Earle's Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd.

Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Co was the largest yard, building the biggest ships on the river Humber in Hull. The company was started in Hull as C.& W. Earle in 1845 by two brothers, Charles and William Earle. By 1931, manufacturing in the UK was declining in the Great Depression and Earle’s's built only three more ships. The UK government sponsored a rationalisation of the shipbuilding industry, and in 1932, the National Shipbuilders Securities (NSS) took over Earle's. NSS sold Earle's tools and machinery, shipping the yard's large crane and other equipment to Kowloon in Hong Kong. The terms of Earle's closure included a restrictive covenant on the site of the yard proscribing any shipbuilding there for the following 60 years.