Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Limited works on the River Mersey at Birkenhead, on Merseyside. Shipbuilding and ship repair have been carried on at the site for more than 200 years. The company is part of the APCL Group alongside A&P Group, and it serves defence and commercial marine customers. The yard occupies 130 acres and works four dry docks, two building slipways and a non-tidal wet basin. The wet basin is the operationally significant part: because it does not dry out, heavy modules can be loaded out to the quays whatever the state of the tide. Two former dock structures at Bidston are now used as afloat repair berths, with a minimum of eight metres of water alongside. The modular construction hall is the distinguishing facility. Large steel units are assembled under cover and then either moved to the heavy load-out quays on the wet basin or launched into the river by slipway, and road access allows finished modules to be carried across to the dry docks. Behind the hall stand more than 10,000 square metres of fabrication, pipe, machine and fitting shops together with a blast and coating facility. Work built there includes block sections for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, the polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough and the ro-ro freight vessel Red Kestrel. Alongside newbuilding the yard takes ship repair, conversion and in-service support.