding history, from its beginning to what was effectively its end with the construction of a submarine in 1993. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Establishment and Development of | 11 |
Charles Cammell 181079 chairman of Charles | 14 |
Laird Shipbuilding to the 1860s | 26 |
William Laird 17801841 | 30 |
Cyclops works in the 1870s | 41 |
13 | 49 |
The Struggle to Retain the Rail Trade | 57 |
Cammell Laird profits losses 192028 | 204 |
Cammell Laird Rolling Stock | 210 |
Average annual profits losses of Vickers and Cammell Laird rolling stock operations in the late 1920s | 214 |
Work in progress at MetropolitanCammell works at the end of 1927 and 1928 | 215 |
Book value of Cammell Laird investment in other companies 192930 | 216 |
Works of the ESC and MetropolitanCammell 192930 | 222 |
Approximate annual average turnover of actual or proposed constituent companies of the ESC for four years 192428 | 223 |
Book value and maximum steel output of Vickers Armstrong Cammell Laird and John Brown 1928 | 225 |
The Dronfield works of WilsonCammell | 67 |
The remains of Dronfield steel works drawn in 1887 | 73 |
Charles Cammell and Company | 77 |
Rolling armour plate for HMS Ocean at Cyclops works | 85 |
Laird Brothers 18651903 | 90 |
A Case of Better Rather than | 109 |
Multiplant Operations and Managerial Difficulties | 123 |
Cammell Laird works and major outside interests 1907 | 127 |
William Lionel Hichens 18741940 chairman | 134 |
Fairfields | 138 |
The Coventry Ordnance Works 1907 | 143 |
A heavy naval gun leaving the Coventry Ordnance | 154 |
Birkenhead Operations from 1903 to World War I | 158 |
Construction of the outer basin of the new Tranmere | 164 |
The Impact | 173 |
Cammell Laird armourplate production costs prices and revenue 191317 | 174 |
Cammell Laird 1912 | 175 |
Penistone old and new works 1923 | 178 |
Shipbuilding 191429 | 184 |
Selected costs in the shipbuilding industry 191426 | 193 |
George J Carter 18601922 managing director | 194 |
Economic Depression and the Steel Trade in | 201 |
Capital spending by the ESC during 11 months 192930 | 230 |
Capacity and production of ESC works 1930 | 231 |
Production and profits at Penistone 192228 | 236 |
Melting capacity of the ESCs Sheffield and Manchester works 1929 and 1935 | 245 |
Admiralty contracts for armourplate 193334 to 193738 | 246 |
Profits of main UK armament companies 193538 | 249 |
Cammell Laird shipbuilding 192838 | 253 |
Cammell Laird results 193538 | 254 |
Estimated expenditure in naval estimates for battleships 1937 and 1938 | 255 |
HMS Ark Royal before her launch in April 1937 | 256 |
Steel Interests in and after World War II | 263 |
Cammell Laird investments at 31 December 1954 | 265 |
Shipbuilding in World War II and the Postwar | 272 |
Shipbuilding by leading nations or areas 191357 | 276 |
Cammell Laird capital and profits 194966 | 282 |
Birkenhead launchings and Cammell Laird dividends 195358 | 283 |
The launch of the Polaris submarine HMS Revenge | 288 |
Cammell Laird 197093 | 293 |
21 | 300 |
Bibliography | 301 |
307 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Admiralty annual report April armament armour armour-plate Armstrong-Whitworth average became Bessemer Birkenhead British Cammell Laird Cammell's capital cent chairman Charles Cammell CL mins committee company's competition construction costs Coventry Ordnance Cyclops December Dronfield early Econ economy efficient Elgar engineering ESC mins Fairfield's February firms forgings furnaces Grimesthorpe guns Harland and Wolff Hichens increased industry interest investment Iron and Steel January John Brown July June labour Laird Brothers later launched less London managing director March meeting merchant Mersey Metropolitan-Cammell mill million tons modernisation naval November October open hearth open hearth furnaces operations orders output Patent Shaft Penistone plant plate problems production profits rails railway rationalisation reckoned recognised reconstruction River Don rolling stock September share Sheffield shipbuilding ships shipyard spring summer Table tion tonnage trade Trafford Park Tranmere tyre UK yards vessels Vickers Vickers-Armstrong warships Wirral Wirral Museum Workington