Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company

Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based on the River Tyne at Wallsend in North East England. Charles Algernon Parsons founded it in 1893 to develop and build the marine steam turbine he had invented, and the experimental vessel Turbinia, launched in 1894, drew wide attention with an unannounced high speed demonstration at the 1897 Naval Review at Spithead. Its engines powered the Royal Navy destroyers HMS Viper and HMS Cobra, the battleship HMS Dreadnought, the Cunard liners Mauretania and Lusitania, and the battleship USS Arizona. It also developed helical reduction gearing for marine turbines. In 1944 it was one of nineteen firms that formed the research association PAMETRADA. Richardsons Westgarth acquired the company in 1956, and it was later absorbed into C. A. Parsons and Company and eventually Siemens Energy.