Nearly every Indiaman was built at one of perhaps a dozen shipyards in the Thames. There were only twenty-two shipbuilding firms of any size in 1814, and there can hardly have been as many in 1800. Of those then existing only a limited number were capable of building a 1200-ton, or even an 800-ton ship. So that, in practice, most Indiamen, large or small, came from one or other of the eight or ten principal yards. At the beginning of the century the leading firms were Randall's, Barnard's, Perry's, Pitcher's and Wells's; and it was mainly at these yards that the larger ships were built. Some were launched at Batson's, Melluish's or Clevely's. Others, especially at the end of the period with which we are dealing, were built by Dudman and Co., S. and D. Brent, or Curling and Co.

Pitcher and Sons had two yards, one at Blackwall and the other at Northfleet. Barnard's, which later became Barnard and Robarts's, was at Deptford. Curling and Co. had their establishment at Rotherhithe. Perry's yard was at Blackwall, Dudman's at Deptford. All these yards were of great size, capable not only of building the largest ships but of building several of them simultaneously. All, too, engaged largely in repairing and refitting ships; a more profitable business, it was said, than constructing them. Randall's, which later became Randall and Brent's, and, later still, Brent's, had in the end no less than seven building slips, two double and one single repairing dock, and so might, at least in theory, have work proceeding on a dozen ships at once.