Early history Shipbuilding began on what would become C. S. Swan & Hunter's Middle Yard in 1873 under Coulson, Cooke & Co. owned by shipbuilder
Charles Mitchell. Mitchell had worked under
John Coutts nearby in
Low Walker until 1852 when he started his own business, steadily expanding until breaking ground on the new site with two of his associates in 1873. However, in 1874 the joint venture failed and Mitchell took over, delegating management to his brother-in-law
Charles Sheridan Swan, taking the name C. S. Swan & Co. The East Yard was founded on the site of the Wallsend Chemical Works, which underwent a change of ownership in 1883. By 1891, C. S. Swan & Hunter had purchased the land and extended the yard onto it, expanding from three building berths or slipways to six. Two of these were large, covered slipways with electric gantry cranes, an innovative construction method for the time. The site that would become the West Yard was originally that of Schlesinger, Davis & Co. from 1863 until 1893. The site was purchased by C. S. Swan & Hunter in 1897.
John Wigham Richardson founded the Neptune Works nearby in 1860, on the site previously occupied by Coutts.
C. S. Swan & Hunter C. S. Swan & Hunter was founded by
Sunderland shipbuilder
George Burton Hunter, in partnership with Mary, the widow of Charles Sheridan Swan in 1880. Hunter had recently dissolved his partnership with S. P. Austin in Sunderland and entered negotiations with Charles Mitchell and H. F. Swan, brother of Charles Sheridan Swan. They brokered the partnership, placing Hunter as the managing director. and quickly broke their own record by launching the
Monarch the following year for
Furness, Withy & Co. The following year they were commissioned to produce another cargo vessel, this one of for
Christopher Furness, but this was purchased before launch by
Cunard Line for £115,000, who named the vessel . Around the time they purchased
Ultonia, Cunard placed an order for what was known as an 'intermediate' liner. Not as fast as , not as large as , but fast enough and large enough to pay well. This new ship was named , launched in 1899. She was Cunard's largest ship at time of launch. The success and flexibility of
Ivernia and her sister ship (built at
John Brown & Company,
Clydebank), that protected Cunard from fluctuations in seasonal passenger trade, prompted Cunard to order a third, smaller ship of the same class from C. S. Swan & Hunter. This ship was launched in 1902 as and was later made famous for her role in the aftermath of the
sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.
Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson In 1903, C. S. Swan & Hunter merged with
Wigham Richardson (founded by
John Wigham Richardson as Neptune Works in 1860), specifically to bid for the important contract to build on behalf of
Cunard. Their bid was successful, and the new company, Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, went on to build what was to become, in its day, the most famous oceangoing liner in the world. Also in 1903, the Company took a controlling interest in the
Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company, which was an early licensed manufacturer of
Parsons steam turbine engines, which enabled
Mauretania to achieve her great speed.
Mauretania was launched from
Wallsend on 20 September 1906 by the
Duchess of Roxburghe. The firm expanded rapidly in the early part of the twentieth century, acquiring the Glasgow-based
Barclay Curle in 1912. Following the publication of the
Geddes Report recommending rationalisation in
British shipbuilding, the Company went on to acquire
Clelands Shipbuilding Company and
John Readhead & Sons in 1967. Meanwhile, Swan Hunter inherited both the Naval Yard at
High Walker on the
River Tyne of
Vickers-Armstrongs Then in 1977, Swan Hunter Group was
nationalised as part of
British Shipbuilders.
Swan Hunter The Company was
privatised again in 1987 but decided to close its Neptune Yard in 1988. It was then forced to call in the receivers when the UK government awarded the contract for to
Kvaerner Govan in 1993. The receiver took steps to break up the business. However, the main shipyard in
Wallsend was bought out from receivership by Jaap Kroese, a Dutch
millionaire. In 2000, Swan Hunter was awarded the contract to design and build two (Auxiliary) Landing Ship Dock ships for the
Royal Fleet Auxiliary with two other ships being built by
BAE Systems Naval Ships: the cost of the two Swan Hunter ships was to be £210 million including £62 million for lead yard services, with an inservice date of 2004. By July 2006, the costs had risen to £309 million and only one ship had been delivered. As a result of this, the second ship was transferred to
BAE Systems Govan in Glasgow for completion. In 2001, Swan Hunter acquired
Kværner's
Port Clarence offshore yard at
Teesside but then in 2006 sold it to Wilton Engineering Group. In November 2006, after the failure to complete
Lyme Bay within budget and resulting exclusion from future Royal Navy shipbuilding projects,
Jaap Kroese announced that the business was effectively finished and placed the Wallsend Yard's iconic cranes up for sale. He also said that he was actively looking for a buyer for the land. During this time,
Lyme Bays earlier sister ship,
Largs Bay, was noted as the last ship to be built and fully completed by Swan Hunter. In April 2007, Swan Hunter's cranes, along with its floating dock and other equipment, were sold to
Bharati Shipyards,
India's second-largest private-sector shipbuilder. The entire plant machinery and equipment from Swan Hunter was dismantled and transported to India over six months to be rebuilt at Bharati Shipyards. Swan's performed the conceptual design of
Pioneering Spirit, provisionally named
Pieter Schelte, the world's largest platform installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel. The basic design of the lifting systems was completed by the end of 2008, and detailed design of the hulls by May 2010. In 2008, the company said it was concentrating on ship design with just under 200 people employed. In 2016, Jaap Kroese died but the company said it would continue with its business of ship design. At the time, the company had 40 employees and contractors. Also in 2016, Swan Hunter was relaunched into the subsea industry by Gerard Kroese, the eldest son of former owner Jaap Kroese. Swan Hunter started to offer specialist equipment, design, engineering & project management services to the offshore renewables and subsea oil & gas energy markets. On 12 October 2016, the company announced the issue of a letter of intent for the design and build of a basket carousel loading tower. The company announced further equipment pool growth through a 15Te tensioner and 450Te reel drive system. Swan Hunter announced loading tower readiness on 5 May 2017 with completion of mobilisation onto EMAS Chiyoda Subsea's multi-lay vessel 'Lewek Constellation' shortly thereafter. ==Operations==