Brooke Marine

Exhibit at the Hull Maritime Museum.

February 1960.

Brooke Marine Ltd. of Adrian Works, Lowestoft

• 1911 Originally, John Walter Brooke had been a foundryman and went into the boat building business in 1911.

• 1934 Initially, the company made yachts and speedboats and it was renamed as Brooke Marine Construction Co

• 1940 It became part of the Dowsett Group and was renamed again, Brooke Marine

• 1944 Producing two marine engines (two and four cylinder)

• WWI The company mainly made small tugs and naval craft.

• 1950s The yard was modernised and refurbished and made hopper barges, and coasters.

• 1960s The yard began making larger vessels during the 60s but still retained its core business of smaller ships such as fire-fighting tugs.

• 1968 Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement

• In the late 60s, the yard also made oil rig supply vessels and salvage vessels.

• 1970s The key work of the yard during the 70s was a series of stern trawlers for the Ranger Fishing Co. This led on to trawler work for Norwegian and Icelandic companies.

• In July 1977, the yard was nationalised, and became part of British Shipbuilders. Work was started on a naval coaster training craft of the "Archer" class.

• In 1985 the yard's own management team successfully made a private buy-out. Unfortunately the following year, a lack of orders led to the yard being closed.

• It reopened as a yacht builder in 1987 under the name Brooke Yachts International

See Also

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Sources of Information

• British Shipbuilding Yards. 3 vols by Norman L. Middlemiss
• The Modern Diesel edited by Geoffrey Smith. Published by Iliffe & Sons 1944
• The Engineer of 26th April 1968 p650