THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF SHIPWRIGHTS GOLD MEDAL, 1882
for the International Exhibition of Ships’ Models, London, 1882, 22ct. gold prize medal, obv. arms of the Shipwrights’ Company, rev. an open laurel wreath, the centre engraved London 1882, Awarded to Yarrow & Co. for Stern Wheel Steamer in six lines, with Competitive Exhibition outside wreath and fully hallmarked below for 22ct. gold, weight 62gms., 2in. (5cm.) diameter, accompanying electrolyte copy
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The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, presented in 1944 by Sir Harold Edgar Yarrow, Bt., Second Master 1934-1935. The facsimile was retained by Yarrow & Company, and presented to the Worshipful Company by Sir Eric Yarrow, Bt., in 2002.
The Shipwrights’ Company held two competitive exhibitions for ship modelling in 1877 and 1882, the latter inviting international entries, and both were organised by Mr. Alfred Lewis, a long-time member of the Company who served as Master in 1887. Although an American by birth (c. 1840), he was living in London by 1871, had become a British subject by 1881 and owned a dry dock employing 100 men. He died in 1899, a highly respected figure in shipping circles and the recipient of numerous honours and awards.
Yarrow & Company Ltd. was established at Poplar, on the Thames, by Alfred Yarrow (later Sir Alfred, 1st Baronet) in 1865 but, in 1898, the yard had grown to such an extent that it was relocated to Cubitt Town, on the Isle of Dogs, and then again to Glasgow in 1906. Initially specialising in lake and river steamers, especially fast steam launches, the Royal Navy’s first destroyers, the Havock class, were built at Yarrow’s from 1869. The subsequent development of its water-tube ‘Yarrow boiler’ was also instrumental in the company’s increasing prosperity and the epithet ‘a Yarrow ship is a fast ship’ soon became commonplace in the wardrooms of the world’s navies.
