Robert Thompson and Sons
Robert Thompson and Sons was a shipyard in Southwick. It existed from 1854 to 1933.
history
The company founder Robert Thompson Junior left his parents' company Joseph Thompson and Sons in Sunderland in 1854 to set up his own shipyard. He acquired the shipyard of John Candish in the neighboring village of Southwick (now a suburb of Sunderland), which was equipped with a patent slip and shipbuilding hellingen, and began building ships there under his own name. The first ship built was the wooden Bark Graces . 21 more wooden ships followed before Thompson built the first composite structures in 1864 . As early as 1868 Thompson took the next step with the construction of the iron full ship Ireshope . This makes him one of the pioneers of iron shipbuilding. After the Thompson shipyard had built the first iron steamship with the Canadian two years later , only iron ships left the shipyard in Southwick from 1871.
From 1881 two Roberts sons joined the company, after which the shipyard was renamed Robert Thompson and Sons Ltd. This year twelve newbuildings ran from the shipyard's slipways, making it the third most productive Sunderlander shipyard in 1881. In 1888, Thompson Bridge acquired Dockyard as a repair yard, but later also built new buildings there. In the same year, both Thompson shipyards switched their production to steel shipbuilding. During this time the shipyard built a number of steel tramp ships.
The new building output in 1900 was 15,260 space tons. From 1901 the shipyard in Southwick was expanded and modernized and in 1906 the company became a limited company. Robert Thompson died in 1910. In these years up to the First World War, the shipyard was particularly known for the construction of medium-sized trampers, its repair business and ship extensions, but also manufactured cable layers and motor ships.
During the First World War, the shipyard built ten ships, nine barges and two patrol boats for the British Admiralty. In addition, the shipyard built some tramp ships for civilian accounts. The shipping controller ordered three standard ships of WAR types "A" and "C".
During the 1920s, more than 28 tramp ships and colliers left the shipyard. The shipyard was closed in 1930, but temporarily reopened in 1931, as the company had succeeded in winning an order from Portugal to build two trawlers. The Descobridor and Corte Real were launched in April and May 1931, but were not paid for, after which the two ships remained with the shipyard for two years and could not be sold to France until 1933. In the same year the yard was sold to the National Shipbuilders Security and demolished.
Between 1854 and 1933, Thompson built 341 ships.