Burntisland Shipbuilding Company
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| Industry | shipbuilding, ship repair |
|---|---|
| Fate | receivership & takeover, 1969 |
| Successor | Robb, Caledon |
| Founded | 1918 |
| Headquarters | Burntisland, Fife, Scotland |
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Key people
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Amos Ayre, Wilfrid Ayre |
The Burntisland Shipbuilding Company was a shibuilder and repairer in Burntisland, Fife, Scotland that was founded in 1918. In 1969 it was taken over by Robb-Caledon Shipbuilders, which in turn was nationalised in 1977 as part of British Shipbuilders.
In the 1970s the Burntisland yard switched from shipbuilding to prefabricating modules of superstructure for offshore oil platforms, but orders were intermittent and by the 1980s the yard was largely idle. In 1990 new owners returned the yard to production as Burntisland Fabrications or BiFab, resuming the manufacture of superstructure modules for oil platforms. Under a management buyout in 2001 the Burntisland yard returned to being an independent company.
Brothers Amos and Wilfrid Ayre founded Burntisland Shipbuilding Co. in 1918 as a First World War emergency shipyard. Its yard at Burntisland West Dock had four berths and capacity to build ships up to 450 feet (140 m) long and up to 59 feet (18 m) beam. However, until the 1950s Burntisland built relatively few vessels more than about 425 feet (130 m) long and 57 feet (17.4 m) beam.
The yard was connected to the North British Railway by an extensive internal rail network that carried steel to various parts of the yard.
Burntisland's first three vessels were standard "C" type cargo ships of just over 3,100 GRT each for the UK Government's wartime Shipping Controller, laid down in 1918 as hull numbers 101, 102 and 103. They were launched in 1919 after the Armistice: hull 101 in June as War Brosna, 102 in September as War Dodder and 103 in November as War Tolka.
Burntisland's first peacetime order was for a pair of 2,300 GRT cargo steamers for Compagnie Lasry of Oran, Algeria. Hulls 104 and 105 were launched in 1920 as Nelly Lasry and Sidney Lasry. In the 1920s the yard built merchant ships ranging from coasters of about 600 tons to ocean-going cargo ships of up to 4,700 tons GRT. Most common were ocean-going four- or five-holdtramp steamers of 1,500 to 2,500 tons.
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