Marine stalwart celebrates 125 years

Providing specialist services and expertise to the transport, marine, construction, engineering, defence, renewable energy and shipping industries, Williams Shipping was founded in 1894 by George Williams, who was then joined by his son, Jim, at the age of just 13. Today, the company is run by the fourth and fifth generations of the Williams family with Eric Williams as chairman.

Fifth-generation Philip Williams joined the company in 1997, and today heads up the company’s marine services division. He said: “Williams Shipping has a reputation for reliability, expertise and quality of service, a reputation which we are truly proud of. Those values are just as important today as they were over a century ago.”

Rich project history

Headquartered in Southampton and with offices in Pembroke and Aberdeen, Williams Shipping assists the UK’s marine industries with a broad range of services including towage, craneage, stores deliveries, equipment hire and crew transfer.

Mr Williams said the company, which has worked with organisations including MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, Boskalis Westminster, Esso, the Royal Navy and Valero, has “a lot of interesting projects in the pipeline”.

Past projects include transportation of 82m offshore wind turbine blades for Mitsubishi Vestas Offshore Wind (MVOW), whose facilities are based on the Isle of Wight and in Southampton Water; ongoing support for the Thames Tideway civil engineering work with barges, workboats and other equipment; and provision of dockyard space, craneage, towage and other services to assist with moving the Fairmile RML 497 to Hartlepool for renovation.

By Rebecca Jeffrey