SCOT II - Model build begins

The building of the model for the SCOT II ice-breaking tug is now underway and being put together by Steve, working to original shipyard drawings and ships lines.
The model starts off being assembled upside down and then at a later stage she will be turned right way up to continue the build of the model.

SCOT II Model build begins

SCOT II - Stern

It is hoped that the actual restoration of the hull and build of the old original SCOT II Ship No 184 originally built at the Leith shipyards of Henry Robb in 1931 will begin again to progress by this autumn and the Blog and website will of course be first with any news on this.

Replica "TITANIC" may yet be built?

Would you fancy a cruise on a replica ship, if so then what better than a replica TITANIC
Complete with all the modern aids to safety at sea of course, although still maned by humans and expected to make a profit (A bit like the replica of the BOUNTY?)

The rendering as seen above keeps pretty much with the original look of the ship although reports say that she will be some 4 metres wider than the original (Dont know how this will effect her stability, may even make it better) and she will of course have her full compliment of lifeboats as per SOLAS requirements.
I for one am all for replica ships being built, would just prefer if it was being built in Europe or in the States rather than China, as there pedigree with shipbuilding still leaves a bit to be desired shall we say.
Slated for a launch date some time in 2018 after being delayed or put back a couple of years it will be interesting and full on publicity should it happen.

Final aircraft carrier section arrives at Rosyth

With the final section (Superblock) for the second of the U.K.'s new Aircraft Carriers to be named as Prince of Wales it just remains for the guys at Rosyth who are assemling the carriers to put the last remaining blocks together in the dry-dock and sometime next year she will be joining her sister ship Queen Elizabeth in the fitting out basin for around another three years of work before she will be handed over for commissioning trials and then into the Royal Navy, it is to be hoped that by this time the U.K. will have aeroplanes in the form of the new F35's to fly from her decks.
For more on the story see the BBC website link

A barge carrying the aircraft carrier's Aft Island completed its journey up the Firth of Forth to Rosyth on Sunday morning

It is also pretty amazing that she had to complete a journey which as the crow fies is around 50 miles, by being barged all the way around the British Isles southwards from the Clyde down to the English Channel and then back up the East Coast of the British Isles through the North Sea to arrive in the Firth of Forth a seaward voyage of some 1,300 miles.

Old Firm - New Order

Ferguson shipyard secures ferry contract

 

Some good shipbuilding news to report at last from the recently purchased Ferguson Yard on the lower Clyde in Scotland, news that will keep Scotland’s last commercial shipyard going and with the promise of even more orders things are beginning to look up for the small band of Shipbuilders left on the Lower Clyde.

Book with confidence thanks to the Best Price Guarantee from Expedia.com

 

The Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow has won its first ferry building contract since being rescued from closure.

Clyde Blowers Capital - owned by the billionaire Jim McColl - bought the yard earlier this month after it went into administration.

It has now secured a £12m contract from the Scottish government to build a third hybrid ferry for CalMac.

More details of the deal will be released later this week.

The yard has previously built two other hybrid ferries - the MV Hallaig and MV Lochinvar - for CalMac.

The new vessel, which will be able to accommodate 150 passengers and 23 cars or two HGVs, is expected to be launched in the spring of 2016, before entering service in the autumn of the same year.

It will use a low carbon hybrid system that combines traditional diesel power with electric battery power and will lead to a reduction in fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

For more on the story see the BBC news website

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-29408021

Why is there no Leith Built Ships Official Website funded by Edinburgh Council

It says it all in the heading folks, just why is there no official website funded by Edinburgh Council to show off the history of the many fine ships built at Leith, this question I keep asking myself and it was the main reason why I started up this Blog and my website at www.leithshipyards.com
This has all been carried out by myself with lots of input from interested others of course but all the work of putting everything together is by me and the cost of such is borne by myself as well.
It really ticks me off when I see the great job done by Aberdeen Council, funded by no less than the Heritage Lottery fund to showcase the merits of the very fine and many ships built at Aberdeen as well, so why is most of the heritage of the Leith shipyards locked away in the dusty archives of the Archives of Scotland where no one gets to see it, unless you make an appointment of course and pay for the privilege.


Even ex workers are no exception and anyone would think that the Archives actually owned the information, this information should be out there for all to access, yet another reason for my setting up the website.
Is this yet another instance of the ineptitude of the Council in Edinburgh, just because it in fact features ships built at Leith, I repeat Leith not Edinburgh (Leith only joined with Edinburgh in the 1920's under a rigged vote and much duress)
So not much I can do about this situation as it would need someone in Leith or Edinburgh to pick this up and run with the project as I no longer live anywhere near.
For anyone interested take a look at the Aberdeen Shipbuilders website for yourself and see what I am speaking about, it is way past time that some money was spent by the Council of Edinburgh to rectify this situation and let people who are interested see what is hidden away (unless you pay of course)

The Leith "Motto"



Who knows perhaps the director of the national archives for Scotland will see this request and respond as they certainly do not respond to any other requests sent in to them, we require an official good website to show the history of the Leith Shipyards and you should be spending some money on this project.

Rant is now over for the week folks, thank you,

perhaps if you feel strongly about this subject you will also contact the National Archives of Scotland and ask them why no official website (such as the Aberdeen one not the existing archive website) showing this great history of a time we shall never see again in the Port of Leith

 

What Happened to THE MILLER

The Miller in winter Ship No 194


The above photograph was sent into the Leith Shipyards website from a lady who lived on this fine old coaster for around 5 years and it has found memories for her and many others which brings me to the question What happened to THE MILLER

Visit the E-Book library of Ships and the Sea

Has she been to the scrap yard or is she still around just wasting away in some back water siding, we are sure that one of our informed readers will be able to let us know, is this very fine example of a Short Sea Coaster still around she was built in 1932 at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd and was one of the many used to ferry freight around the British Isles in the days before road transport took over to block most of our inner city roads and add to the pollution and congestion that we all seem to just take for granted these days, how many trucks were used to replace just one ship such as THE MILLER.

HMNZS MOA Ships name plate recovered

HMNZS Moa (T233) had an eventful war serving as part of a minesweeper flotilla in the Solomon Islands, and working long and dangerous hours in the area of Guadalcanal,

She took part in the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-1 and many other adventures, before being sunk by Japanese dive bombers.

HMNZS MOA (7^th April 1943) was hit by two bombs in Tulagi, Harbour while re-fuelling and she sank within 4 minutes with the loss of five crewmen, and a total of 15 wounded.

HMNZS MOA ships letters recovered for conservation and eventual presentation at the Devonport Naval Museum Auckland, New Zealand

HMNZS MOA Ship No 314 (photo credit unknown for now)

Her name plate has now been recovered by divers and is being looked after by the marine archaeologist Brigid Gallagher who was amongst others responsible for the successful BBC programme “Timeline” now working out of New Zealand it is her responsibility to bring the ships letters back to a presentation condition and then hand the ships name plates back to the Royal New Zealand Navy for display and further recognition as to the fine part played by this gallant little ship during action in World War Two

HMNZS MOA

I am a conservator in New Zealand, and have been commissioned to conserve the 3 letters, M,O,A from the above ship for the Naval Museum in Devonport Auckland. These letters were lifted from the seabed in the Solomons by divers and now returned officially to New Zealand.

The sinking of the replica ship Bounty

Relplica of the HMS BOUNTY at Halifax “Tall Ships” 2012 (The Loftsman Collection)

For tales of the original HMS BOUNTY

The US NTSB has released its report into the Sinking of the Bounty

 

A captain's "reckless decision to sail into the well-forecasted path of Hurricane Sandy" was the probable cause of the sinking of a ship off the North Carolina coast in October 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report released today. The captain and one crewmember died in the accident. Three other crewmembers were seriously injured

The Challenges of Command This book explores the ways that the Edwardian naval arms race forced the Royal Navy to address deep-seated structural problems caused by rapidly changing technology. It charts how an institution organised for three hundred years around sailing ships, faced the challenge of steel and steam, and what that meant for an officer class recruited largely on the basis of its social class rather than technical expertise.

 

The 16-page report details how a mostly inexperienced crew - some injured from falls, others seasick and fatigued from the constant thrashing of 30-foot seas - struggled for many hours to keep the ships engines running and bilge pumps operating so the seawater filling the vessel would not overtake it.
In the early morning hours of October 29, 2012, about 110 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the Bounty heeled sharply to the starboard side after taking on more than 10 feet of water in the final hours of a three and a half day voyage that the NTSB said, "should never have been attempted."
Despite hurricane winds gusting upwards of 100 mph, the U.S. Coast Guard was able to rescue all but two of the Bounty's 16 crewmembers by hoisting them from the sea into three Jayhawk helicopters in the midst of the storm. The body of one crewmember was found, still in a protective immersion suit, about 10 hours after rescue operations had commenced. The captain was presumed lost at sea; his body was never recovered.

The Way of a Ship When, as a young man in the 1880s, Benjamin Lundy signed up for duty aboard a square-rigged commercial sailing vessel, he began a journey more exciting, and more terrifying, than he could have ever imagined: a treacherous, white-knuckle passage around that notorious "graveyard of ships," Cape Horn. A century later, Derek Lundy, author of the bestselling Godforsaken Sea and an accomplished amateur seaman himself, set out to recount his forebear's journey. The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of life on board a square-rigger, a remarkable reconstruction of a harrowing voyage through the most dangerous waters. Derek Lundy's masterful account evokes the excitement, romance, and brutality of a bygone era -- "a fantastic ride through one of the greatest moments in the history of adventure" ( Seattle Times ).

The KOBENHAVN Builders Plate

Representation of a builders plate from the Barque KOBENHAVN built at the Leith Shipyards of Ramage & Ferguson Ltd, 1921

This picture of what may or not have been a builders plate from the unfortunate ship KOBENHAVN Yard No 256 built at the Ramage & Ferguson shipyards at Leith in 1921, when she was lost in the Winter of 1928 has now been assessed by experts in Denmark and in Glasgow and the consensus of opinion is that this particular builders plate is not from the poor ship, although it may have been made as a commemoration of the mysterious loss of the KOBENHAVN with all her 15 crew and 45 cadets.

So one of the great maritime mystery stories continues and perhaps one day we shall find out what happened to this 5 masted Barque 3,901 grt, which was the largest sailing ship ever built in a British shipyard.

Ocean going Salvage Tugs

In the quest to bring more photographs and information to the maritime interested public about the ships built at the Leith Shipyards we now have the following photographs on the website along with many more shown and still to be shown.

The dangers of Ocean Going Salvage and the power required to tow Super Tankers is amply shown here in the following two photographs sent into the Leith Shipyards website by Bob Terry one of the crew on the mighty Ocean going tug Wolraad Woltemade Ship No 516

A tow on this ship that is on fire shows some of the danger involved in Ocean Going Salvage work, nothing that the Wolraad Woltemade could not handle from this photograph taken by Bob Terry in 1982 and shown by permission

The mighty Ocean Going Salvage Tug Wolraad Woltemade Ship No 516 arriving at Cape Town towing a "Super Tanker" in 1982 photo by Bob Terry and shown by permission

Super Tanker tow into Cape Town in 1982 the Woltemade was well capable of handling such a tow by herself.

If we go back to the dark days of World War Two, when the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb took to the building of the then mighty Salvage and Rescue tugs of the Bustler Class.

A new book is almost ready for publishing, it will be on the bookshelf in April 2022

HMS HERALD - New Photographs

The Blog and website are now fortunate enough to have been gifted many photographs of the survey ship HMS HERALD Ship No 512
The photographs have been sent in by W. Russell who was a member of the ships company from the time the Royal Navy arrived at Leith to do there work on the new ship as she was being built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb from 1972/1973

HMS HERALD outfitting at the basin in Leith winter of 1973
photograph by W. Russell and shown here by permission

Over time many more photographs will be seen in the new series of books on the Leith-Built Ships, with HMS Herald being in Volume-IV which should be out in 2023.

Royal Navy, The Since 1900, the Royal Navy has seen vast operational changes. This book tells the story, not just of victory and defeat, but also of how the Navy has adjusted to a century of rapid technological and social change. The extensive reforms made by Admiral Fisher at the dawn of the twentieth century saw the navy's nineteenth-century wooden fleet replaced with the latest modern technology - battleships (including the iconic dreadnoughts), aircraft carriers and submarines. In World War I and World War II, the navy played a central role, with unrestricted submarine warfare and supply blockades becoming an integral part of combat. However it was the development of nuclear and missile technology during the Cold War era which drastically changed the face of naval warfare - today the navy can launch sea-based strikes across thousands of miles to reach targets deep inland. This book places the wars and battles fought by the navy - from Jutland to the Falklands - within a wider context, looking at political, economic, social and cultural issues, as well as providing a thorough operational history.

Leith built Treasure Ship Found

As this is the last post of the year 2013 it should be a special one and this is news about an old Leith built Ship with a tremendous and varied history which now due to the efforts of  Dr Lee Spence the well known maritime expert and discoverer of shipwrecks we can tell you about the wreck of the
SS CRAIGALLION  Ship No 29 from the R & F Shipbuilders yard (later to be known as Ramage & Ferguson Ltd)
The SS CRAIGALLION was launched from the Leith Shipyards in May of 1881 and she was to go on to have many adventures most of them would be very politically un-correct to-day, but she was involved in everything from towing a dredge to work on the Panama Canal build to gun running and supply of bullion and money to fund uprisings in Caribbean countries along with being previously wrecked before she became a "Prize" was refitted out and re-named as the SS OZAMA
Named after a river and not to be confused with any other connotation of the ships name.

Artefacts brought to the surface from the wreck of the SS OZAMA ex SS CRAIGALLION and shown here by the kind permission of Dr Lee Spence who was responsible for the discovery of the old Leith built Ship

For a whole lot more on the history and the discovery of this amazing ship with a real treasure tale to tell visit http://shipwrecks.com/ss-ozama/  and read for yourself.
There will be a whole lot of features on more of the ships built at Leith through-out the course of next year so keep checking back and wishing everyone the best for 2014

Shipbuilding to cease in Portsmouth

Well BEA systems? have finally made a decision and part of this decision is that after more than 500 years of Naval Shipbuilding at Portsmouth they will no longer have the capability to build warships at Portsmouth some time in 2015
While this is devastating news for the guys who will lose there jobs the suits at BEA systems? are saying that along with the further loss of jobs on the Clyde (approx. 900) the two remaining yards on the Clyde will be used to build the Navy's future combat ships once design is finalised.
Again crazy to think that the U.K. is an island which imports around 80% of its needs and they no longer even have a shipbuilding capability to build a cargo vessel, this is politics and shipbuilding once more and this has to be one of the only industries there is where the harder and better you work the closer you are to losing your job.
Still they do build lots of ships in China now, perhaps Salmond can arrange for some of the lost jobs to be transferred?
The politics behind this decision are very suspect given the political climate in Scotland at the moment and of course it just happens to be another Tory government in power for now.
For more on this story see the BBC link

Philip Hammond told the Commons the job cuts were regrettable but inevitable (Spoken like a real politician?)

The following is a little bit of history about Shipbuilding on the River Clyde in Scotland

S.S.SOUTH STEYNE is 75 years old this year

Even if a bit late in the year it was brought to my attention by a couple of knowledgeable Australians who had spent many a happy voyage on this famous old ferry across Darling Harbour and up to Manly and beyond that the SS SOUTH STEYNE Ship No 267was launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd 75 years ago this year. She was launched into the sea at Leith in the April of 1938. Interestingly she was but one of ten (10) ships launched by the shipyard that year.

Two very well known Sydney sights one being built during the 1960's (Sydney opera house) and the famous old ferry much used by Sidneysiders the SS SOUTH STYNE built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd in 1938
(Photo credit unknown for now)

Update on the MV CUBAHAMA

A mahogany name plate which was retrieved from the MV CUBAHAMA sometime in the late 1980's by Edwin McGee who found her laid up near Galveston Texas. The photograph is show here by kind permission and is taken from the blog at Sonsofsavages.



The MV CUBAHAMA Ship No 262

The wherebouts of this old "Special Ship" built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd in 1938 can no be revealed thanks to Edwin Mcgee and his father who re-discovered her in the late 1980's laid up and half sunk in an inlet in the Sothern States of America.
You can read all about the MV CUBAHAMA and her eventual fate by clicking on the highlighted link which will take you to Edwin's blog.

New ship updates

So many new updates on the ships built at Leith all now on the revamped website.

The famous old veteran of the Dunkirk beaches GALLIONS REACH Ship No 229
seen here in dry dock in a photograph taken by one of her old crew Del Sowter and shown here by permission

We still have the Mystery of what or where is the GALLIONS REACH SHIP as the hulk seen in Greece is not the same ship. So where is she,

HMS RINGDOVE

For the latest update on HMS RINGDOVE Ship No 264

Leith Shipyards

Hi all,
Just to let you know that one of the best maritime history websites out there is having some what they call technical problems, it would appear that some very, very, very, very, very, very, very clever A1 A-Hole has been messing about with the website so the technical people are working on it and we hope that the better of the maritime website's will be back to what you are used to seeing soon.

WATCH THIS SPACE

And thank you to all who have ever visited the website except for one of course.

EIGAMOIYA - Yard No 504 Update

There is now a correction on the pages about the MV EIGAMOIYA from someone who was activley involved in the dealings with the Nauru people and Government at the time. And in the interests of historical accuracy we are always happy to hear from people with first hand knowledge of events and only to willing to change things should they be found to be not quite accurate.

AGUARAY Update

We also have an update about the MV AGUARAY from our contacts in South America
She was built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb in 1928 as Ship No 112 and information shows that she was still around in 1986 although it is not known what happened to her after this time.