Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited, often referred to simply as "Palmers", was a
Britishshipbuilding company. The company was based in
Jarrow, County Durham, in north-eastern England, and also had operations in
Hebburn and
Willington Quay on the
River Tyne.
History
Early history and growth
The company was established in 1852 by
Charles Mark Palmer as Palmer Brothers & Co. in
Jarrow.[1] Later that year it launched the John Bowes, the first
iron screwcollier.[1][2] By 1900, the business was known as Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company.[3][Fn 1] At that time, besides building ships, it manufactured and processed its own steel and other metals, and its products included
Reed water tube boilers and
marine steam engines.[6][Fn 2] By 1902, Palmers' base at Jarrow occupied about 100
acres (41
hectares) and included 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometres) of the southern bank of the
River Tyne, and employed about 10,000 men and boys.[8] In 1910, Sir Charles Palmer's interest in the business was acquired by
Lord Furness who, as
Chairman, expanded the business by acquiring a lease over a new graving dock at
Hebburn from
Robert Stephenson and Company.[9] In 1919, Palmers laid down the
SS Gairsoppa, which was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941, causing the loss of 84 lives and 200 long tons (203 tonnes) of silver.[10][11]
Depression and collapse
The
Great Depression, which began in 1929, all but destroyed the shipbuilding industry, which would not rebound until the
Second World War. In 1931, Palmers posted a loss of £88,867 (equivalent to £6,424,000 in 2021). The company received a
moratorium from its creditors in order to extend repayment. In January 1933, the majority of the company's unsecured creditors met in London and agreed to extend the moratorium a further six months.[12]
However, Palmers was unable to survive and collapsed by the end of the year. The company's blast furnaces and steel works—which covered 37 acres—were put up for auction.[13] The Jarrow yard was sold to
National Shipbuilders Securities, which closed it down in order to sell it, causing much unemployment and leading to the
Jarrow March.[14] After the shipyard closed, following support from the industrialist,
Sir John Jarvis, the site was used the engine shop as a steel
foundry for another 18 months.[15]
The company retained the yard at
Hebburn and was subsequently acquired by
Armstrong Whitworth, becoming Palmers Hebburn Company.[16] In 1973,
Vickers-Armstrongs, successor to Armstrong Whitworth, sold the Palmers Dock at Hebburn to
Swan Hunter and developed it as the Hebburn Shipbuilding Dock.[17] This facility was acquired in turn from the
receivers of Swan Hunter by Tyne Tees Dockyard in 1994, which sold it to
Cammell Laird in 1995. When the latter entered receivership in 2001, the dock was acquired by
A&P Group.[18][19] The yard remains in use as a ship repair and refurbishment facility.[20]
Ships built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company
^Some 19th-century and later sources refer to the company as "Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company", with an apostrophe, but in Some Account of the Works of Palmers Shipbuilding & Iron Company Limited, which was compiled by the business's
company secretary Malcom Dillon and published in 1900, the name is given throughout as "Palmers ...", without the apostrophe.[4][5][3]
^"A speciality of [Palmers' engine works] is the manufacture of the 'Reed' water-tube boiler, the invention of Mr J. W. Reed, manager of the engine works department, which has been adopted with well-known results in ... high-speed [torpedo boat destroyers] ..., and also in vessels constructed for the Admiralty on the Clyde. It may be observed that nearly 25 miles [40 km] of tubes are used in the manufacture of the boilers and machinery of each 30-knot destroyer."[7]
^C. Michael Hogan; Peter Saundry (21 May 2012). Cleveland, Cutler J (ed.).
"SS Gairsoppa recovery". Encyclopedia of Earth. Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment. Archived from
the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
^"Palmers' Moratorium". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 14 January 1933. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
^"Steel Works to be Sold at Auction". The Times. 10 July 1934. p. 11.
Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.
ISBN978-1-84832-049-9.
Johnston, Ian; Buxton, Ian (2013). The Battleship Builders – Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships (Hardback). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN978-1-59114-027-6.
Wilkinson, Ellen (1939). The Town That Was Murdered, The Life-Story of Jarrow. Victor Gollancz Ltd.