[1] Originally it was based at Folly Wall, Poplar, then in 1898 as the company grew, Yarrow moved his shipyard to London Yard, Cubitt Town.

[2][3] Hundreds of steam launches, lake and river vessels, and eventually the Royal Navy's first destroyers, the Havock class, were built at Yarrow's London shipyards between 1869 and 1908.

Alfred Yarrow was an inventive naval engineer, and was responsible for a number of novel introductions into service which led to the development of increasingly fast warships.

The first vessel launched from the new works at Scotstoun on 14 July 1908 was the lead ship of the Pará-class destroyers for the Brazilian Navy.

The Yarrow company was one of the world's leading builders of destroyers and frigates from early on, building ships for both the Royal Navy and numerous export customers.

For many years until the 1960s Yarrow also built a large number of merchant ships, specialising particularly on Riverboat vessels for the rivers and lakes of Burma, India, Africa and South America.

In 1974 it acquired the neighbouring Elderslie Dockyard, owned by Barclay Curle, which lay to the west of the Yarrow yard and included an extensive complex of three drydocks originally built in 1904 (No.

The long-term investment in facilities and strong manufacturing credentials, combined with the development of the Yarrow-Admiralty Research Department (Y-ARD) from 1946 ensured that when the number of warship yards was dramatically reduced by the Navy in the 1970s, Yarrows was chosen as one of mainstream contractors alongside Swan Hunter, Vosper (for the Type 21s) and Cammell Laird.

The Yarrow Admiralty Research Department (YARD) relocated to the new Charing Cross Tower in central Glasgow in 1976.

The sleek, good looks and the sporting performance of the Type 21 frigates led to the captains of the ships being called "boy racers".

The succeeding government of Margaret Thatcher began a privatisation programme and the profitable Yarrow was one of British Shipbuilders' early divestitures.

GEC began a programme of major capital investment, culminating in the construction of a large Module Hall, north of the covered building berths, in 1987.

Yarrows Ltd. was a major ship yard located in Esquimalt, British Columbia on the south coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.

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.

After the war, the Yarrow family sold the yard to Burrard Dry Dock,[16] with the deal completed on April 15, 1946.