James Lamont Co

The Castle yard just upstream of Newark Castle had a long history before operating under the above title from 1900. The yard was taken over in 1860 by Blackwood & Gordon in order to build larger ships than hitherto possible at their Paisley yard. Six iron steamers were built for George Gibson of Leith, the largest being Redgauntlet 1437171, and eight steamers were built for Burrell & Son with the last being the steel-hulled Adria 1039180, the first from the yard. Steel steamers were turned out quickly and cheaply e.g. Ardancorrach 1432182 for Clark & Service of Glasgow, with several built for Italy.

Coastal passenger ships were sent to Australia e.g. Kooyong for Mcilwraith,McEachearn of Melbourne; Mataram and Montoro 4057111 for Burns,Philip of Sydney. The British & Irish Steam Packet Co. Ltd of Dublin took Lady Gwendolen, and another important customer was Blue Star Line with Brodhurst . Standard ships were built during the Great War as well as four gunboats of 800 tons. In 1919 the yard was taken over by the John Slater Ltd group of London. In 1927 the John Slater Group crashed and one of the last ships built by the Clyde Shipbuilding Co. Ltd was the motor yacht Migrant for K. Lee Guinness, who had her engined with 12-cylinder M.A.N. oil engines. The Castle yard was eventually sold to James Lamont, a ship repairer in Greenock, who did not use the Castle yard for ship repairing until 1938. The yard was a ship repairer only during World War 11, but began shipbuilding again in 1946.

The yard acquired a good reputation for the construction of tugs with Campaigner and Wrestler both 248157 for the Clyde services of Steel & Bennie Ltd, and several for J. H. Lamey Ltd of Liverpool, as well as for Clyde ferries e.g. Jupiter 849174 and several small double-ended car ferries. The last ship built was the sludge carrier Divis 11, launched in 1978 for Belfast City Corporation. The three berth Castle yard then closed and the company concentrated on ship repair work at its two dry-docks in Greenock.

James Lamont & Co Ltd

This page last modified on Friday, February 28, 2003

The yard had been closed between 1887 and 1889 after financial difficulties, and was restarted by Blackwood and three new partners, but further financial difficulties lead to a take-over of the yard in 1900 by the Clyde Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, set-up with a capital of £30,000.

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