Ferguson Brothers The Ferguson shipyard was founded as a partnership by four brothers, (Peter, Daniel, Louis and Robert) who left the
Fleming & Ferguson shipyard in
Paisley to lease the Newark yard in
Port Glasgow in March 1903. The first vessel built by Messrs.
Ferguson Brothers in the yard was the tug
Flying Swift, launched on 26 October 1903. Ferguson Brothers acquired the freehold in the yard in 1907 and was incorporated as
Ferguson Brothers (Port Glasgow) Ltd in 1912. Ferguson was demerged from Appledore and acquired by
Greenock-based engineering firm
Clark Kincaid in 1989 then started trading as
Ferguson Shipbuilders. and the Ferguson yard sold to
Ferguson Marine plc in 1991. The sign above the main gate continued the name
Ferguson Shipbuilders Limited. Between 2013 and 2016 the yard built three hybrid diesel-electric/battery powered ferries, beginning with
Hallaig - the world's first.
Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited , prior to the November 2017 launch of the
Glen Sannox In August 2014, the shipyard placed the company into administration and the following month
Clyde Blowers Capital, an industrial company owned by
Jim McColl, purchased the yard for £600,000 and renamed it
Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (FMEL). In August 2015, government-owned
Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) announced that an order for two ferries for
Caledonian MacBrayne service, capable of operating on either marine diesel oil or
liquefied natural gas,
had been won by Fergusons. Originally intended for delivery during 2018, construction difficulties (the reasons for which are in dispute) led to a two-year delay for the first ship,
Glen Sannox, which was launched in November 2017. FMEL was part of two consortia's bids for the programme for five
type 31 frigates for the
Royal Navy, worth some £1.25 billion. The consortia are those led by
Babcock International and
Atlas Elektronik UK. After their bid was selected, a contract was formally awarded to Babcock Group on 15 November 2019, for an average production cost of £250 million per ship and an overall programme cost set to be £2 billion. On 30 October 2018, FMEL secured a contract to construct a large
air cushioned barge for Mangistau ACV Solutions Ltd, part of the CMI Offshore Ltd Group, with estimated completion scheduled in 2019. In December 2018 FMEL announced that two orders worth £5.4 million had been secured from Inverlussa Marine Services for fish farm support vessels, to be completed in May 2019, and that three more for fishing vessels, totaling £11 million, were in the pipeline. Cutting first steel on the Inverlusa order began in early 2019, but by July 2019 the ferry dispute had led to delays in closing the trawler contracts. Attempts by Clyde Blowers Capital to negotiate with the Scottish Government over increased costs and delays to ferries failed, and on 9 August 2019 the directors of FMEL gave notice that the company would be put into administration. On 16 August Finance Secretary Derek Mackay visited the yard to announce that the Scottish Government would take over management of Ferguson Marine to allow work to continue on current orders, and that if no private buyer could be found in four weeks, the yard would be nationalised by purchase. The government appointed marine engineer Tim Hair as turnaround director. At the start of December, after three private bids to purchase the yard were rejected as being insufficiently favourable to creditors, the government formally took ownership of the shipyard, and in the process wrote off about £50 million of previous loans.
Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd. The commercial transaction nationalising the shipyard was completed on 2 December 2019, making it a new business named
Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Ltd.. The costs and viability of completing contracts was investigated, and on 22 January 2020 turnaround director Tim Hair told a Scottish Parliament inquiry that the large ferries and
Hull 802 were "significantly less than half built", with 95% of their design still to be agreed with the client body
Caledonian Maritime Assets. Additional naval architects and marine engineers had been engaged to complete this design work. The vessels for Inverlussa Marine Services were built in the large prefabrication shed. The 21-metre fish farm workboat was named
Helen Rice in a launch ceremony on 27 January 2020 attended by Scotland's finance and economy secretary Derek Mackay, then lifted by crane into the water on 29 January. Sea trials and delivery were completed in March. The large
air cushioned barge for CMI Offshore Ltd (ordered from FMEL in 2018) was launched on 24 June 2020, to be taken to the
Caspian Sea to be completed and outfitted for oil exploration work in that area. The company's
board of directors with six non–executive members, including Alistair Mackenzie as chairman, was appointed in June 2020 by the Scottish Government
Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop. In February 2021, the firm announced it would take on 120 additional workers with the intention of operating seven days per week. On 15 March the 26-metre fish treatment workboat for Inverlussa was
airbag launched, and named
Kallista Helen. Fergusons had bid for two new ferries to be ordered by
CMAL, but was not included on the shortlist to submit detailed tenders. On 16 December David Tydeman was appointed chief executive, to take over from Tim Hair in February 2022. On 16 March 2023, Tydeman wrote to Scottish Ministers requesting a reset of the timetable for delivery of the two ferries to no later than end 2023 for
Glen Sannox (Hull 801) and no later than end 2024 for Hull 802. The shipyard is aiming to delivering earlier –
Glen Sannox in autumn 2023 and Hull 802 before late summer 2024. In May 2023, Ferguson announced that it had secured an initial contract with BAE Systems to fabricate three steel units for HMS
Belfast, the third City Class Type 26 frigate currently being constructed by BAE Systems. In July 2025, Ferguson signed a contract with BAE Systems to fabricate three structural components for HMS
Birmingham, the fourth City Class Type 26 frigate currently being constructed by BAE Systems. ==Vessels built==