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Silverport Dockyards Limited, SDY for short, is one of the two major arms manufacturing companies of the Free Lands, the other being Gabha Blacksmiths Limited. Seated in the City of Silverport, with facilities in XYZ, the company belongs to the most influential companies under the authoritiy of the Merchant Guild of Leuda, being a Private Company Limited by Shares. Seat of the Registered Office is Oifig House in Silverport.

CEO and Head of the Board of Directors of Silverport Dockyards Limited is Nora Cathlong of the Tribe of Cork. A complete list of products can be found under List of Products of Silverport Dockyards Limited.

Company History

Silverport Dockyards Ltd. was founded in 1983 by Tyran Cathlong of the Tribe of Cork. At first, it was mostly a repair and maintenance yard, gathering funds for modernization and expansion. Yard 1, one of the original two shipyards, is a museum nowadays, displaying pictures and memorablia of work back in the day as permanent exhibition, while Yard 2 is a training centre for students of the University of Silverport.

Although repairing ships was our main business until 1997, the new shipyard company began to build vessels under license very early, mostly for the domestic market. With the SDF-Navy's request to build new corvettes, the small Sciath-class Corvettes, in 1992, Silverport Dockyards Limited had its first grand order. The odd yacht or freighter to be built for foreigners was a good extra income, but did not become main business until much later.

While Tyran Cathlong was an old engineer, studying and training back in the last decade of the Ríchathaoir Shipyard Company, his daughter Nora was a businesswoman, who joined the company in 1987 and rose through the ranks at a steady pace.

In 2009, Tyran Cathlong retired in favour of his daughter Nora, who began to expand rapidly, soon encompassing not only yards in Silverport, but also in Leuda, Wembury and on Farpoint Island, but also opening research and development facilities in Laclan, Bodmin and Tipa. Furthermore, strategic partnerships with companies in the Free Lands were formed, chiefly among them Ironcastle Ironworks Limited and Gabha Blacksmiths Limited.

Not only that, but Silverport Dockyards Limited also expanded abroad, building yards and drydocks in foreign lands, far away from home. Most of these yards build merchant ships and other civilian vessels, repair and maintain them.

2010 saw the establishment of the Office for Prototype Development, a.k.a. Yard 15, formerly a yacht-building yard.

It was Yard 15, which developed the most productive designs of Silverport Dockyards to this day, amongst them the Sealgaire-class Helicopter Carrier and the Scoth-class Corvette, all requests for prototype development and shipbuilding studies are handled there, while the other yards, 64 in Silverport alone, handle production of vessels. Silverport Dockyards Limited also operates a small shipping company with eight ships and a small fleet of testbed vessels, demonstration vessels and prototypes, amongst them the Cineál.

All in all, Silverport Dockyards Limited employs around twenty thousand people in the Free Lands, plus additional two thousand people abroad. We always build ships, be it of steel or be it of wood, since as much as Selkie are born for the saddle, Selkie are born for the sea.

The 1996 Accident

Disaster struck in 1996, when a storm not seen in centuries came over the Free Lands, destroying much, amongst them an amphibious assault ship of a friendly nation passing through the Exclusive Economic Zone, being wrecked by the storm. The Captain, not wanting to risk his ship and his crew, made Silverport a port of call, requesting the services of Silverport Dockyards Limited in checking up and, if needed, repairing his ship.

Yard 23 was made ready and received the 40,000 tons of warship.

During an inspection of the keel by a group engineers, parts of the ship's crew and a representative of the next consulate, the drydock's holding mechanism gave up - thirty people lost their lifes as the amphibious assault ship literally fell onto their heads. This, despite the men wearing hardhats, remains the single greatest loss of life and work accident in Silverport Dockyard's history by a wide margin.

Nora Cathlong's Absence

In 2017, during Nora Cathlong's pregnancy (which ended tragically), her father and her daughter took over as temporary CEOs from Decembre 2016 for one year - due to the tragic end of the pregnancy, with the loss of the child, Nora began to return to her duties in late Novembre, slowly but surely.

She remarked, that her daughter and her father did an excellent job as SDY's CEOs, making her hope for the future.

The Return of the CEO

After Cathong's return, SDY began with gradual expansion projects, amongst them to Avisronia, resulting in, amongst other things, the Pattern 263 Series of Cargo Vessels. In Late August 2018, Cathlong hosted a business dinner between representatives from Knessniet and Trixtoria in Dragan House.

Changes: 2019

In 2019, SDY underwent a number of changes, both in personell as well as in products. Due to her pregnancy, Gwen Cathlong of the Tribe of Cork left the company in April, her Number Two as Head of Yard 15, Raidri Gormchló of the Tribe of Fingal, moving up, while for a short time, Nora Cathlong was Representative on diplomatic occasions.

This was soon changed, as the liaison to Sciathan was called back from Riverwood, Yvain Saighead of the Tribe of Westmeath became Business Representative.

Restructuring in 2019

On the 1st of October 2019, SDY officially announced, that it would from now on focus more on the markets of civilian shipbuilding, shipbuilding for law enforcement, marine engineering and offshore engineering. While SDY would continue to be on the market for military vessels and follow it and its developments closely, it would not be the focus of the company anymore. No further requests for prototype development of military vessels would be accepted.

On the forefront of that development would be Togra Aoibhneas, or Project Rapture.

Yards

SDY operates 64 yards in Silverport alone. Most of these are optimized for the building of smaller vessels, 34 yards can only handle building vessels of up to 100 metres, a further 15 only up to 200 metres, 14 up to 250 metres and one defines the maximum length of vessels build by SDY, the 295 metres long Yard 6.

In total, 8,339 people are employed at SDY in Silverport.

Subsidiaries

  • Sciathan Limited (fixed-wing aircraft)
  • Bád Industries Limited (boats and small vessels, sailing vessels)
  • Greadtóir Limited (rotary wing aircraft)

Important Persons

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