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.

Leith Shipyards website

Just to say that there have been some technical difficulty's with the website at www.leithshipyards.com  which have now been fixed and we apologise for any inconvenience.
So many updates on the website it is well worth a few Min's of your time for a visit.

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)


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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.