Hope yet for a Leith Maritime Museum!

No actual Maritime term used, but at least some progress with the potential use of the old custom house in Leith. Time as ever will tell for more on this story see the link below from the Edinburgh Evening News.

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/leith-museum-plans-take-giant-step-forward-1-3730575

MOD may now build Royal Navy ships overseas

Shipbuilding and Politics such unlikely and poor partners as ever, unless there is a war looming of course.

And so it begins with this latest story from the Scotsman newspaper, everyone knows that they can be got cheaper by buying overseas, just ask the Australian Navy (but don't mention the problems and cost over runs) they could even just buy a finished hull and tow  it to a U.K. yard for outfitting and weapons platform fitting but at what cost to this Island Nation which was built on ships and shipbuilding.
For more on this stupid story read here

 It is also not new as they (MOD) have already gone to South Korea for the build of three fleet tankers for the RFA as there is no longer the capacity or expertise to build vessels such as this any more in the U.K. (There words not mine)

New Naval order for Clyde Shipbuilding

So we have some more good news on the shipbuilding front in Scotland at long last the steel is now being cut for the Royal Navy's new offshore patrol vessels, no mere small type of ships but the very latest in new technology at around 2,000 grt's they are not small ships and will be capable of deployment worldwide.
They should keep some of the workforce (the little that is left) working at the upper Clyde shipyard of Scotstoun working at least until the designs are finalised for the Royal Navy's new type 26 Frigates which will be built at the same yard. This may or may not be such good news for the shipyard on the other side of the river at Govan only time will tell, as they continue with work on the second of the Aircraft Carriers being assembled in Scotland.
Be sure to visit the new Shipbuilding Library to find all your shipbuilding books now in a convenient form for you to download direct to your reader.

Work has started on a £348m contract for three Royal Navy warships at BAE Systems' yards at Scotstoun and Govan on the River Clyde in Glasgow.

The offshore patrol vessels will be known as HMS Forth, HMS Medway and HMS Trent. The first will be ready by 2017.

See more at the BBC website

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-29569528

For all your boat plans all in one place choose from hundreds of plans and go ahead and build your own boat or even a model boat if you wish When you click on the link above you will be helping to keep the Blog and the website at www.leithshipyards.com going as a small fee will go towards the upkeep of both site Thank you for your help and support

PORTSMOUTH SHIPYARD for RENT

WELL I ALMOST FELL OF MY HORSE WHEN THIS ONE DROPPED INTO MY EMAIL INBOX

Looks like the MOD are looking for someone with a good business plan and perhaps some forward orders to complete, to take over the running of this famous old shipyard, with a history going back in the building of ships almost as far back as the shipyards of Leith, with a highly skilled workforce lets hope that someone can come in and keep the men working.

You can find out all about it at the following website

www.shipyardportsmouth.co.uk

The Royal Navy Since 1815 Eric Grove provides a short history of the Royal Navy over the last two hundred years, synthesizing the new work on the subject that has radically transformed our understanding of the story of British naval development.

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.

BAE Systems boss says shipyard may close

One of BAE Systems' major shipyards could be closed, the company's UK chief executive Nigel Whitehead has said.

He told the Sunday Telegraph a decision would be made by the end of the year.

The firm was working with ministers to explore all options for maintaining the UK's shipbuilding capability, he said.

The future of its three main shipyards - in Portsmouth, and Govan and Scotstoun on the River Clyde - after two new aircraft carriers are completed has been in doubt for some time.

There are fears there will be insufficient work available to keep all three busy and profitable as cuts in defence spending take their toll.

"The issue is how to consolidate... but make sure that we've preserved the capability to design and manufacture complex warships," Mr Whitehead told the newspaper.

"We anticipate that there will be a reduction in footprint and we anticipate... that part of that might actually be the cessation of manufacturing at one of the sites."

Earlier this year the company appointed consultants to carry out a review of the business. The firm's yard in Portsmouth is widely believed to be the most vulnerable, with 1,500 jobs at risk.

However, two bases on the River Clyde, at Govan and Scotstoun (The old Yarrow shipyard) are also under scrutiny.

BAE Systems says it is working closely with the government to explore all options for maintaining the UK's shipbuilding capability.

The Ministry of Defence says that it is up to the company itself to decide how best to deliver the naval vessels

For more on the story see BBC Scotland website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20483438

While the above news is not new to the shipbuilders involved what is pretty new is being regarded as “A Footprint” you just have to love the buzzwords being used today, the British Isle’s losing yet another hard pressed shipyard, is it any wonder that the last two ships ordered by the U.K. Government went to a yard in Korea, this was for the build of two new fleet oil tankers for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary a job that was only tendered by one of the remaining shipyards in Britain and even they dropped out of the running as they felt they did not have the required expertise anymore to build such a vessel,

along with another less well publicised ship to be built that being a research ship for work in the Antarctic by the National Environmental Research Centre.

All in all a pretty damming indictment on a country that just gives up on it’s skills base because the bean counters run it all now.

This ship is being built in Northern Spain and is due to be launched next autumn.

A ship to do the same work as the RSS BRANSFIELD which was built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb in 1970

Nothing against the shipbuilders of Northern Spain they have been building ships for many years but why is this work not being done in a British yard and helping to secure the future of the skills required to build ships of this type, a question that has been asked of successive governments since the demise of the fiasco which was British Shipbuilders in the 1980’s.

A picture above of the RSS BRANSFIELD at work in Antarctica (Photo by G.Hart)

doing the type of work that the new ship will also be doing the one that is just now being built in Northern Spain.

Leith Ships 1965 to 1970

The Leithshipyards website is now getting into some of the later ships that launched from the yard of Henry Robb from the late 1960’s and onward through the turbulent times that were the 1970’s.


We feature such ships as the “S”Class ships for the Ellerman Wilson Group, the largest single order for ships received at the yard outside of World War II

The “S” Class ships were the SALERNO,  SALMO,  SORRENTO, SILVIO and SANGRO.

SORRENTO seen here in a photograph by Stuart Smith and shown here with permission.

There is also a large feature on the largest ship ever built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb she was called RFA ENGADINE a Helicopter Support ship built as a first for the Royal Navy.
You will soon be able to read about the ships built at Leith from circa 1850 to 1918 in the first Volume of my new book, so keep looking in to see when it will be in a bookshop or online.

The ice strengthened ship RRS BRANSFIELD is also featured this famous Red ship was the primary source of transport for expeditions to Antarctica for the Antarctic Survey Teams that braved the extreme conditions down there for up to 9 months at a time.


In what was another first for a Leith built ship she reached the furthest South that a ship had ever been able to achieve at the time and this was done on her maiden voyage down there we have some great photographs from her time down there from two men who spent time on her and at the station in Antarctica.

 

This photograph is from Ivan Stevenson who was in Antarctica with the BRANSFIELD and his photograph is reproduced here with his permission.

 

 

ENGADINE on a visit to Glasgow from a photograph taken by Paul (Fairfield)


And shown here with his permission.

April 2012-Titanic 100 years on.

A model of the RMS TITANIC

Perhaps you may be aware of the fact that it is 100 years ago this month that the Titanic set out on her fateful maiden voyage and terrible as this event was it made me think about a similar disaster at sea which happened only 8 years prior to the Titanic going down and it involved as a proportion just as large a loss of life with even more women and children involved.


The ship was called the NORGE and she was on her way around the North of Scotland with a full cargo of poor immigrants looking for a new life in the new world of North America. (The Edinburgh Evening News recently done a story on her as well)

Image is from the http://www.norwayheritage.com/ website. The NORGE


Click through the link where you can find out more about this sinking.

The ship was a converted livestock carrier carrying mostly Scandinavian’s but no famous or wealthy people on this vessel. She was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Glasgow in 1891.


She foundered on the Isle of Rockall and it was entirely the Captains fault as he did not believe there were any rocks in the area. The sinking was not even reported for a few days and made the newspapers for a small time, there was as I have said a very large loss of life and in particular many women and children. Almost 600 passengers and 45 crew perished.

But the bit that really got to me about this story was the fact that after the disaster and lose of life the chairman (J.B.Ismay) of the White Star Line (Titanic owners) was to send to the owners of the Norge a telegraph to commiserate them on the loss of the ship one ship owner to another with no mention at all made of the huge loss of life. This was from the same chairman who 8 years later would be on the fateful Titanic and who would end up pushing women and children out of the way to get onto one of the few lifeboats on the Titanic.

So perhaps it is time we took off the rose tinted classes when we look back on this terrible event and be glad that some good did come out of it, such as making watertight bulkheads run right up to the underside of the main decks, and providing many more lifeboats for passengers along with the wireless act which required every ship to carry two wireless operators so that one would always be listening for distress calls..

It is an interesting topic with the sudden spate of “Cruise Line passenger ships” involved in sinking or collisions and makes one wonder what it is going to take before the owners and designers realise that some of those huge floating hotels are an accident waiting to happen which may make the Titanic disaster pail.

Picture above of the recent Costa Concordia sinking in which there was also loss of life


(Picture from the guardian newspaper)

I happen to think that the owners should be looking at double skinning the ships hulls at least to a height of around 2m above the water line.


I am sure the owners and designers would whinge about cost and loss of internal area etc, (make the area usable for water ballast, pipes and systems with the area also filled with a foam plastic to aid buoyancy etc) and stability questions etc, but this could be done and help to make the floating glass and steel boxes a little bit safer to take to the sea in. Sure it would make the build a bit more expensive but would create more work for shipyard workers and I also happen to think that while great strides have been taken in the design of Lifeboats more needs to be done into how the Lifeboats get into the water from a heavily listing ship.