John I. Thornycroft & Company

Colloquially known as Thornycroft, the shipbuilding firm was founded by John Isaac Thornycroft in 1866. The firm moved to Southampton in 1908. In its first ten years the yard had a very modest production, mostly building steam launches and yachts. The breakthrough came in 1873 when the firm built the small steel torpedo craft for the Navy of Norway. This lead to the building of ships for other navies and in 1877 for the Royal Navy. The yard in Southampton built larger boats, smaller launches were produced at Hampton. In the inter-war years there was still some construction for the Royal Navy at Woolston, but the yard also built civilian ships. When the Second World War broke out, production was stepped up again, and the yard built corvettes and destroyers.

In 1966 they merged with Vosper & Company to form Vosper Thornycroft. 

The material we hold is mainly available to see at the IMechE and relates to Miss England III.

View the full collection description on our archive catalogue: BUS/6