Cook, Welton & Gemmell was a shipbuilder based in Hull and Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. England. They built trawlers and other small ships.

History

Founding and move to Beverley

The firm was founded in 1883 on South Bridge Road, Hull, on the Humber bank. The founding partners were William James Cook, Charles Keen Welton and William Gemmell. In 1901–1902 the business moved nine miles up the River Hull to a new yard at Grovehill, Beverley purchased from Cochrane, Hamilton & Cooper. The yard had been founded by Andrew Cochrane in 1884. It was one of the few shipyards that launched broadside.

Prosperity and decline

The new yard initially produced trawlers and whalers with dredging of the River Hull allowing larger ships to be built. During both world wars it built large numbers of ships such as minesweepers and anti-submarine trawlers for the Royal Navy. Between the wars it consolidated its reputation as a builder of high quality trawlers and continued to prosper into the 1950s. In 1954 the shipyard employed 650 workers and built 15 vessels (including three minesweepers, four trawlers, and a tug), but by 1960 the workforce had declined to 600 and after struggling to find orders Cook, Welton & Gemmell built their last ship in 1962 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1963.

Changes of ownership

The firm was taken over by Charles D. Holmes & Co in March 1963 and the company name changed to Beverley Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd. C D Holmes was subsequently taken over in July 1973 by Drypool Group, which in turn went into liquidation in 1975. The yard was then taken over by Whitby Shipyard Ltd on 1 July 1976. That company changed its name to Phoenix Shipbuilders Ltd in December 1976 and had a receiver appointed in May 1977, resulting in the closure of the Beverley yard with nearly 180 redundancies. The site reverted to the ground landlords, Beverley Borough Council, and was later developed as the Acorn Industrial Estate.

Ships built by Cook, Welton & Gemmell

Naval vessels

Isles-class trawlers Dance-class trawlers Tree-class trawlers Shakespearian-class trawlers Hill-class trawlers Military-class trawlers ASW trawlers requisitioned before completion Flower-class corvettes Ton-class minesweepers Castle-class trawlers Ordered during First World War but completed after the war as commercial vessels Castle-class trawlers (non-standard) Mersey-class trawlers (non-standard) Kil-class patrol gunboats War Department vessels

Fishing vessels

Fishing trawlers Port letter and number after name with year of building Smacks Drifters

Other commercial vessels

Tugs Humber sloops & keels Cargo ships Steam yachts Pleasure boats Research ships Other vessels

Sources