Cochrane and Sons
Cochrane and Sons, ship builders, of Beverley and Selby.
1884 Andrew Cochrane founded a shipyard at Beverley.
1886 Company founded.
1898 Cochrane moved to Selby, 50 miles away from the sea by river. Cochrane and Sons built their reputation for building trawlers and coasters for the Hull and Grimsby fishing fleets.
In 1912 the company took limited liability status.
WWI The yard made 90 steam trawlers for private owners, 70 steam trawlers for the Admiralty which were deployed as minesweeper, gunboats and barges. The yard was able to achieve such a massive output by building the trawlers ten at a time in five pairs. In addition the yard was laid out in such a way so that ships could be launched two at a time and construction could take place rotationally with members of staff working on one task at a time for two weeks before the next task was undertaken.
1927 - April. Cochrane and Sons launched their thousandth vessel in the first week of April and followed it immediately with another. The two new craft were steel screw tugs, the Kenia and the Gondia, for William Watkins Ltd., London. It was pointed our that the first vessels built at Selby, under the present ownership, were also for Messrs Watkins. Messrs Cochrane's record includes the building of 700 trawlers, 81 mine-sweepers, 63 drifters, 33 tugs, 29 coasters, 8 petrol gunboats and other craft.[1]
1930s The Selby yard mainly made trawlers during the inter war years, along with harbour tugs and coasters.
1932 Private company.
1938 'A POWERFUL OCEAN TUG.-A notable addition to the British mercantile marine is the new salvage and towage tug "Neptunia," which has been built for the Overseas Salvage and Towage Company, Ltd., by Cochrane and Sons, Ltd. She is believed to be the most powerful vessel of her type in Europe, and is of 798 gross tons, with a. beam of 35ft. 7in. and a. moulded depth of 16ft. 2in. Her triple expansion engines, which were built by Charles D. Holmes and Co., Ltd., develop 2000 horse-power. A speed of over 14 knots has been reached during her first trips, and her bunkers carry sufficient fuel oil for a range of 9000 miles. Included in the elaborate wireless equipment of the vessel is a direction-finding installation similar to that fitted on large ocean liners. The ship has a complement of twenty, including the captain, two deck officers, three engineers, and a shipwright diver. It is expected that the new vessel will be stationed at Falmouth, from which port she will be able to proceed immediately to ships in distress within a wide range. The possession of such a powerful vessel will enable this country to compete with Continental companies in the towing of heavy ships for long distances, a class of work which has for many years been mostly in the hands of foreign firms.'[2]
WWII The Selby Yard came into its own during the Second World War: 21 Admiralty rescue tugs, 30 "Empire" harbour tugs and many trawlers were built. In addition the yard also continued filling private orders for trawlers, and also found time to complete a lighthouse tender.
1940 HMRT Restive (Royal Navy Rescue Tug W39) was laid down 25 April 1940, launched 4 Sept 1940, commissioned 12 Dec 1940.[3]. Scenes for the 1958 film The Key, which focused on the work on the rescue tugs in recovering Atlantic convoy ships, were filmed on board this tug.
1940s Following the War, the yard returned to making trawlers for a variety of private owners. This business enabled the yard to maintain a steady presence until the 1960s.
1950s Tugs were also the next key product manufactured by the yard. London tank barges served as prototypes for the ever larger tankers built by the yard throughout the late 50s and 1960s.
1960s Tankers, dry cargo coasters and smaller coasters were the main vessels made by the yard at this time.
1961 Shipbuilders, specialising in trawlers and tugs. 400 employees.
In 1965 control of the yard passed from the Cochrane family to the Ross Group Ltd, who then sold on to the Drypool Group Ltd in 1969.
In 1976, the Selby yard was bought up by United Towing Co. Ltd of Hull (the Drypool Group had gone into liquidation).
1977 The company’s name was changed to Cochrane Shipbuilders in 1977 and built an average of four ships per year for the next 15 years, mainly tugs, trawlers, oil rig supply vessels, ferries dry-cargo coasters and coastal tankers.
1980s Refrigerated fish carriers and coasters were the main ships made by the yard during this period. In 1987 the North British Maritime Group (the name of the company which now controlled the Selby Yard along with a couple of others)was taken over by an Australian shipping company: the Howard Smith Group.
1990s The yard was running out of orders and the Howard Smith Group was looking to withdraw from shipbuilding. The yard was run down and closed in October 1992 with the equipment auctioned off the following year.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1927/04/15
- ↑ The Engineer 1938/09/16
- ↑ [1] uboat.net: Allied Warships: HMS Restive (W 39) Rescue Tug of the Assurance class
- L. A. Ritchie, The Shipbuilding Industry: A Guide to Historical Records (1992)
- British Shipbuilding Yards. 3 vols by Norman L. Middlemiss
- 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE