Richardson, Duck and Company was a shipbuilding company in Thornaby-on-Tees, England that traded between 1855 and 1925.[1]
The yard was founded as the South Stockton Iron Ship Building Co in 1852.[1] Its premises were the former yard of engine builders Fossick of Stockton and its first vessel was the iron-hulled steamship Advance.[1] In 1855 Joseph Richardson and George Nixon Duck took over the yard. They built fifty iron steamships, a paddle steamer, ten sailing ships and 29 barges in their first ten years.[1] In 1859 they built the paddle steamer Tasmanian Maid (yard no. 9)[2] which in 1863 was converted into the gunboat .
In 1859 Richardson, Duck took over the Rake Kimber yard at Middlesbrough.[1] They built about 11 vessels at Middlesbrough and then sold the yard to Backhouse and Dixon in 1862.[1] In 1870 Richardson, Duck built (yard no. 160)[2] which in 1884 was re-engined with a triple-expansion engine made by Blair & Co of Stockton-on-Tees. In 1893 the company built the German merchant ship .
In the 1900s Richardson, Duck started building steel hulls.[1] By the end of that decade Richardson, Duck had built five hundred tramp steamers, other merchant ships and lighters.[1] It had also become licensees for the Isherwood system of longitudinal framing.[1]
Richardson, Duck's ships in 1911 included the cargo steamship Budapest (yard no. 616)[2] which was later renamed Kerwood and in 1918 was commissioned into the US Navy as . In 1912 Richardson, Duck built 12 ships and became a limited liability company.[1] In the First World War the yard built the Arabis-class sloop (yard no. 661)[2] and Aubrietia-class sloop (yard no. 666).[2] It also built a further dozen tramp steamers, eight standard War "A" tramps and a standard "AO" tanker.[1] Richardson, Duck's wartime merchant orders included Farnworth (yard no. 651), (yard no. 652)[2] and Cardigan (yard no. 653) launched in 1917; (yard no. 662), (yard no. 671), (yard no. 672) and (yard no. 673) all launched in 1918 and (yard no. 676) and (yard no. 677)[2] launched in 1919.
In 1919 Richardson, Duck became a public company and in 1920 James and Walter Gould acquired a controlling interest in it.[1] In 1922 the yard suffered industrial action and a lack of orders. Richardson, Duck's final ship was (yard no. 689) in 1924.[2] In May 1925 the Gould Group went into liquidation and in 1933 the yard was demolished.[1]