| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Countries with large ship building industries include Japan and Poland. The ship building industry tends to be more fragmented in Europe than in Asia. In European countries there are more smaller companies, compared to the fewer, larger companies in the ship building countries of Asia.
Most ship builders in the United States are privately owned, the largest being Northrop Grumman a multi-billion dollar 'defence enterprise'. The publicly owned shipyards in the US are Naval facilities providing basing, support and repair.
Shipyards are constructed by the sea or by tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. In the United Kingdom, for example, shipyards were established on the River Thames (King Henry VIII founded yards at Woolwich and Deptford in 1512 and 1513 respectively), River Mersey, River Tyne, River WearThe Wear is a river in the North East of England. The River rises at Wearhead in County Durham. Which is also known as The Land of the Prince Bishop's due to the number of Castle's or Palace's in the County with a connection to the Church. The River Wear and River ClydeThe River Clyde flows from its source in the "Lead Hills" area of lowland Scotland to its mouth near Glasgow at the Firth of Clyde, where it flows into the North channel of the Irish Sea. The Clyde Valley near New Lanark is particularly fertile, and home). Sir Alfred YarrowSir Alfred Yarrow ( 1842 24 January 1932) started a shipbuilding dynasty from humble origins in east London. After serving an apprenticeship in Stepney, he opening a yard Yarrow & Hedley (a partnership) at Folly Wall, Poplar on the Isle of Dogs in 1865 to established his yard by the Thames in LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri's Docklands in the late 19th century before moving it northwards to the banks of the Clyde at ScotstounScotstoun is a district of Glasgow, Scotland, northwest of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Yoker to the west, Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Clyde (and Braehead beyond) to the south. Scotstoun was until the early 1860s (1906-08). Other famous UK shipyards include the Harland and WolffHarland and Wolff Heavy Industries began as a shipyard located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was formed by Edward James Harland and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff in 1861. Harland had bought the small shipyard on Queen's Island, in which he was employed as gener yard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was launched, and the naval dockyard at Chatham, England on the Medway in north Kent.
The site of a large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes, dry docks, slipways, dust-free warehouses, painting facilities and extremely large areas for fabrication of the ships.