Emotional return as work starts on £44m aircraft carrier contract at Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird

Jul 28 2010 by Neil Hodgson, Heswall News

WORK started on Cammell Laird’s £44m aircraft carrier contract in an emotional moment for workers and ‘top brass’ alike.

The Birkenhead yard will build the flight deck, hangars and crew accommodation for the 65,000 tonne Queen Elizabeth for assembly at Glasgow’s Rosyth yard.

The two-and-a-half-year contract will involve a third of Laird’s 1,200 workforce and many of its 72 apprentices.

More than 100 workers cheered as the first 1.7 tonne section of steelwork was lowered into place this Monday as Minister for International Security Strategy Gerald Howarth pressed the button that started the crane inside the yard’s massive construction hall.

But for Bebington-born Rear Admiral Phillip Jones it was particularly poignant.

His mother attended the ceremony at the yard where his late father Edgar served his time before retiring as senior engineering manager in 1986.

Rear Admiral Jones said: “This is a particular pleasure for me to join you at Cammell Laird as the son of a former employee who served his time during the Second World War when the yard was turning out warships faster than the canteen was turning out hot dinners.”

Three yard apprentices who will work on the project were also invited to watch the ceremony alongside VIPs.

Nineteen-year-old mechanical apprentice Lacie Cadden from Moreton is the yard’s first female apprentice and said: “It’s really exciting to work on a project like this.”

Ben Birch, 19, from Oxton followed his dad Peter into welding at the yard and will represent Cammell Laird at a national welding final in Scotland this October.

Oliver Rowland, 17, from Upton, joined straight from Woodchurch High School and said: “I’m looking forward to working on this.”

Nine sections built at Laird’s will be floated by sea-going barge to Rosyth for assembly, with Queen Elizabeth set to enter Royal Navy service in 2016.