A Cinderella industry: Private and nationalized ship-repair companies in Britain,1970–1986

Abstract

This article explores Britain's ship-repair industry under private enterprise and partly under state control from 1970 to 1986 in order to shed much-needed light on ship repair during a crucial period in its history – a period when a substantial proportion of the industry moved from private to state control, initially in 1974 when four major ship repairers were nationalized, and again in 1977 when a further six ship-repair companies came under state control through the British Shipbuilders Corporation. The last remaining nationalized ship-repair firm reverted to private control in 1986. The article aims to encourage maritime historians to look at the histories of their ship-repairing industries nationally and internationally, either monographically or by a case study approach, in order to build up a national historiographical approach to the subject.