Alfred Yarrow established his first shipyard on the Isle of Dogs, London, in 1869, building steam launches. Some 150 vessels were built between 1869 and 1875 including the boat used by Henry Morton Stanley to search the Congo for David Livingstone.
When the firm outgrew the Isle of Dogs yard, Yarrow moved his company half a mile to the Poplar shipyard where they continued to build steam launches and shallow draught lake and river vessels for export. Yarrow Shipbuilders as they became known, then built a succession of torpedo boat destroyers which led to their first major Royal Navy contract for a destroyer, HMS Havock in 1893. By the turn of the Century, Yarrow’s business had outgrown the Poplar yard.
The high cost of land and steel transportation coupled with the shortage and cost of labour in London prompted Yarrow to take the bold decision to move his entire company and staff to Scotland in 1906. He founded a new shipyard on a greenfield site at Scotstoun on the River Clyde. Near to his new shipyard, Yarrow built houses for his workforce.
Fifty vessels were built for the Royal Navy during the First World War, but after the war there was a dearth in orders, which forced Yarrow, then aged 79, to reluctantly to put the company into voluntary liquidation. However, after only three months Alfred Yarrow’s son, Harold, took over the running of the company and gradually put the business back on track.
Alfred Yarrow died in 1932 at the age of 90, having seen his company survive and prosper.
During the Second World War, Yarrow’s made a major contribution to the Royal Navy’s war eforts, with the shipyard completing a new ship every 10 weeks. After the war, the shipyard began to specialise in building Royal Navy frigates, but also maintained production of small shallow draught river and lake vessels.
The Yarrow shipyard was nationalised under the 1977 Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act and became part of the British Shipbuilders Group. In 1986 the shipyard was purchased by The General Electric Company (GEC), and when GEC brought Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL) in 1995, the two shipyards formed the basis of the new GEC Marine Group, later renamed Marconi Marine. The shipyard became part of BAE Systems on the 30th November 1999 following the merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems.
