British Shipbuilders Corporation was a public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 and through the 1980s. The corporation was founded as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 which nationalised all major British shipbuilding companies. The same act nationalised the three large British aviation companies and grouped them in an analogous corporation, British Aerospace. Harland & Wolff, the only shipbuilder based in Northern Ireland was a special political case and remained out of the control of the British Shipbuilders management, despite being in its ownership. British Shipbuilders was privatised in 1983 under the terms of the British Shipbuilders Act 1983. The various divisions that had survived under nationalised ownership were divested throughout the 1980s as the company wound up operations. The British Shipbuilders Corporation continues to exist in statute[1] in order to be accountable for any liabilities incurred during its operational history.
Assets subsumed by British Shipbuilders
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This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Cammell Laird - 1986 - as a subsidiary of VSEL, finished shipbuilding 1993, now part of NSL
Ferguson Ailsa - 1986 - split and sold, Ailsa to Perth Corporation as Ailsa Perth Shipbuilders and Ferguson to Appledore Shipbuilders as Appledore Ferguson
Scott Lithgow - 1981 - individual operating companies dissolved, sold to Trafalgar House in 1984, closed 2003
Swan Hunter - ? - to receivership 1994, bought by Jaap Kroese
YSL - 1985 - sold to GEC-Marconi as Marconi Marine (YSL) then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Naval Ships
Vosper Thornycroft - 1985 - management buyout, now known as VT Group
VSEL - 1986 - with Cammell Laird as a subsidiary. Acquired by GEC-Marconi in 1995 as part of Marconi Marine, then to BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine, now BAE Systems Submarines
