Model of the BRITISH COAST finished

After some 2 years of painstaking work and no little amounts of skill and patience we are pleased to tell you that the scale model of a ship designed and built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb Ltd as Ship No 198 and originally launched in 1933 has now been completed.
The model has been built by Steve a Brit who is now ensconced in the middle of Canada many miles away from any sea.
Such is the detail in this model right down to her ropes and wires that we feel the model could well be shown in a museum and not look out of place.

You can see much more of this fine model and her build process on the main website at

www.leithshipyards.com

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,

MV KOONYA update

The MV KOONYA on route in the Bass Strait on the way to Burnie in this photograph sent in by Mike Gostt and shown her by permission.



We have some fine photographs of another Union Steam Ship Co of New Zealand ship built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb as Ship No 461 She was a sister ship to the MV KUMALLA Ship No 456

M/V UNDERWOOD Ship No 291 New Book on her Sinking

There is now a new book that has been written by Dave Betts about the sinking of the M/V UNDERWOOD she was attacked by German E-Boats in a daring attack which had Further tragic consequences in the build up to D-Day when American troops exercising of the South West Coast of England suffered some tragic losses which were attributed to the threat of E-Boat attacks by the fast and deadly boats.


15 crew and 3 passengers were lost in the attack on the M/V UNDERWOOD which had been built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb for the shipping company of France Fenwick, she was in fact still on the stocks at the outbreak of World War II on 3rd September 1939 and her build was completed during the early days of the war.

The author's Grand Father was a (DEMS) gunner on board her and the book can be found at http://bettsbooks.co.uk/   let him know that you heard about the book here.

PURIRI II and MAMAKU

Two ships built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb for one of the famous shipping companies of New Zealand


The coasters PURIRI II (Ship No 363) and MAMAKU (Ship No 389) were built for the Anchor Steamship Company, of New Zealand.

PURIRI II was a replacement vessel for the original PURIRI also built at the Leith Shipyards but sunk during World War II

PURIRI II with her old wooden Bridge House

(Photo is copyright of Barry Noel and shown here by permission)

The Twin Screw M.V. MAMAKU was very similar to other coasters built for New Zealand waters, real work horses and nothing too fancy about them, based on a design first conceived during the war. With the old classic look of wooden bridge structure.

M.V.MAMAKU with her wood Bridge Structure shown in port in New Zealand.

(Photograph is copyright by Barry Noel and shown here by permission)

Lots more new and exclusive photographs can be seen on the ships pages at Leithshipyards website.

(Thanks to Barry Noel photography)

Ship Photo Gallery

The WOLRAAD WOLTEMADE Ship No 516

(Photo courtesy of D.Walker)

The Leith Shipyards website goes from strength to strength with more and more interested visitors who are now contributing to the website and to the story of the Henry Robb Shipyard and the ships that started off in the yard at Leith.

Have a look at the featured pages on what at the time was the World’s mightiest Ocean Going Salvage Tug

The S.A.WOLRAAD WOLTEMADE Ship No 516 and also the largest Commercial Vessel built at the

shipyard, the Bulk Carrier GARRISON POINT Ship No 520

Our Ship Photo’s Gallery is also growing thanks to contributions by others and in particular Gordy Ross and Barry Noel for the many photographs sent into the website and they are not all ships built in Leith but a wide range of old and new ships make up the galleries now, we hope to build this into a gallery of ships to help with anyone searching for a particular ship.

Update-THE MILLER

Ship No 194 THE MILLER is an old coaster which is thought to be a preserved ship so is she still around?

Seen here at Fowley, England in this photo from 2007 (Photo by Alan Faulkner)
Does anyone out there know if she is still around as the old ship looks pretty good in the photo above, she was launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb in 1932 so is getting on for 80 years.
This little coaster is a little bit like the more well known Clyde "Puffers" that were/are around from the same time, for more on THE MILLER go to the website by clicking on the highlighted name.

M.V.SANDPIPER-Update

The M.V.SANDPIPER seen here during her trials in the Firth of Forth flying her Henry Robb flag.

M.V.SANDPIPER


Thanks to P&O Heritage we now have some photographs and information that was not previously available on some more of the ships built in the Leith Shipyards at Henry Robb

As you can see from the postcard above the SANDPIPER was a very nice looking vessel, built and launched in 1957 as Ship No 458 for the P&O subsidiary company of the General Steam Navigation Company Ltd, she was to serve with GSN Co Ltd until sold to a French shipping Company in 1966.

Tramp Ships The tramp ship was the taxi of the seas. With no regular schedules, it voyaged anywhere and everywhere, picking up and dropping off cargoes, mainly bulk cargoes such as coal, grain, timber, china clay and oil. It was the older and slower vessels that tended to find their way into this trade, hence the tag 'tramp', though new tramps were built, often with the owner's eye on chartering to the liner companies. In this new book by the well-known author Roy Fenton, their evolution is described over the course of more than 100 years, from the 1860s, when the steam tramp developed from the screw collier, until it was largely replaced by the specialist bulk carrier in the 1980s. An introduction looks at the design and building of tramps before going on to describe the machinery, from simple triple-expansion turbines to diesel engines. Their operation and management and the life of the officers and crews is also covered. The meat of the book is to be found in the 300 wonderfully evocative photographs of individual ships which illustrate the development of the tramp and its trades through the last years of the 19th century, the two world wars, and the postwar years. Each caption gives the dimensions, the owners and the builder, and outlines the career, with notes on trades and how they changed over a ship's lifetime. Design features are highlighted and notes on machinery included. This will become a classic work, to inspire all merchant ship enthusiasts and historians.

The M.V.SANDPIPER was to continue sailing for different owners until broken up in 1989 in the ship graveyard that is Gadani Beach, Pakistan

More about SANDPIPER on the website at http://www.leithshipyards.com/ 

KATHARINE II Ship No 160

KATHARINE II

KATHARINE II was a an order from the then known as “War Department” which is of course now known as the Ministry of Defence or MoD for short.


She was in fact the very first of many ships built for the services by the shipbuilders at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.
This ship was not for the Navy but was an order for the Army who had ships in the branch known as the Royal Army Service Corps.

KATHARINE II was to serve throughout the 6 years of World War II and she no doubt had many adventures supplying clandestine operations against the coasts of mainland Europe and perhaps landing Commando’s in strikes against the might of the “Third Reich”

She was used by the services for a further 14 years after the war and was then sold to Government contractors for further work.

Find out more about KATHARINE II on the website by clicking on the highlighted name.

PORT WAIKATO – Update



The PORT WAIKATO at anchor in the Chatham Islands circa 1949

Ship No 113
This is the ship that was built twice and we now have some great stories from Trevor Gibson, who sailed on her for a couple of years after the end of World War II.


Amazing to see how some things have changed in that time.

The coaster PORT WAIKATO was the vessel tasked with keeping the small Islands off New Zealands coast supplied with all of lifes little essentials and she was a means of the Islanders getting there livestock to market.



Loading sheep, can you imagine the outcry today.

M.V. KINGFISHER

M.V. KINGFISHER

Ship No 333


This order built during the war was from the General Steam Navigation Company Ltd, one of the oldest shipping companies in the World.

The order was for two small coastal freighters of 493 tons. With the first, on the stocks being the M.V. KINGFISHER

She was single screw with a length overall of 160 feet, with a beam of 27 feet and a draught of 17 feet.

She was launched from the yard 1943/44 and was pressed into doing war service while hostilities lasted.

M.V. Kingfisher was the fourth ship of the company to have this name and she was eventually sold to a Canadian Company in 1966 and re-named Dunure.

Remember to click on the highlighted ships name to be taken to the Leith Shipyards website to read so much more about the ships built in Leith.

M.V. UNDERWOOD

Ship No 291

Underwood was one of the ships on the stocks (building berth) at the outbreak of World War II.
She was an order for a twin screw motor vessel from the company of Franch Fewick of Australia.
At 1,990 tons this large modern motor vessel was for the coastal trade in Australia and New Zealand.
She had a length overall of 255 feet, and a beam of 45 feet, and a draught of 21 feet and 6 inches.
The “Underwood” was one of the merchant ships on the stocks at Leith when war broke out. Building to the direction of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, Ltd., she was taken over by the Ministry of War Transport on completion.

With her enormous, hatch opening of 96 feet. (With her sister ship, the “Port Tauranga,” built three years earlier, the largest hatches on Lloyd’s Register), made her ideally suited for the transport of tanks, aircraft, guns, and other vital supplies to Russia.

During a voyage from the Thames to the Clyde, (1944) the convoy in which she was sailing was subjected to a particularly daring attack by E-Boats. In misty weather the enemy craft lay close in shore near the Lizard, and as the convoy passed, attacked it from the land and least protected side. The “Underwood” was one of the vessels lost when hit by torpedoes from the fast motor torpedo boats of the enemy.

Port Tuaranga, was the sister ship of M.V.Underwood.

M.V.BRITISH COAST

Ship No 198

Was the first order for a Twin Screw Motor Cargo Vessel for the famous Coast Lines Ltd shipping company.

At 888 tons with a length overall of 230 feet and a beam of 35 feet she was a fair size of vessel built for the coastal trade around the British Isles. She was launched from the Leith yard on 6th September 1933.

She was to go on to have an interesting “War service” which you can read more of in the page dealing with Leith Built ships on war service.

British Coast (Ship No 198)

Henry Robb Shipyard.

Many years ago I promised myself that there should be some kind of record of the men and the Ships that were built in the Henry Robb Shipyard in Leith, Scotland.
Although the information I have up to this time is a bit sketchy, I do have a full list of all the Ships built in Leith by Henry Robb. For this info my thanks go to Jim Russell one of the former Loftsmen from the yard.
There are also some photographs of a small amount of the Ships, which we hope to add to along the way, along with I hope lots of stories from the men who worked in the yard, who it is hoped will add there own stories to this blog once they know it is available here on the internet.
While searching the internet it is good to see that there is now a hell of a lot more information about the yard available now, although it is varied and scattered, with any luck and some time we should be able to record it all here under the banner of this blog.
As you can imagine it takes a wide and varied amount of skilled tradesmen, labourers, office workers and Draughtsmen among others to bring a ship from a contract quote to the time when she will sail away from the Shipyard to begin a hoped for long life, dealing with all the elements that mother nature can throw at her while at sea, it is also hoped that she will be a safe and lucky ship as she will be looking after the life’s of all the men who will sail on her.
Would like to hear from the Men/Women who sailed on Robb’s Leith built Ships as well, they are a large part of a Ships story as well as the guys that designed and built her.

The Ferry St Helen Yard No 535

The last Ship to be launched from Henry Robb Shipyard, Leith