Vickers Shipbuilding

When Edward Vickers combined forces with his father-in-law, George Naylor in 1828, he effectively joined a business which was later to bear his name for the next 158 years. Naylor had been a primary partner in Naylor & Sanderson Ltd, a steel foundry at Millsands, near Sheffield, where Edward’s brother also owned a steel rolling operation. Edward had made some very profitable investments in the developing railway industry and these profits allowed him to take control of the foundry, renaming it as Naylor, Vickers and Company. Under his leadership, they soon acquired a reputation for quality workmanship, producing church bells and bridgework. After 1854, when Edwards’ sons Thomas and Albert joined the business, the company saw huge and rapid development.

In 1863 the company relocated to Brightside, Sheffield at a site located along the River Don. In 1867 the company went public as Vickers, Sons and Company and began expanding its product capabilities into new areas such as marine shafts and gears. By 1872, Vickers, Sons & Company had become the premier manufacturers of marine propellers and within the following 10 years it set up its own forging press – this development would in turn allow the company to produce their first armour plate materials in 1888, followed quickly by their first artillery product in 1890.

The company continued to diversify and during the 1890s they purchased The Barrow Shipbuilding Company, as well as its subsidiary Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company.  A new company was formed as Vickers, Sons and Maxim and this gave them a complete naval shipbuilding and armaments capability, something which they had lacked when competing for military orders against with the likes of Sir WG Armstrong and Company.

The yard at Barrow-in-Furness became known as the ‘Naval Construction Yard’ and it was here in 1901 that the first submarine for the Royal Navy, the Holland 1, was built and launched. In 1911 Vickers took control of Portland Harbour-based Whitehead and Company who was the leading manufacturer of torpedoes at the time. This was also the year in which the company became Vickers Limited and expanded its operation into the world of aviation. UK shipbuilding was at its peak with 61% of all new vessels being created in UK yards. 

By 1926, the company had become an industrial giant and a re-organisation and restructuring of the business led to the disposal of a number of the constituent companies such as The Metropolitan-Vickers Company (although it retained The Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Company), The British Lighting and Ignition Company (BLIC) and diesel engine manufacturer Vickers-Petters Limited, together with closing its overseas company, Canadian Vickers. In 1927, the refocused company merged with rival shipbuilder Armstrong Whitworth, a business who had developed along similar lines. By early 1928, it had created Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. This union cemented the capabilities of the former companies and joined together the Barrow shipyard with the yard at High Walker on the River Tyne, as well the Armaments Works at Barrow with the munitions and military vehicle factory at Elswick.

The relationship between the Barrow and Newcastle Yards proved to be an uneasy one however, with the lion’s-share of the orders going to Barrow. High Walker was more suited to the building of large ships of up to 1,100 ft and with a scarcity of orders for this size of vessel it suffered a number of temporary closures during the formative years of the new company.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Vickers became heavily engaged in the war effort, with several aircraft carriers being built at both the Barrow and Walker yards, alongside battleships, armoured cruisers and submarines. Barrow was itself the subject to an intense bombing campaign in April 1941, when the Luftwaffe destroyed 10,000 houses (about 25% of the town) and whilst there were a number of direct hits on the shipyard, the damage was not sufficient to disrupt production.

Following the ending of hostilities, the company saw increased orders for non-naval vessels. With a new company name, Vickers-Armstrongs (Shipbuilders), assigned in 1950, and despite steel shortages prolonging production times, they secured a number of orders for the production of large tankers. This included the 71,000 tonne ‘Serenia’, which was the largest British-built tanker of the time. The company also served the luxury cruise market with the building of the beautiful Ocean Monarch, a 13,000 GRT (Gross Registered Tonnes), 414 passenger cruise liner for use on the New York-Bermuda route.

Naval orders would however continue to be a major part of the company’s work and 1960 would see Vickers complete the Royal Navy’s first nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Dreadnought (S101), launched by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Trafalgar Day (21st October) 1960 at Barrow.

In 1968, the High Walker Yard was sold to Swan Hunter, although Vickers-Armstrongs maintained an 18% interest in the facility. Following the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act of 1977 the entire UK shipbuilding industry was subsumed into a public concern know as British Shipbuilders Corporation, with its headquarters in Newcastle. By 1982 however, the grand plans had faltered and over half of the original shipyards had been closed. A new act was then invoked (The British Shipbuilders Act 1983) which required the Corporation to privatise those that remained and whilst the sites engaged in building naval vessels were sold off, those involved in the production of merchant vessels were simply closed.

The yard at Barrow, the first to return to private ownership, was sold to an employee led consortium who resurrected its relationship with the Vickers brand by naming the new company as Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL).  This also included the Cammel Laird subsidiary at Birkenhead on Merseyside. High Walker meanwhile returned to Swan Hunter although it was no longer building ships and was instead operating as an outfitting centre and administrative offices. During the late 1980s and early 1990s whilst under the VSEL banner, Barrow continued to build submarines and warships for both the Royal Navy and multiple navies around the world. 

In 1995, and after appraisal by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, VSEL was purchased by GEC and became part of its GEC–Marconi Marine and Marconi Electronic Systems business. By 1998, GEC were facing considerable pressure to participate in a consolidation of the defence industry and when they put Marconi Electronic Systems up for sale it resulted in the company joining with British Aerospace to form BAE Systems on 30th November 1999. 

It should be noted that at this point Vickers Plc was acquired by Rolls-Royce who subsequently sold the defence arm to Alvis Plc (known as Alvis Vickers). This remained until 2004, when Alvis Vickers was acquired by BAE Systems. Meanwhile, and following the 1999 amalgamation, the shipbuilding interest was initially known as BAE Systems Marine before splitting in 2003 into two companies: BAE Systems Submarines and BAE Systems Naval Ships. Whilst the next 15 years has bought a degree of stability to the shipyard operations, a number of name changes and mergers have occurred.

These started with the merger with VT Shipbuilding (formerly Vosper Thornycroft) in 2008, to become a BAE Systems / VT Group venture company known as BVT Surface Fleet. This merger included the shipyards at Govan and Scotstoun on the River Clyde in Glasgow, plus the VT Shipbuilding facilities with the various Royal Navy Dockyards.  BAE Systems subsequently acquired the VT Group shares in October 2009 and renamed the whole business as simply BAE Systems Surface Ships Ltd.

On 1st January 2011, BAE Systems Surface Ships was further re-integrated with BAE Systems Submarine Solutions to form two entities: BAE Systems Maritime – Naval Ships and BAE Systems Maritime - Maritime Services, under which titles today both continue to build the finest marine vessels above and below the surface of the water.