Sir Raylton Dixon and Company

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Sir Raylton Dixon and Company was a shipbuilding company based in Middlesbrough on the River Tees .

history

Raylton Dixon became the managing director of the former Rake, Kimber and Company shipyard on the site of what is now the Transporter Bridge in 1859 , after it was bought by Richardson, Duck of Thornaby . In 1862 Dixon and his partner Thomas Backhouse took over the shipyard, which then traded as Backhouse, Dixon . In 1873 Dixon became the sole owner of the shipyard, which later became known as the Cleveland Dockyard . Under Dixon's aegis, construction was initially carried out in iron, and soon afterwards the shipyard switched to steel shipbuilding. Mainly line and tramp steamers were built in the 1880s, in the next decade Dixon was already delivering large liner cargo ships to the more well-known shipping companies of the time and began building refrigerated ships for meat transport. In the 1880s around 16 ships were built annually; in the 1890s the average was already 20 ships, including a large number of liner ships. In 1890 Raylton Dixon was knighted and in 1897 the company was converted to a limited company.

From 1900 onwards, the Cleveland Dockyard built the largest ships on the Tees River thanks to its four large building halls and the large dry dock. In the years up to the First World War, the shipyard maintained a high level of new construction tonnage. In addition to the construction of high-quality, large mail and passenger ships, fish steamers and smaller cargo ships also left the shipyard. In addition, ships were repaired and mechanical engineering was carried out.

During the First World War, operations continued with the construction of passenger and liner ships. However, two tankers, ten small monitors and nine war-standard trampers were also delivered to the British Admiralty and the British Shipping Controller.

The postwar doldrums of the 1920s also hit Cleveland Dockyard. The last ships were eight necklaces for French accounts. In 1922 the company was sold to the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company and closed the following year.

In total, over 600 ships were built by Sir Raylton Dixon and Company.

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