Latest review for Volume II, Leith Shipyards, 1918 to 1939

 

Ship No 236 was the classic looking Port Tauranga launched from the Henry Robb Leith Shipyard in 

September 1936. You will find much more on the history of such fine ships in the book available from most good book stares.

Latest review for Volume II, Leith Shipyards, 1918 to 1939

“Volume 2 of “Leith-Built Ships - Leith Shipyards 1918-1939” is a notable follow-on to the author’s Volume 1, covering that port’s earlier shipbuilding years 1850 – 1918, and whose format closely matches that of its now award level predecessor.

Only a man with a lifetime of personal involvement within the industry at Leith and enjoying full access to all applicable records, can be fully qualified to pen such a detailed history of the yards within the nominated time frame, their founders, development, the ships and other vessels including the career details of many, matters of their operation and conditions, longevity, and demise whether at the hands of enemy, disaster or the breaker’s torch.

The trials and tribulations of shipbuilding of the era and covering by chapter the good times and the bad, war, depression and other key events are addressed, with descriptions duly spiced with comment and additional narrative containing fascinating accounts and the personal recollections of yard workers, ship’s crew and the like, often as submitted by family from personal diaries and other records of now departed forebears.

The book is peppered with black and white photo illustrations and other renderings of the ships themselves, ship and shipyard crews, and concludes with a completed listing of vessels constructed at Leith, and for clarity, glossaries of abbreviations, shipyard and maritime terminology.

This is an altogether first class, deeply researched and highly commended production, fully deserving of a place on the bookshelves of those with a keen interest in the maritime and industrial history of a bygone era. Regrettably Covid-19 restrictions have slowed the production and publishing of the third and fourth volumes to the Leith-Built Ships series. Their prospect, however, must surely be eagerly anticipated.”

 

Yours aye,

Alan Blackwood