Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval
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From 1909 until the Spanish Civil War, naval construction in Spain was monopolized by the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval – (SECN) also Spanish Society for Naval Construction (SECN). During this time the majority of its shares were owned by the United Kingdom firm (John Brown and Vickers-Armstrong[https://web.archive.org/web/20080128160733/http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/specialcollections/collections/guide/atoz/guardian/ "SPANISH NAVY: Huge Contract in British Hands"] (1909) The Manchester Guardian, 1 February 1909, Page 12: Manchester "... Vickers, Armstrong and Brown... it has been determined to put down a new shipyard at Ferrol in Spain... Mr A J Campbell... has been appointed manager of the Ferrol yard... Mr Peter Muir ... has been appointed assistant manager. A considerable number of expert shipbuilders have sign on to go to Spain... there is a reason to believe that employment will be found to some hundreds of British shipbuilders, engineers, electricians, and other tradesmen in the new Spanish yard for several years to come."), and therefore almost all ships built by the company were developed after Royal Navy designs.
History
Ten years after the Spanish–American War of 1898,[https://www.nytimes.com/1898/06/11/archives/great-activity-at-ferrol.html "Great Activity at Ferrol"] New York Times, 11 June 1898, Page 1[http://ferrol.historia.tripod.com/elferrol1890s/ The launch of "Cardenal Cisneros" the first "Pre-dreadnought battleship" built in Ferrol, Spain (1897)] "The Ferrol and the Galician-rias commercial-role with North, South and Central America":[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Correo_Gallego_1897.JPG El Correo Gallego (Spanish Newspaper) 19 March 1897] by Jose R. de Trujillo, Spanish Royal Navy Commander {{in lang|es}}{{Cite web|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3275666/3275668/21/john%20hurn%20swansea|title=Welsh Newspapers Online THE WAR.'{{!}}1898-04-30{{!}}Evening Express - Welsh Newspapers Online|website=newspapers.library.wales|language=en|access-date=2018-03-07}} in which Spain lost Cuba{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/espaaencubaepi00peyd|title=España en Cuba : episodio lírico-dramática en un acto, original y en verso|last=Peydró|first=Vicente|last2=Caballero y Martínez|first2=Ricardo|publisher=Ferrol : Impr. de R. Pita|others=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Library|year=1896}} and the Philippines, the Antonio Maura Government, in an attempt to restore the Spanish Navy and Spanish shipbuilding industry, hired the Spanish Society for Naval Construction,{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/galiciaswitzerla00meakuoft|title=Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain|last=Meakin|first=Annette M. B.|publisher=London, Methuen|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|year=1909|location=london|pages=[https://archive.org/details/galiciaswitzerla00meakuoft/page/22 22]}} whose major investors were a British-Spanish-Association{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/galiciaswitzerla00meakuoft|title=Galicia, the Switzerland of Spain|last=Meakin|first=Annette M. B.|date=1909|publisher=London, Methuen|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=[https://archive.org/details/galiciaswitzerla00meakuoft/page/315 315]}} taking contracts In the following proportions: 40% Vickers Sons and Maxim,{{Cite web|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Vickers,_Sons_and_Maxim|title=Vickers, Sons and Maxim|website=www.gracesguide.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-03-08}} 30% the Marquis of Comillas of the Spanish Transatlantic Company, 30% the Biscay Furnace Company,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kcHWuxTaeysC&pg=PA97|title=Bilbao's Modern Business Elite|last=Glas|first=Eduardo Jorge|date=1997|publisher=University of Nevada Press|isbn=978-0-87417-269-0|page=97}} all the previously state owned shipbuilding yards, workshops, foundries and dry docks at Ferrol were handed over to the technical expertise of some of finest British shipbuilder companies: John Brown, Vickers{{Cite web|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4190047/4190049/22/ferrol|title=Welsh Newspapers Online I BRITAIN AND SPAIN'S NAVY.I{{!}}1908-05-25{{!}}Evening Express - Welsh Newspapers Online|website=newspapers.library.wales|language=en|access-date=2018-03-08}} and Armstrong[https://web.archive.org/web/20080128160733/http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/specialcollections/collections/guide/atoz/guardian/ "SPANISH NAVY: Huge Contract in British Hands"] Manchester Guardian, 1 February 1909, Page 12 now in charge of building the new Spanish Fleet.{{Cite web|url=http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4204397/4204399/29/ferrol|title=Welsh Newspapers Online SPAIN'S NEW NAVYII{{!}}1909-05-26{{!}}Evening Express - Welsh Newspapers Online|website=newspapers.library.wales|language=en|access-date=2018-03-08}}
For a period of sixteen years, all the technicians were exclusively British, and the situation was not altered till 1925 when the management was taken over by Spanish engineers, as one of the new policies introduced by the then newly created government, including ministers both civil and military, of the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/02/20/archives/spain-to-start-work-on-3-navy-bases-soon-ferrol-cartagena-and-mahon.html|title=SPAIN TO START WORK ON 3 NAVY BASES SOON; Ferrol, Cartagena and Mahon Will Be Fortified With Guns of the Longest Range.|last=Times|first=the New York Times Company Special Cable To the New York|date=1928-02-20|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} (1923–1930). The arrival of the British coincided with the construction of a local electric-powered trolley streetcar's line (1924–1961).[http://ferrol.historia.tripod.com/ Vistas y curiosidades sobre la historia de El Ferrol y España] Amazing Charley Inc.
In sight of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and because there was fear of social unrest in the naval station, the Foreign Office in London,[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=6&CATID=2576713 "British Vice-Consulate at Ferrol"] General Correspondence FO 63/1041, The National Archives[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=6&CATID=4349592 "British Vice-Consulate at Ferrol"] General Correspondence FO 72/1689, The National Archives organized a ship to repatriate all the remaining British citizens and on 22 July 1936 HMS Witch (D89)[https://www.nytimes.com/1936/07/22/archives/british-sending-troops.html?sq=ferrol&scp=59&st=cse "British Sending Troops"] New York Times, 22 July 1936, Page 3 departed from Ferrol back to Britain.
Many British technical advisors continued to work in the Spanish shipbuilding yards, workshops, foundries and dry docks (on both sides) during the war.[http://www.kbismarck.com/mgl/spanishcivwar.htm "Warships of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)"] kbismarck.com
Between 1958 and 1960, SECN built 23 electric railcars and 12 trailers for use on metre gauge railways operated by FEVE.{{cite book |last1=Morley |first1=J |last2=Spencer |first2=P G |title=Locomotives & Railcars of the Spanish Narrow Gauge Public Railways |date=1995 |publisher=Industrial Railway Society |isbn=0 901096 88-1 |page=115}}
Sites of [[Navantia|SECN]] [[Shipyard]]s and [[Ironworks|Iron-works]] in [[Spain]] between 1909 and 1936/45
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.navantia.es/irj/portal/anonymous?lang=en NAVANTIA Spanish Company, Leader in Military Shipbuilding]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050308114315/http://web.forodigital.es/uphm/mgl/buques/spanishcivwar.htm Warships of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090913111756/http://www.geocities.com/ferrolhistory/Ferrol_WorldHistory.html Traveller's Guide of Europe: Ferrol c.1919]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050420030928/http://www.travelthewondersofspain.com/north.html Green Tourism in Northern Spain 2005]
- [http://ferrol.historia.tripod.com/ Ferrol in pictures 1960s]
- [http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/texaco/texaco6.html Offshore Technology design and made in Ferrol 2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004091325/http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/texaco/texaco6.html |date=4 October 2008 }}
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Category:Shipbuilding companies of Spain