Caird and Co

Caird and Co. of Greenock

• Established in 1828 as an engineering business

• 1840s The company began making large paddlers for various companies along with smaller Clyde paddlers. After winning an order of four ships for the Royal Mail Steam Packet, Caird and Co moved into shipbuilding in 1840, and went on to become one of the most well known shipbuilding companies ever.

• 1852 Forty-five ton crane at Greenock Harbour

• 1871 The Cartsdyke mid yard had been vacated in 1867 as the company had already taken over the Westburn East and now the Westburn West yard. As of 1870 P&O was the main customer for the yard, for whom it built 85 ships. The yard enjoyed an exclusive relationship with P&O, but also built liners for many other companies too. In between all of this, the yard also managed to build an iron sailing ship and a small number of steam yachts in the 1880s.

• 1888 James Caird died. He had already brought his four sons Patrick, William, Arthur and Robert into the company. One of the first things they did was to turn the Company into a limited liability one. The yard continued making liners and passenger ships throughout the 1880s.

• 1890-1914 The yard built over 32 liners for P&O long haul routes which was its main output.

• 1894 Details of the 'Caledonia'

• WWI The yard built fast patrol boats, and small vessels for the Admiralty as well as completing a number of repair and conversion contracts. In addition 10 war standard ships were built: three "A" types, five "B" types and two "AO" type tankers.

• 1915 Robert Caird died in December.

• 1915 The Company was taken over by Harland and Wolff. Arthur and Patrick Caird remained as directors, and the Caird name remained in use until 1922.

• 1919 Many changes occurred as Harland and Wolff extended their interests into surrounding yards and expanded the capacity of the yard. At this point in time the yard employed over 2000 workers.

• 1920s The slump in orders meant that the planned rate of expansion slowed, and was eventually suspended. However, the yard was still able to build larger vessels, and did this throughout the 1920s.

• 1926 No ships were launched from the yard in 1926

• 1927 Only four ships launched

• 1928 One ship launched

• 1935 Due to falling orders, the yard stopped shipbuilding, and was sold to National Shipbuilders Security. The north-western side of the yard is still in existence today, and is a warehouse area for the Greenock Container terminal

Railways

• 1840-1 Built four locomotives for Scottish railways

Sources of Information

• British Shipbuilding Yards. 3 vols by Norman L. Middlemiss
• British Steam Locomotive Builders by James W. Lowe. Published in 1975. ISBN 0-905100-816
• The Engineer of 14th December 1894 p523, p525, p527-8, p531
• The Imperial Journal 1852 Volume II. p403