Vickers Master Shipbuilder, Sir Leonard Redshaw by Leslie M. Shore

Lightmoor Press 2011   £24.99

Sir Leonard Redshaw (1911-1989) was one of the most innovative British shipbuilders of the twentieth century. A pioneer in Britain of welded submarine and ship construction, under his command, the Vickers Barrow shipyard launched the world’s first all-welded passenger liner; the first British liner having all-welded aluminium superstructure; Britain’s first nuclear submarine; the nation’s first Polaris submarine; the first 100,000 ton tanker built in Europe; the first Type 42 destroyer; and the Royal Navy’s first command cruiser. Vickers also diversified into offshore and subsea engineering. In 1969, he secured from the Ministry of Defence its commitment to Barrow as the sole yard for British nuclear submarine construction. Here, Leslie Shore offers the first biography about the Vickers shipbuilder that also portrays a traumatic period in British shipbuilding history.