Dry Dock Days

"Clyde Built"used to be the ultimate accolade for a ship, it was an assurance of her design and build quality being at the very cutting edge of technology, sadly those days are consigned to history .

I remember as a small boy being taken to watch launches and being in awe of the beauty of these monsters as they slid inexorably into the waters of the Clyde, the noise of the drag chains and the rust dust clouds rising as chains struggled to slow the pace of the ship down the slip.

I remember too watching the sea of men swarm out of the gates of the yards when the hooter sounded, the traffic stopped as the heaving mass of humanity walked, ran and cycled out the gates, covered in the grime of a days toil. It seems such a romantic image to me now but listening to the stories of the old men I knew who worked there nothing could be further from the truth, but without exception they all spoke with such eloquence and pride about the ships "they" had built... the best ships in the world.

Here is the pump house at the head of Inchgreen dry dock, completed in 1965 to accommodate the largest of ships it is still one of the largest dry docks in the world, the model ship used in designing the dock was the Queen Mary. The dock is 1000 feet long, 145 feet wide and 50 feet deep. Like the ship building it has been redundant in recent years save for being used for filming television and movie scenes. I really liked the heavy winches the colours faded and paint flaking sad in may ways to see.

For the first time in 10 years it actually hosted a ship for repair and it was good to see, hopefully this will be a sign of things to come.