YARROW

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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13.1.1842 London/UK - 24.1.1932 London/UK

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At the end of his schooling in the South of England, Yarrow became an indentured apprentice to the Thames engine-builder Ravenhill. During this five-year period a number of incidents and meetings sharpened his interest in scientific matters and he showed the skills that in later years were to be so beneficial to shipbuilding. For two years he acted as London representative for Ravenhill before forming a shipyard on the Isle of Dogs. The company lasted from 1868 to 1875 and in that period produced 350 small launches. The massive output enabled Yarrow to gain confidence in many aspects of ship design. Within two years of setting out on his own he built his first ship for the Royal Navy: a torpedo boat, then at the cutting edge of technology.

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In the early 1890s the company built watertube boilers and produced destroyers with speeds in excess of 50 km/ h, such as the Russian destroyer Sokol; it pioneered work with aluminium and with high-tensile steels. With the closure of most of the Thames shipyards and the run-down in skilled labor, Yarrow decided that his shipyard must move to some other part of the United Kingdom. A green field site to the west of Glasgow was chosen, and in 1908 their first Clyde-built destroyer was launched. The company expanded, more building berths were arranged and over the years they became recognized as specialists in smaller high-speed craft and in "knock-down" ships for other parts of the world. Yarrow retired in 1913 but returned when World War I broke out. At the end of hostilities he gave of his time and money to many charities. He left a remarkable industrial organization which remains to this day the most prolific builder of surface craft for the Royal Navy. Yarrow was created a Baronet in 1916 and elected to the Royal Society in 1922. He acted as a vice-president of the Institution of Naval Architects in 1896.

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_{Anonymous (1927). The retirement of Sir Alfred F. Yarrow, Bt. Shipbuilder 34(11): 560. P}

_{Anonymous (1931). Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, Bart. Minutes Proc. Institution of Civil Engineers 234: 546-550.}

_{Anonymous (1932). Sir Alfred Yarrow. Mechanical Engineering 54(3): 227-228. P}

_{Barnes, E.C. (1924). Alfred Yarrow: His life and work. Arnold: London.}

_{Borthwick, A. (1965). Yarrow and company limited: The first hundred years 1865-1965.}

_{Yarrow: Glasgow.}

_{Yarrow, A.F. (1903). The screw as a means of propulsion for shallow draught vessels. Trans. Institution Naval Architects 45: 106-117.}