Great days of the Selby shipyard remembered

So it was that, whenever Cochrane shipbuilders in Selby were about to launch a new trawler, tug or coaster, huge crowds would line both banks of the Ouse to watch.

Among them was a keen young photographer and transport buff, Malcolm Slater. A dedicated 'boatwatcher', he captured many of the launches on film. And now the 70-year-old retired construction industry driver from Huntington has shared them with us.

We think you'll agree they're stunning images, which bring back to life the great days of shipbuilding in Selby.

Watching a launch was a thrilling experience, Malcolm says. The wooden chocks holding the ships in place would be knocked away, and they'd slip sideways into the water with a mighty splash, sending a wave surging across to the other bank of the river.

Many onlookers would often gather on the Barlby side of the Ouse directly opposite the shipyard to get a better view of the launch, Malcolm says - with predictable consequences.

"It's common knowledge that the bigger the ship the larger the wave when the hull hits the water," he says. "Many times the onlookers would get a drenching!" Sometimes it was worse - with spectators even washed off their feet. Malcolm recalls there being 'quite a hoohah' about one launch in which spectators were actually injured by the wave.

Oil products tanker Rudderman, 274ft long, enters the water in 1968. Photo: Malcolm Slater

But most of the time it was just great fun, he recalls. The newly-launched ships would rock from side to side before settling in the water, surrounded by the wooden chocks which had been holding them in place and which had followed them into the water after being knocked away. There would always be a couple of tugs watchfully on hand ready to take the ships under control, Malcolm says.

Malcolm took all the photographs here himself, apart from the top one of the deep sea trawler Princess Elizabeth being launched in 1952. He was only a lad himself then, he says: and that photo comes from a collection of negatives and slides given to him over the years.

Such is his passion for ships and all things transport, he's even managed to trace what happened to many of the ships pictured here since they were launched.

The E Bronson Ingram, launched in 1968. Photo: Malcolm Slater

The motor tug E. Bronson Ingram, which he photographed being launched on August 20, 1968, was built to the order of Ingram Marine Ltd of Louisiana in the USA. "The tug was still working in 2015 having been converted to a push tug - testimony to the quality of the 1,500 vessels constructed at the Selby yard, many of which are still sailing today," he says.

The Rudderman was a small oil products tanker which, at 274 feet long, was one of the largest vessels to be launched at the Selby yard. Built for Helmsman Shipping of London she was launched on June 12, 1968. The tanker went on to have several more owners and name changes finally being broken up in October 2005.

The deep-sea trawler Ross Implacable, built for Ross Freezer Trawlers of Hull at a cost of £523,219 (and the help of a 40% government grant, Malcolm says) was launched on March 16, 1968. The trawler went on to have several more owners and name changes and finally ended her days in July 2000 by being broken up on the shore at Alang in the Indian state of Gujarat - a major centre for shipbreaking.

The Ross Implacable on the launch ramp, March 1968. Photo: Malcolm Slater

The supply ship Suffolk Shore, meanwhile, was built for Offshore Marine Ltd of Rochester in Kent. Launched on April 25, 1967, the ship went through three name changes and several owners and is still sailing today, registered in St Kits.

Sadly, Cochrane's itself is no more. The yard underwent several changes in ownership and continued building ships until 1992, when it finally closed. All the shipyard's assets were auctioned off in 1993, Malcolm says.

Supply ship Suffolk Shore shortly after launch in April 1967. Photo: Malcolm Slater

At least the company’s records and photographs are held safely at Hull’s Maritime Museum, however. And at least we have photographs like these to remember the great days of Selby shipbuilding...

A brief history of the Cochrane shipyard

Andrew Cochrane originally founded his shipyard at Beverley in 1884, according to Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. By 1898, Cochrane and Sons had moved to Selby, a port which was, Grace's notes, '50 miles away from the sea by river'. Here, the shipyard established a reputation for building trawlers and coasters for the Hull and Grimsby fishing fleets.

An unidentified ship under construction at Cochrane's in the early 1950s

During the First World War, the firm continued to make steam trawlers for private fishing firms, but also produced 70 steam trawlers for the Admiralty, which went into use as minesweepers and gunboats.

During the interwar years, the shipyard mainly built trawlers, with a few harbour tugs and coasters. It came into its own again in the Second World War, building more than 50 rescue tugs and harbour tugs for the Admiralty.

It continued building trawlers after the war, along with tugs and smaller tankers and coasters. Malcolm Slater says that the Icelandic Cod wars of the 1970s and the imposition of a 200 mile limit by Iceland more or less put an end to the construction of deep-sea trawlers at Selby.

The firm changed hands a few times, and from the late 1970s onwards was building mainly tugs, trawlers, oil rig supply vessels, ferries and coasters, at a rate of about four ships a year, Grace's says.

By the 1990s, however, the yard was running out of orders. The Australian shipping company the Howard Smith Group which owned it closed the yard in October 1992, with the equipment auctioned off the following year.