Fonds PR419 - Yarrows Ltd.

Yarrows Ltd. was a major ship yard located in Esquimalt, British Columbia on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Established in 1893 as the Esquimalt Marine Railway Co., later B.C. Marine Railway Co., by W. Fitzherbert Bullen, it ran small marine railways in Victoria and Vancouver. Sir Alfred Yarrow purchased the yard in 1913, renamed it Yarrows Ltd., and installed as manager his son, Norman Yarrow. From its early start building ships for the Canadian Pacific Railway, the yard expanded during the First World War to repair and refit many vessels for the Royal Navy, employing up to 800 men. In the late 1920s, the larger Esquimalt graving dock was completed. During the Second World War the company produced corvettes, frigates, landing ships, and transport ferries for the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy, as well as freighters. Other work included arming civilian ships and refitting at least one as a troop carrier. At its peak during the Second World War, Yarrows employed about 3500 men and 480 women. After the war, the Yarrow family sold the yard to Clarence Wallace of the Burrard Drydock Company, North Vancouver, the man who created the Burrard Yarrows Corporation. The yard was closed in 1994 and the graving dock and property are now part of the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt.