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This article is about the construction of ships. For the song, see Shipbuilding (song).
"Shipwright" redirects here. For other uses, see Shipwright (disambiguation).
An expedition's shipwrights building a brigantine, 1541.



The dismantling of ships is called ship breaking.




4th millennium BC[edit]


3rd millennium BC[edit]



2nd millennium BC[edit]



1st millennium BC[edit]

The naval history of China stems back to the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC–481 BC) of the ancient Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The Chinese built large rectangular barges known as "castle ships", which were essentially floating fortresses complete with multiple decks with guarded ramparts. There is considerable knowledge regarding shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient Mediterranean.[9]

Early 1st millennium AD[edit]






An insight into ship building in the North Sea/Baltic areas of the early medieval period was found at Sutton Hoo, England, where a ship was buried with a chieftain. the ship was 26 metres (85 ft) long and, 4.3 metres (14 ft)[12] wide. Upward from the keel, the hull was made by overlapping nine planks on either side with rivets fastening the oaken planks together. It could hold upwards of thirty men.



Outside Medieval Europe, great advances were being made in shipbuilding. The shipbuilding industry in Imperial China reached its height during the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and early Ming Dynasty, building commercial vessels that by the end of this period were to reach a size and sophistication far exceeding that of contemporary Europe. The mainstay of China's merchant and naval fleets was the junk, which had existed for centuries, but it was at this time that the large ships based on this design were built. During the Sung period (960–1279 AD), the establishment of China's first official standing navy in 1132 AD and the enormous increase in maritime trade abroad (from Heian Japan to Fatimid Egypt) allowed the shipbuilding industry in provinces like Fujian to thrive as never before. The largest seaports in the world were in China and included Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen.



Early Modern[edit]

With the development of the carrack, the west moved into a new era of ship construction by building the first regular ocean going vessels. In a relatively short time, these ships grew to an unprecedented size, complexity and cost.


Industrial Revolution[edit]

Illustration of some shipbuilding methods in England, 1858.
Babbitt's rotary engine.

The industrial revolution made possible the use of new materials and designs that radically altered shipbuilding. Other than its widespread use in fastenings, Iron was gradually adopted in ship construction, initially in discrete areas in a wooden hull needing greater strength, (e.g. as deck knees, hanging knees, knee riders and the like). Then, in the form of plates rivetted together and made watertight, it was used to form the hull itself. Initially copying wooden construction traditions with a frame over which the hull was fastened, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Britain of 1843 was the first radical new design, being built entirely of wrought iron. Despite her success, and the great savings in cost and space provided by the iron hull, compared to a copper sheathed counterpart, there remained problems with fouling due to the adherence of weeds and barnacles. As a result composite construction remained the dominant approach where fast ships were required, with wooden timbers laid over an iron frame (the Cutty Sark is a famous example). Later Great Britain's iron hull was sheathed in wood to enable it to carry a copper-based sheathing. Brunel's Great Eastern represented the next great development in shipbuilding. Built in association with John Scott Russell, it used longitudinal stringers for strength, inner and outer hulls, and bulkheads to form multiple watertight compartments. Steel also supplanted wrought iron when it became readily available in the latter half of the 19th century, providing great savings when compared with iron in cost and weight. Wood continued to be favored for the decks.

During World War II, the need for cargo ships was so great that construction time for Liberty Ships went from initially eight months or longer, down to weeks or even days. They employed production line and prefabrication techniques such as those used in shipyards today. The total number of dry-cargo ships built in the United States in a 15-year period just before the war was a grand total of two. During the war, thousands of Liberty Ships and Victory Ships were built, many of them in shipyards that didn't exist before the war. And, they were built by a workforce consisting largely of women and other inexperienced workers who had never seen a ship before (or even the ocean).[18][19][20]

Worldwide shipbuilding industry[edit]

MS Oasis of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world, under construction at the Turku shipyard that was taken over by STX Europe, a subsidiary of STX Offshore & Shipbuilding of South Korea.


Historically, the industry has suffered from the absence of global rules and a tendency towards (state-supported) over-investment due to the fact that shipyards offer a wide range of technologies, employ a significant number of workers, and generate income as the shipbuilding market is global.



Where state subsidies have been removed and domestic industrial policies do not provide support in high labor cost countries, shipbuilding has gone into decline. The British shipbuilding industry is a prime example of this with its industries suffering badly from the 1960s. In the early 1970s British yards still had the capacity to build all types and sizes of merchant ships but today they have been reduced to a small number specialising in defence contracts, luxury yachts and repair work. Decline has also occurred in other European countries, although to some extent this has reduced by protective measures and industrial support policies. In the U.S.A, the Jones Act (which places restrictions on the ships that can be used for moving domestic cargoes) has meant that merchant shipbuilding has continued, albeit at a reduced rate, but such protection has failed to penalise shipbuilding inefficiencies. The consequence of this is that contract prices are far higher than those of any other country building oceangoing ships.

Present day shipbuilding[edit]

German Stamp from 1975 (Deutsche Bundespost Berlin).

China is an emerging shipbuilder that overtook South Korea during the 2008-2010 global financial crisis as they won new orders for medium and small-sized container ships.[21] China is now firmly the world's largest shipbuilder with 45% of the world's total orders, and its quality and technology have improved very much.

Today, South Korea is the world's second largest shipbuilding country with a global market share of 29% in 2012. South Korea leads in the production of large vessels such as cruise liners, super tankers, LNG carriers, drill ships, and large container ships. In the 3rd quarter of 2011, South Korea won all 18 orders for LNG carriers, 3 out of 5 drill ships and 5 out of 7 large container ships.[22] South Korea's shipyards are highly efficient, with the world's largest shipyard in Ulsan operated by Hyundai Heavy Industries slipping a newly built, $80 million vessel into the water every four working days.[23] South Korea's "big three" shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, dominate global shipbuilding, with STX Shipbuilding, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, Hanjin Heavy Industries, and Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering also ranking among the top ten shipbuilders in the world.[24] In 2007, STX Shipbuilding further strengthened South Korea's leading position in the industry by acquiring Aker Yards, the largest shipbuilding group in Europe. (The former Aker Yards was renamed STX Europe in 2008). In the first half of 2011, South Korean shipbuilders won new orders to build 25 LNG carriers, out of the total 29 orders placed worldwide during the period.[25]

Japan had been the dominant ship building country from the 1960s through to the end of 1990s but gradually lost its competitive advantage to the emerging industry in South Korea which had the advantages of much cheaper wages, strong government backing and a cheaper currency. South Korean production overtook Japan's in 2003 and Japanese market share has since fallen sharply.

The Philippines has placed fourth among shipbuilding nations around the world producing more than six million deadweight tonnes of ships built in 2012. The country is anchored by South Korean Hanjin and Japan's Tsuneishi shipbuilders. The country has shipyards in Subic and Cebu.

The market share of European ship builders began to decline in the 1960s as they lost work to the Japanese in the same way as Japanese builders have lost work to South Koreans more recently; Europe's production is now a tenth of South Korea's and is primarily military, although cruise liners and some cargo ships are still built in Italy, Finland, France, Germany and Denmark. The largest shares of the European shipbuilding market belong to Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain, which accounted in 2010 for over 70% of total deliveries by the yards.[26] This activity accounted in 2010 for 1.5% of European GDP.[26] Over the four years from 2007, the total number of employees in the European shipbuilding industry declined from 150,000 to 115,000.[26] The output of the United States also underwent a similar change.[23][27]

World shipbuilding market share by countries (2012)[21]
Rank Country Combined GT  %
1  China 67,000,000 45%
2  South Korea 53,000,000 29%
3  Japan 28,000,000 18%
4  European Union 4,500,000 1%
Rest of the world 11,000,000 7%

Modern shipbuilding manufacturing techniques[edit]



Ship design work, also called naval architecture, may be conducted using a ship model basin. Modern ships, since roughly 1940, have been produced almost exclusively of welded steel. Early welded steel ships used steels with inadequate fracture toughness, which resulted in some ships suffering catastrophic brittle fracture structural cracks (see problems of the Liberty ship). Since roughly 1950, specialized steels such as ABS Steels with good properties for ship construction have been used. Although it is commonly accepted that modern steel has eliminated brittle fracture in ships, some controversy still exists.[28] Brittle fracture of modern vessels continues to occur from time to time because grade A and grade B steel of unknown toughness or fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) in ships' side shells can be less than adequate for all ambient conditions.[29]

Ship repair industry[edit]

River shipyard in Komárno (Slovakia).

All ships need maintenance and repairs. A part of these jobs must be carried out under the supervision of the Classification Society. A lot of maintenance is carried out while at sea or in port by ship's staff. However a large number of repair and maintenance works can only be carried out while the ship is out of commercial operation, in a Shiprepair Yard. Prior to undergoing repairs, tankers must dock at a Deballasting Station for completing the tank cleaning operations and pumping ashore its slops (dirty cleaning water and hydrocarbon residues).

See also[edit]


  5. ^ a b Tripathi, page 145
  6. ^ a b Hourani & Carswel, page 90
  12. ^
  17. ^ McCarthy, M., 2005 Ship’s Fastenings: from sewn boat to steamship. Texas A&M Press. College Station. ISBN 1-58544-451-0
  21. ^ a b
  22. ^ Korean: Korea Marine, # 1 four years recaptured, English
  24. ^ "7 Korean Shipbuilders Rank in Top 10". 2006-01-03. Retrieved 2010-11-17. 
  25. ^[dead link]
  26. ^ a b c Zagreb Institute of Public Finance, Newsletter No. 64, December 2011, ISSN 1333-4263
  28. ^ Drouin, P: "Brittle Fracture in ships - a lingering problem", page 229. Ships and Offshore Structures, Woodhead Publishing, 2006.
  29. ^ "Marine Investigation Report - Hull Fracture Bulk Carrier Lake Carling". Transportation Safety Board of Canada. 19 March 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2009. 

External links[edit]