Detalj fra ror LOBNITZ & CO LTD No 885 RENFREW

Lobnitz & Company was a Scottish

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befo ...

company located at Renfrew on the River Clyde, west of the

Renfrew Ferry The Renfrew Ferry is a passenger ferry service linking the north and south banks of the River Clyde in Scotland. The service, operated by Clydelink without subsidy, crosses between Renfrew and Yoker, close to Glasgow City Centre and is the l ...

crossing and east of the confluence with the

River Cart The River Cart ( sco, River Cairt) is a tributary of the River Clyde, Scotland, which it joins from the west roughly midway between the towns of Erskine and Renfrew and opposite the town of Clydebank. The River Cart itself is very short, being f ...

. The Lobnitz family lived at

Chapeltoun Chapeltoun is an estate on the banks of the Annick Water in East Ayrshire, a rural area of Scotland famous for its milk and cheese production and the Ayrshire or Dunlop breed of cattle. Templeton and the Knights Templar The feudal allocatio ...

House in

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquar ...

. The company built

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

rs, floating docks,

fishing boat A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was ...

s, tugs and workboats.

History

The company was descended from Coulburn Lobnitz & Company, established in 1874, and the adjacent shipyard of William Simons & Co, established in 1860. Both builders specialised in the construction of dredgers and

hopper barge A hopper barge is a kind of non-mechanical ship or vessel that cannot move around by itself, unlike some other types of barges, that is designed to carry materials, like rocks, sand, soil and rubbish, for dumping into the ocean, a river or lak ...

s. The two companies amalgamated in 1957 as Simons-Lobnitz Ltd. Faced with declining business the Renfrew yard finally closed in 1964 after some 1300 dredgers as well as barges and tugs had been built at the site. One late example survives: SS ''Shieldhall'' was built as a Clyde

sludge Sludge is a semi-solid slurry that can be produced from a range of industrial processes, from water treatment, wastewater treatment or on-site sanitation systems. For example, it can be produced as a settled suspension obtained from conventional ...

boat in 1954 with reciprocating steam engines, and now operates as a pleasure cruiser on the Solent. Also still afloat is the ''William C. Daldy'' a steam tug operating as a pleasure vessel in Auckland, New Zealand, where she sailed from the Clyde in 1935/6.

Naval warship construction

In addition, over sixty minor war vessels ( sloops, corvettes,

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

s and boom defence vessels) were constructed by Lobnitz at Renfrew between 1915 and 1945 for the Royal Navy. One of these, HMS ''Saxifrage'', was built in 1918 as a

Flower-class sloop The Flower class comprised five sub- classes of sloops built under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy during World War I, all of which were named after various flowers. They were popularly known as the "herbaceous borders", in humo ...

, which was the first class of purpose-built anti-submarine warships. She was renamed HMS ''President'' in 1921 and served as the London Division

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

training ship until 1988, before being sold into private ownership. She survives near

Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple Ch ...

on the

Victoria Embankment Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare ...

of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in London, as one of only three remaining

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

British warships.

Lobnitz Marine Holdings

The company's goodwill and orders were purchased in 1964 by

Alexander Stephen and Sons Alexander Stephen and Sons Limited, often referred to simply as Alex Stephens or just Stephens, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Linthouse, Glasgow, on the River Clyde and, initially, on the east coast of Scotland. History The co ...

, which merged into

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) was a Scottish shipbuilding consortium, created in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of five major shipbuilders of the River Clyde. It entered liquidation, with much controversy, in 1971. That led to a " work-in ...

in 1968. Simons-Lobnitz re-emerged from the collapse of UCS in 1971 and continues to operate as a

marine engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circl ...

and

naval architecture Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and ...

consultancy based in Paisley, now called Lobnitz Marine Holdings.

External links

Lobnitz Marine Holdings
Companies based in Renfrewshire Defunct shipbuilding companies of Scotland British companies established in 1860 1860 establishments in Scotland River Clyde 1964 disestablishments in Scotland British companies disestablished in 1964 Renfrew Manufacturing companies established in 1860 {{Scotland-company-stub