SWAN, HUNTER, AND WIGHAM RICHARDSON, LTD. The "Prince Albert," the first iron vessel ever built on the Tyne, was launched in 1842, from the Neptune works of the firm. In 185o, the present Neptune Shipyard was opened, with a pay-roll of 200 men. The Wallsend shipyard of the company, owned by C. S. Swan and Hunter, was established in 1872, and in 188o employed 700 men. In 1903, C. S. Swan and Hunter, Ltd., Wigham Richardson and Co., Ltd., and the Tyne Pontoons and Dry Docks Co., Ltd., became Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richard son, Ltd., and today is associated with Barclay, Curie and Co., Ltd., on the Clyde, and the Glasgow Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., Wishaw, owning blast furnaces, cement works, ore mines and collieries. The company also owns works at Southwick-on-Wear and Londonderry. In all the company has 3o shipbuilding berths, of which the largest are capable of taking vessels up to i,000ft. in length. Four of these, at the Wallsend shipyard, are covered by glass-roofed sheds fitted with electric light. enabling work to pro ceed in any weather and by day or night. The capacity exceeds
150,000 gross tons a year, and in 1927, including the Clyde Yards, the firm launched 181,224 tons. The share capital (1928) is about £2,500,000, with £323,000 of debentures.
The company builds all classes of naval and mercantile vessels. At the Wallsend shipyard there is under construction (1928) the immense floating dock for the new Singapore naval base, with a lifting capacity of 50,000 tons. More than 3o floating docks have been built by the company in recent years. One of them was towed through the Straits of Magellan to Peru, a distance of I,000 miles. The firm built the "Mauretania" (32,000 gross tons), for the Cunard Company, which, while more than once crossing the Atlantic at an average speed of 26 knots, averaged 25-i knots for 27 consecutive voyages. It holds (1929) all Atlantic records for speed.
During the World War nearly 'co warships, with 230 other vessels, were built by the company, while the production of marine engines was 1,750,000 i.h.p. (L. C. M.)