Article 730- 27 February 2014

“Technical Memories (Part 73) – Verolme Bound”

Two years previous to Whitegate Oil Refinery officially opening in 1957, negotiations began with a Dutch firm for the establishment in Cork Harbour of a large scale ship building operation. The negotiations entered their final stages in October 1958 when Seán Lemass left for Holland on the invitation of Mr Cornelis Verolme, owner of Verolme United, an important ship building concern at Rotterdam, the largest port on the European continent.

Verolme United Shipyards was a concern with a world-wide reputation. It had large shipyards in the Netherlands at Alblasterdam, Meusden and Rosenburg, which could build and repair vessels up to 50,000 tons. In a biography of Verolme, written by Ariëtte Dekker, Cornelis Verolme came from a farming background and rose to success without a university education, but had business acumen to succeed. By setting up technical training and recruiting personnel from competitors Verolme foresaw the growing need for qualified technicians to make his ventures have an excellent reputation. Verolme was also someone who went regularly amongst his workers and knew many of his employees by name.

Another Verolme company manufactured diesel engines, steam reciprocating engines and boilers at Rotterdam, whilst another company belonging to the same concern had a marine electrical plant at Massluis. An idea of the extent of Verolme United Shipyards’ activities was given in a Dutch publication in 1958 which gave a listing of ships under construction or on order in shipyards in the Netherlands. It showed that Cornelis Verolme’s three shipyards had more than any other single concern in Holland. It had on its order books 36 vessels, and of them 25 were tankers. One of them being, being built for the Dutch Esso Company, was of 46,000 tons; three more, for American owners, were of 47,000 tons; two were 45,000 tons and six were 19,500 tons. Prior to opening in Rushbrooke, he has successfully worked with the Brazilian government enabling him to build a shipyard in the Jacarecanga Bay near Rio de Janeiro.

The Southern Star newspaper in October 1958 records that Seán Lemass was accompanied by JP Beddy, Chairman of the Irish Industrial Development Authority to meet Cornelius Verolme. The visit enabled the Dutch Company to take over Cork Dockyard Ltd, Rushbrooke and to lease certain installations at Haulbowline for large scale ship building. The new yard was to concentrate on building large vessels and was not to be in competition with the existing ship-builders of the 26 counties. The Rushbrooke project was pitched to proceed in five stages and was to take six years to complete. Its cost, estimated at over £5 ½ million initially, was to met partly by the sponsors and partly by government loans. The first stage provided for the building of two new slipways at Rushbrook, enabling vessels of 50,000 tons to be constructed there. The existing yard was to be modernised and the drydock at Haulbowline was to be greatly enlarged to enable vessels of up to 47,000 tons to be repaired.  In the first stage, direct employment was to be provided for about 450 men with a quest to have 1,800 eventually on the payroll. 

There had been a ship-building concern in Rushbrooke since the nineteenth century. At that time Joseph Wheeler was one of a group of enterprising Cork businesses who financed the ship building industry in Cork Harbour. The period 1832-1860 was particularly prosperous in Cork’s shipping history and the house flags of many Cork’s shipping firms were to be seen on the masts of their vessels in all parts of the world. There were the shipyards of Hennessy and Brown at Passage West, and at those of Wheeler, Pike and Robinson at the head of the river. Numerous timber and iron ships were produced for home and foreign owners – ships which conformed to the highest international standards of the time and enhanced the reputation of Cork Harbour’s craftsmen. About the 1840s Joseph Wheeler also had a building-slip on the Cork river-bank. The Cork Directory of 1842-43 contains the following entry, Joseph Wheeler, Ship-builder. His shipyard was located near where the Port of Cork yard now stands. Wheeler built numerous timber-vessels for Cork based owners and foreign merchants. The Illustrated London News of 11 February 1860, carried a description of a 500 ton sailing ship from Wheeler’s Yard. The Aura was the largest ship to be constructed in Cork up to that date. She was the eighth vessel to be built for exporter Mr Harvey and was to be commanded by Corkman and seaman Captain Belchel.

Wheeler’s enterprise at Rushbrooke opened for shipbuilding in 1860. Between 1917 and 1920, the dock, then owned by the Furness Whithy Company, was enlarged. While no ships were built at Rushbrooke – with the exception of some 200 ton barges – very extensive alterations were undertaken and in some, major overhauls ships were almost literally rebuilt there. In the post war years, when the Cork Dockyard operated the yard, major conversion work was successfully done at Rushbrooke including the conversion of two ex Flower Class corvettes to passenger and cargo vessels for Mediterranean service and the conversion of an ex River Class frigate to a passenger and motor car ferry for the Dover-Calais service.

To be continued…`

Caption:

730a. Cornelis Verolme, July 1968 (source: Cork City Library)