A. Leslie and Company

Andrew Leslie & Co, Hebburn was a shipbuilding company that was started in 1853 on an 8-acre site at Hebburn Quay, Newcastle upon Tyne.

[1] The company later merged with the locomotive manufacturer R and W Hawthorn to create Hawthorn Leslie and Company in 1886,[2] when the founder Andrew Leslie retired.

[3] and in 1866 constructed a dry dock, which exists till present day.

[4] The company employed around 2600 men, with more jobs in ancillary trades.

[6] Some of the better-known ships built by Andrew Leslie & Co include:

1,940 GRT cargo steamship Alabama , built in 1879 by Andrew Leslie & Co at Hebburn-on-Tyne as Tantallon . She sailed under successive owners, names and flags as Raymondos and Raymond before being bought by Watts, Watts & Co in 1899 and renamed Alabama . James Paterson & Co of Melbourne, Victoria bought her in 1907. She ran aground in 1916 but suffered little damage. North China Steamship Co of Tientsin bought her in 1925 and renamed her Pei Tai . She was scrapped in 1935.