STAND UP FOR UKRAINE

The title says it all, if you can spare a contribution then please do so.

Hibernian family rallies round Dnipro Kids – HSF | Hanlon Stevenson Foundation

Wooden Shipbuilding

 

I love this picture showing the build of a wooden ship in Bellingham, Washington State sometime in 1916.

The foreman stands on the supporting timbers over the ships keel, hands in pockets, somethings never change.

Fight or Flight

 In this ever dangerous world, sometimes you may just wish to sit down and read a good book, if you have a love for ships or the sea with a historical twist then the Davy Stuart series of Historical Maritime books is for you. Starting with the first book, 

Fight or Flight

  “It’s either black or white. There’s no in-between for Davy Stuart.”

 Fight or Flight is an historical adventure novel with a maritime bias; the first in a trilogy.

 Leith, Scotland, 1880. Davy Stuart is an apprentice shipwright down in the docks. He’s from the poorest of the tenements and it’s a tough existence. Davy spends his free time drinking and day-dreaming with his pals.

He then wakes up wounded on a ship, told he has to flee from home, his family and Scotland.

He is like a rudderless ship stumbling from one fight to another, is his best friend really a friend or his worst enemy.

Davy travels on going from adventure to battle, never really knowing who he really is, his encounter with Voodoo leaves him even more confused.

His adventure take him half way around the world, then he lands in post Civil war America, in the South with his Black Friend. He owes his life to Sol.

As he continues his quest to find the woman he intends to marry, things are never how they seem.

Available on Amazon in paperback or kindle.

QE2 under the Forth Rail Bridge

This is a very though provoking photo from a wee while back when the beautiful Queen Elizabeth II, Cunard Liner used to call in at the Firth of Forth, anchoring just off South Queensferry. Her passengers would shipped ashore ,to be whisked off to Edinburgh, so they could spend their tourist money in Auld Reekie.

Leith-Built Ships, Vol-III

 

Very pleased to be able to announce the 3^rd book in the series on the ships built at Leith, Scotland.

For anyone un-aware Leith is the port for the Capital City of Scotland, Edinburgh.

 This Volume-III covers the time from the end of World War Two, into the middle of the 1960’s and the shipyard was a busy place with many fleets having to restock their depleted fleets that had been destroyed with great loss of life during the war.

Ellerman/Wilson Line along with many more ships for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, were big customers of the Leith yard, at a time of great change in the shipyards as they transitioned their construction methods to reduce riveting while the use of electric welding increased dramatically. This also had many social and demarcation aspects for the men working in shipbuilding, this book pays homage to both the ships built at the time and to the men who built them.

The following Advanced Information sheet is released from the publishers, who expect the book to be available in June, 2022.

Steaming into 2022

 As we steam full ahead into 2022, we would like to wish all a very Happy New Year for 2022.

SS Teano built at Leith for the Ellerman Wilson Line she was launched in February 1955

She was part of a large order for the shipyard of Henry Robb. nice mid sized cargo vessels with a passenger load of 12 all in very nice accommodations as the ships voyaged to Scandinavia or to the Mediterranean.

SS Teano is just one of the many ships you will be able to read about in the next book on the

 Ships Built at Leith-Volume-III

Look out for news on this release soon, so keep checking back.

 

Bustler Class Rescue Tugs: In War & Peace

 Hi all I am very pleased to bring you news about the latest book, now available to pre-order from the publishers 

Bustler Class Rescue Tugs: In War & Peace

A brand-new book to help bring to attention the part played by the 8 Bustler Class Rescue Tugs built at the Henry Robb Shipyard during the 2^nd World War. This book it is hoped will shed some more light on a part of this countries mariners almost forgotten. The men and women who were rescued under the most trying of times not to mention weather that would scare the gods, would I am sure give great cheers to the brave souls who formed part of the huge maritime effort both in war and peacetime.

This then is the story of the small force of much needed rescue tugs that were built in wartime conditions during the dark forbidding days of World War Two, when Great Britain had only the ships and men to bring in the raw materials required to fight on against the might of Nazi Germany and its Allies.

This is the compelling story of a small but very significant part of work done over many years by His and Her Majesty’s Rescue Tugs in defence of the realm, and to the benefit of seafarers all over the world. Ron Neish’s very detailed account of the contribution made by HMRT in general, and the Bustler Class in particular, is an excellent read, and has brought to life the immense impact that these rescue tugs have had over many years usually in dire circumstances, most especially during the Second World War. For instance, who would have thought of mentioning the rescue tugs in accounts of the many convoys that crossed the seas and were attacked by hostile forces.

This account is a fine example, helping to raise the profile of the magnificence of these small but immensely powerful and dedicated vessels, and of course their highly skilled crews without whom these heroic achievements would not have been possible.      

 #Bustler Class, #Tugs, #Rescue Ships, #WW2Maritime History, #Ships built at Leith, #Leith Shipyards, #New Book, #RFAShips

- Whittles Publishing