Risdon Beazley

By the late 1970s, the fleet was run down, and the company closed in 1981.

Beazley sold his interests to Ulrich Harms between 1969 and 1971. In 1972 Harms sold the companies to Smit Tak of Rotterdam. Initially Risdon Beazley Marine Ltd. expanded with the purchase of the floating cranes Brunel and Telford, plus the 5,000 BHP Seaford and pontoons.

RB found his niche in cargo recovery, which had been the preserve of the Italian Company SORIMA before the war. Treasury figures show that over four years in the 1950s they contributed £187,000 to the Exchequer as a result of this work. The new recovery vessels Twyford and Droxford were delivered in the 1950s. The cost of the Droxford was £406,000, the Treasury contributed £25,000. They recovered 56,000 tons of non-ferrous metals from depths down to 300 meters, working worldwide.

At the outbreak of World War II the Admiralty requisitioned salvage vessels and most were put under Risdon Beazley's management. By 1945 Risdon Beazley were operating 61 vessels, including 29 that were owned by the Admiralty, working as far east as Colombo. They lost three vessels and a barge in the war. The other managers operated less than 20 vessels between them.

Beazley formed his company in 1926, when he was 22 years old. Throughout the life of the companies their base remained at Clausentum Yard, Bitterne Manor, Southampton. By the 1930s Risdon Beazley Ltd. was undertaking demolition work and wreck removal. In 1936 Beazley was a partner in the salvage of the square rigger Herzogin Cecilie. In 1937 the British cargo ship English Trader went ashore whilst entering Dartmouth Harbour; Risdon Beazley removed and cut up the bow section. In the same year Kantoeng, then the largest tin dredge in the world, capsized whilst under tow of Smit International tugs; Risdon Beazley removed the hull.

Risdon Archibald Beazley (1904–1979) was the founder of Risdon Beazley Ltd, a Marine salvage company that operated from 1926 to 1981 in Southampton, England.