Ship Yard Blues

The Oldest Ship Building company in the world was founded by John Scott in 1711 on the lower Clyde at Greenock. You can tell again by this opening that the river and the yards have provided the fodder for today's Blip. Harry had a profound effect on me on Monday and made me think about memories and specifically how they can move us to tears or laughter and how they can be triggered by sight sound and even in many cases smell or taste.

When I was walking through the docks yesterday it struck me that very little of the infrastructure of the yards remained the huge Kincaids engine works now the site flats and a care home, the red brick façade of Lithgow's a distant memory of that bygone age The plate yards with the maroon coloured specialist cranes that looked like something from Space 1999 carrying the plate into the yards like a large insect the underside of its carapace swinging and clanging with every bump over the tracks and cobbles.

I remember as a child about the twins age going to see the launches of mighty ships being hoisted onto Bouys on the quayside so I got a view. Standing towered above the sea of men whose sweat, toil and blood went into these majestic ships, Clydebuilt, the mark of world renown and quality. I remember the creaking of the stocks as the props were cut away the shouts of the men as the leviathan slowly started her slide to the river the noise and clouds of dust from the drag chains as the ripped down the slipway braking the ship as she entered the water, happy memories, memories of a workforce proud of their heritage and of a job well done.

I spoke yesterday of my Auntie Elsie, my mums childhood friend who now as they are both in their seventies remain as firm friends now as they were in the school playground. Her father was Tom Cunningham and Tom worked at Scotts, I remember him as upright, white haired pipe smoking man, quiet with a quiet manner and a presence, the sort of presence that doesn't require fanfare, he was just one of those men. Submarines were built at Scotts' and a visit was arranged; you can imagine the excitement of a boy of maybe 7 or 8 years of age going through the gates to another world, a world of dinosaur like cranes and everything being on a giant scale. I don't sadly have many memories of being on board, she was still being built, but I remember the anticipation of the visit and the excitement as we walked over that gangway and headed below, it was butterflies in the tummy like excitement. The cramped conditions we hear about that submariners endure were not apparent to an 8 year old boy but today knowing someone who has served very recently on modern submarines this is still very much an issue.

All of the Oberon Class submarines supplied to the Australian Navy have been decommissioned now but have all or in part been preserved as museum pieces, a little part of Scotland and the Clyde preserved and enjoyed by our antipodean allies.

It is ironic that the world's ships are predominantly built in Korea today their efficiencies and working practices the death knell for the Clyde; in the early 1970s Scott- Lithgow as the company then was had helped establish the Ulsan yard of Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea their first VLCCs being built to a Scott- Lithgow design.

The Cartsburn yard finally closed in 1984; the last ships built were for Ocean Group (Blue Funnel) Myridion and the Royal Navy's Seabed Operations Vessel HMS Challenger ending a 273 year tradition. The sites of the Cartsburn and Cartsdyke yards from which Scotts' operated are now unrecognisable, now the site a hotel, call centres and a fast food franchise.

One reminder does remain in the shape of the original dry-dock but sadly this lies unrecognised amongst the redevelopment. Here is a shot of one of the mighty dock winches rusted and rotting on the wall of the dry-dock, the twisted remnants of the dock gates lying behind open allowing the ebb and flow of the tides to slow reclaim the basin once more