Workman, Clark
Workman, Clark & Co., Ltd. was a shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland . The company, founded in 1880, went bankrupt in 1935 and was dissolved.
history
The beginnings
The company was founded in 1880 by Frank Workman and George Clark under the name Workman, Clark and Company in the legal form of a limited company. Both had previously worked in Belfast at the Harland & Wolff shipyard and, due to their families, also had good connections with other shipyards. At the beginning hulls (were hulls ) and coastal vessels built. The young company ran out of money as early as 1881, but Workman managed to get a new order for a four-masted propeller-driven barque through his connections to the Smith family, which owned the City Line shipping company in Glasgow . This first large new building resulted in a number of follow-up orders for sister ships that the shipyard was busy with until the 1890s. During these years numerous steamers were built for the Ulster Steamship Company and tramp ships for Thomas Dixon and Sons. By the 1890s, the Victoria Engine Works was already able to manufacture boilers and marine steam engines.
Growth until the First World War
Around 1900 Workman, Clark and Company consolidated its reputation with the construction of four innovative passenger ships for the transatlantic service and expanded operations to seven helges in the so-called North Yard and five helges on the South Yard. With 3,500 employees, they delivered 34,000 tons of shipping space per year and thus built up in some cases long-lasting business relationships with companies such as the Irish Star Line , Cunard Line , Alfred Holt , the United Fruit Company and others. The first milestone of the shipyard was the Victorian , built in 1904 , the first passenger ship with steam turbine propulsion for the transatlantic service. This also led to a number of newbuilding orders from various shipping companies, who ordered similar ships from Workman, Clark and Company.
First World War
At the beginning of the First World War it was now with 9,000 employees, except for the construction of large passenger and cargo ships and the production of steel propellers and Parsons - steam turbines specialized. During the war, the shipyard's output, both cargo and warships for the Royal Navy , peaked and the number of shipyard workers grew to 12,000. In addition to the repair business, refrigerated and cargo ships for line and tramp use as well as standard “B” series ships were produced. A shipyard worker set a record by setting 11,209 rivets in a single day.
Post-war period until dissolution
In the first year after the war, the shipyard was taken over by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Co. In 1920, the value of the company grew from £ 2.4 million pounds to seven million pounds. The situation changed in 1923 when the yard lost £ 3 million and Northumberland Shipbuilding Co was unable to service its bond interest. Since Northumberland Shipbuilding Co. immediately after the acquisition of Workman, Clark had taken out large sums of money to settle its own debts on the subsidiary, but never reinvested them there, but kept them in the parent company, there was a large damages lawsuit of the shareholders against the parent company in 1927, which sued for fraud and embezzlement through the creation of false takeover prospectuses and to clarify the associated liability clauses. In January 1928 the shipyard lost all creditworthiness in the course of this process. The shipyard went bankrupt and closed. As early as March, however, with government aid, the old company's creditors were satisfied for around a third of its value, and the shipyard was taken over by means of a management buy-out under the leadership of William Strachan and reopened under the name Workman, Clark.
In terms of shipbuilding, the 1920s consisted of a large number of general cargo ships for liner service and 14 refrigerated ships for Elders & Fyffe and the Standard Fruit Company . Workman's most notable ship, the Clark, was undoubtedly the Bermuda built in 1927 . The largest ship ever built here was equipped with four diesel engines and innovative technology. But just four years later it was to become the perhaps decisive nail in the coffin of Workman, Clark. Initially, however, ten so-called “G” -class meat transport deep-freeze ships, ten tankers and a whaling factory ship were produced.
The next and last for Workman, Clark decade began under the influence of the global economic crisis behave with the construction of two Shell -Tanker and another whaling factory ship. At the end of 1930 Strachan proposed a merger with Harland & Wolff and in November the shipyard was once again briefly closed. On November 19, 1931, there was another fire on board the passenger ship Bermuda lying at the shipyard , after it had already burned on board in Hamilton on Bermuda on June 16 of that year. In May 1932, Workman, Clark bought Bermuda to avoid a £ 1 million damages suit. Already at the end of May Strachan had to send the majority of the workforce home with the words “All our slips are empty!” After two refrigerated ships had been completed. Since the company was financially so desolate that the wages could no longer be paid in the face of empty helmets, the workers had to be laid off, but not without emphasizing "we are neither downhearted nor without hope" (we are neither downhearted or without hope) . Shortly afterwards it was possible to win new construction orders for some combination ships , general cargo ships and a tanker. The "misfortune ship" Bermuda was sold to a scrapping yard in 1934 and sank on April 30, 1934 in tow on the way to being demolished. When no further orders could be received in the same year, most of the shipyard workers were laid off again. But it was not until May 1935 that the yard finally went bankrupt. The part of the shipyard called North Yard was acquired by National Shipbuilders Security (British Shipbuilders Ltd.) and dismantled by the Lagan Construction Company during World War II . South Yard was reactivated as their Victoria Yard by Harland and Wolff when the war began.
Construction statistics of the shipyard
| Workman, Clark | ||
|---|---|---|
| Construction period | Number of ships | Tonnage (GRT) |
| 1900-1904 | 53 | 274.200 |
| 1905-1909 | 61 | 332,800 |
| 1910-1914 | 46 | 359.142 |
| 1919-1923 | 50 | 348,383 |
| 1924-1928 | 26th | 147,739 |
| 1929-1933 | 24 | 161,620 |
See also
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 36 '50.6 " N , 5 ° 54' 35.4" W.
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Workman, Clark in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
literature
- Lynch, John P .: An unlikely success story . The Belfast Shipbuilding Industry 1880 to 1935. Belfast Society, Belfast 2001, ISBN 0-9539604-3-9 .
- H. Clarkson & Co. Ltd. (Ed.): The Clarkson Chronicle . 1852-1952. Harley Publishing, London 1952.
- Germanischer Lloyd (Ed.): International Register 1881 . Germanischer Lloyd, Berlin 1881.