P&O Ships built in Leith

The twin screw motor vessel MOMBASA Ship No 379

While research has been going on into all the ships built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb an amazing fact has come to light.



Where it was thought before that (apart from the Royal Navy) the biggest customer of the shipyard was the Ellerman Wilson Line, when in fact it turns out to have been the giant shipping group P&O.

The P&O group owned a number of the shipping lines that were big customers of the yard, such as the British India Steam Navigation Company (6 ships built) Coast Lines (4 ships built) The General Steam Navigation Company Ltd, (11 ships built) along with the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand (with more than 20 ships built)


Last minute cruise deals at Expedia.com!

P&O being the huge concern that it is are also very proud of there history and have a very good website with a lot of history and data on the ships that they through there many various companies owned and had built over the years. You can find more here at P&O Heritage.

The P&O Heritage collection have been very helpful in collating some of the information on ships built in Leith and have also supplied some of the official photographs from there vast collection to be shown on the website of leithshipyards.

Updates-July 2011

Lots of new information on ships built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb, including new info on the Luxury motor cruiser ANNABELLA along with some info on ships built for BI lines which was part of P&O lines and have to say thanks to P&O Heritage Collection for help and permission to use photographs of the many ships built in Leith for P&O Companies.
For the latest new info on MOMBASA and MTWARA just click on the highlighted name.
And we keep adding as information becomes available and of course photographs.

ANNABELLA-Ship No 206

ANNABELLA


MV ANNABELLA Ship No 206
by kind permission Claire Belton

Which was Ship No 206 launched at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb, was a small luxury Motor Cruiser which we had little knowledge off, that is until Claire Belton, got in touch with the Leithshipyards website, to tell us that she had been rescued from mud flats in the South of England in the late 1960's restored and cruising around the Med, she was even on the BBC Holiday program of the time.
So there will be a lot more about her on the Leith Shipyards pages very soon, along with all the other updates, and in fact the ANNABELLA was by no means the only Leith buit Ship to feature on T.V. or Films for that matter, we even have the story of a Robb built ship that was in a James Bond film.
So dont forget to keep visiting http://www.leithshipyards.com/  and if you have some story or photograph of a Ship built in Leith then please get in touch through the website and we shall feature it on the site.

Website-Updates

Hello All,

The website has had some work done to it in the last month or so, as there was a couple of technical problems which have now been solved.
Along with some new photographs and updates to the ships pages, you will find some more news on the Coaster "SPINEL" Ship No 244 and updates to HMS NITH and HMS NESS two of the "River Class Frigates" that were built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.
Some more photographs have been secured showing the old Irish Lightship "ALBATROSS" at her new berth on the river Medway in Kent.
A start has also been made on the pages about the "Bustler Class" recue/salvage tugs  built during the Second World War.
Pretty soon you will be able to read about the ex-warship built in Leith that ended up being a luxury liner.
You will find all this and more at the website of http://www.leithshipyards.com/  and a big thank you to all who have helped contribute to the site.
Remember any and all stories or photographs of the yard or ships will be most welcome, as we continue to grow the site.

ALBATROSS-Home to Roost!

ALBATROSS the Lightship that was yard No 30 which was built around 1924/5 has now been berthed at a marina on the River Medway, close to the Historic Chatham Royal Dockyards.
She now awaits conversion to be a floating Bed & Breakfast ship, thanks to Simon for the photograph of her under the watchful attached tugs, being towed into position on the Medway.

 ALBATROSS being towed to her berth on the Medway.
She is believed to be the oldest floating ship built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.

GALLIONS REACH

It is really amazing the interest that the old ships of the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb seem to generate, stories come in all the time that such and such a ship has been found rusting away, usually half sunk, and we now have some information on the Dredger GALLIONS REACH Ship No 229 which it seems is resting half sunk against a wharf in Greece, after being salvaged from her sinking in the River Tees in 1971, she must have been sold on to Greek owners for use around the coast as intended. Our thanks go to Pam for finding her and letting us know, along with supplying some photographs as well.


No doubt as in the life of most ships she became too expensive to upkeep and now she awaits her inevitable fate at the hands of the breakers, perhaps to be turned into razor blades or some other commodity, better this than the way she is now rusting away in the sun.

So along with the dredger WANGANUI it now looks like both ships await the burning torches of the ship breakers.

There are many more ships out there in the 4 corners of the world that we have still to track down and as long as there are people out there interested in ships then we shall find out what happened to most of them, and the story will be updated on the Leith Shipyards website as we go along.

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.