Henry Fletcher established a shipyard at Birkenhead in 1849, and by 1851 had a slipway in place. He acquired and installed the patent slip brought out to the colony by the South Australian Company and which it had virtually abandoned. Initially Fletcher was in the ship repair business but later expanded into shipbuilding as well. He ordered a second slip from the Dunnikier Foundry in Scotland in 1863 but trouble with the installation meant this was not available until 1867. The first ship drawn up on this slip was the Edinburgh of 1500 tons. Fletcher's business continued to expand repairing sailing ships and iron steamers. The composite ship Torrens was one of the more notable vessels repaired at Fletcher's Shipyard. It had reportedly collided with an iceberg and its bow was severely damaged.

In the early 1860s Fletcher had constructed two stern wheel paddle-steamers for the River Murray trade. Settler and Lady Daly were not successful on the Murray because of their length which made negotiating the many twists of the river difficult.

Henry Fletcher died in 1912 and eventually his slip and shipyard passed to the Harbors Board. In 1920 the Adelaide Steamship Company leased the site and in 1957 their subsidiary company Adelaide Ship Construction Ltd was established on the site. After this closed down in 1973 use of the site lapsed. The area is now being redeveloped as a residential area.

Ritter, Ron. Triumph, tragedy and Port Adelaide [Para Vista, S. Aust.]: Ronald C. Ritter, 2005

Chapter 4 Fletcher's Slip pp. 159-171

Couper-Smartt, John. Port Adelaide: tales from a "commodious harbour" Port Adelaide: Friends of the South Australian Maritime Museum, 2003

Parsons, Ronald. Southern passages: a maritime history of South Australia Netley, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1986