Famous Vessels Built At The Laird Shipyard In Birkenhead

The Only Known Image Of  The Troop Carrier HMS Birkenhead

The Cammell Laird shipyard started life as a boiler making company known as the Birkenhead Ironworks. The company was owned by Scot, William Laird (1780 - 1841), who moved to Birkenhead from his native Greenock in Scotland in 1810 in order to set up a rope making firm.

In 1822 William set up a steamship company with partners William Hamilton and John Forsyth.

In 1829  his son, solicitor's clerk John Laird (1805 - 1874) talked his father into manufacturing ships made from iron, resulting in John Laird becoming a pioneer of the iron built ship.  

John Laird, who was the M.P for Birkenhead from 1861 until his death in 1874 was also instrumental in the rejuvenation of the town of Birkenhead, which in those days was just a river side village, where he commissioned the building of a church, a hospital, an arts school and several housing projects, many of which still bare his name today.

The father and son's first shipyard, William Laird & Son, was situated at Wallasey Pool, which is an arm of the River Mersey situated just outside Birkenhead.

Their first ship was a sixty foot prefabricated iron lighter which was built for the Irish Inland Navigation Company which was launched in 1829.

In 1857, sixteen years after the death of his William, John Laird bought a new twenty acre shipyard at Tranmere.

When John retired in 1861, in order to devote more time to his parliamentary work, the shipyard was taken over by his three sons, William, John and Henry.

In 1903, twenty nine years after the death of John senior, the company merged with a Sheffield steel making company owned by Charles Cammell, which resulted in the beginning of the world famous ship building company, Cammell - Laird, which continued to build hundreds of ships until it’s closure in 1993. 

Several of these ships went on to become quite famous for a variety of reasons, many of which are listed below; 

Aircraft Carriers

The shipyard at Birkenhead built several aircraft carriers for use by the British Navy, including HMS Venerable built in 1943 and the first two HMS Ark Royals in 1939 and in 1950.

The first Ark Royal was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea in 1941 and the second became a T.V star after featuring in the British television documentary series ' Sailor ' in the 1970's.  

Battleships

The shipyard was instrumental in the building of iron war ships, many of which were built for the British Navy, these warships included the HMS Royal Oak built in 1892, HMS Glory built in 1899, HMS Audacious built in 1901 and HMS Achilles built in 1932. However the most famous one of these warships was the HMS Prince of Wales, a vessel which was instrumental in the sinking of the German Battleship the Bismarck in 1941. 

Cruise Liners

The shipyard at Birkenhead is probably most famous for the building of it's cruise liners than any other ship, although it made considerably less of these than any other ship.The shipyard built liners for several of the large cruise companies, including the Cunard Line, which commissioned the building of The Cephalonia in 1882, the Samaria in 1920 and the second ship to be named Mauretania built in 1939.

The company also built ships for the Union Castle Line, the most famous of which was the Windsor Castle built in 1960, which was used as a mail ship for use in South Africa. 

HMS Birkenhead

Two Cammell - Laird ships were built bearing the name HMS Birkenhead. 

The first vessel was a steam frigate launched in 1845, originally under the name of HMS Vulcan.

In 1851 she was overhauled into a troopship and renamed HMS Birkenhead.

On the 25th of February, 1852 with 643 men, women and children and nine horses on board, she set sail from Simonstown in South Africa on the last leg of a journey bound for Algoa Bay on South Africa's east coast.

At 02.11hours on the 26th of February HMS Birkenhead struck a concealed rock at a place called Danger Point situated off the coast of Gansbaal.

Her captain, Robert Salmond, ordered all the women and children into the ship's cutter and had the horses thrown into the sea - in the hope that they would swim to shore. Ten minutes later, the ship struck the rock a second time tearing the ship's bottom in half.

Captain Salmond immediately ordered those that could swim to abandon ship and swim for land, but a Colonel Seton ordered his military personnel to ' stand fast'  realising that letting the men jump overboard and that they would make strait for the cutter, would seriously endanger the lives of the women and children.

Colonel Seton's men obeyed him and did not move even as the ship broke up and began to sink around them.

This horrific event led to two things - the naval protocol of women and children first when faced with helpless circumstances, which became known as the Birkenhead Drill, and the building of a lighthouse at Danger Point in 1895.

Of the 643 passengers 193 men survived, 8 of the nine horses managed to swim to shore and all the women and children were rescued.  

The second HMS Birkenhead was a light cruiser launched in 1915, which, along with her sister ship HMS Chester, was originally built for the Greek Navy, but ended up being bought by the British Navy. These two sister ships were part of the light squadron of the Grand Fleet and both took part at the Battle of Jutland in June of 1916.

This particular HMS Birkenhead was then sold for scrap in 1921.   

Merchant Ships

Several merchant ships were built at Birkenhead, particularly oil tankers.

The most famous of these oil tankers was the pioneering Shell tanker, Sepia built in 1956, which was the first vessel to be propelled by a gas turbine in the world. 

Preserved Ships

Several of the Birkenhead war horses have been preserved for prosperity and can be seen in various locations around the world.

These include the turret ship, Huascar built in 1865 for the Peruvian Navy, which now takes pride of place in the Chilean Naval base at Talcahuano, the training vessel, Presidente Sarmiento built in 1897, which is now a museum ship berthed in Buenos Aries in Argentina and the Corvette Antarctic explorer, ARA Uruguay built in 1874, which is still in use by the Argentinian Navy.   

River Steamships

The company started life building river steamships, mainly for use on and around the lakes and rivers of Great Britain.The most famous of these steamships was the Ma Robert, built for African explorer Dr David Livingstone (1813 - 1873) for use on during his travels along the Zambezi River. 

Submarines

Submarines were also built at the shipyard, including HMS Unicorn, HMS Reknown, HMS Revenge and the most famous one of them all, HMS Conqueror, who sank the Argentinian warship the ARA General Belgrano in 1982 during the Falklands conflict killing 323 of it's crew.  

  

Vessels Still in Service

Although the shipyard in Birkenhead officially ceased business in 1993, there are still quite a few of it's ships sailing the seas to this day. These include the three RFA support tankers HMS Appleleaf, HMS Brambleleaf and HMS Orangeleaf, the two destroyers HMS Liverpool and HMS Campbletown, the WWI Cruiser HMS Caroline and the submarine HMS Onyx. 

Vessels Under Restoration

Two former Birkenhead built ships have been found locally and are presently undergoing restoration at their home port.

They are the former tug boat the Daniel Adamson built for use on the Manchester Ship canal in 1903 and the Isle of Man cruise steamer the Manxman. 

Warships

Iron built warships were becoming big business in the latter part of the nineteenth century where the Laird & Sons shipyard began to make warships not only for the British Navy but for foreign navies too.

Their list of warships include HMS Scorpion, HMS Wivern, HMS Captain and the steam destroyer HMS Rattlesnake, but the most famous of them all was the CSS Alabama, built for the American Confederate Government in 1862.

The CSS Alabama terrorised international waters all over the world during it's seven expeditionary raids over a two year period.

On the eleventh of June 1864 the CSS Alabama made her way to Cherbourg in France for a much needed and long awaited refit. As she entered the English Channel she was met by the Union Warship the USS Kearsarge.

The two ships engaged in a battle (instigated by the CSS Alabama) in which the CSS Alabama was sunk and her survivors rescued by the enemy ship the USS Kearsarge.