Feature: The Story of the Clyde Bank Shipyard
As giant shipyard crane is opened to the public, Shipping Times looks at the history of one of the world's most famous shipyards...

 

Part Four: The Queens
( continued from Part Three )

We have come now of course to that most infamous time. The building of the QUEEN MARY. So much has been written of her that it would be quite meaningless for me to repeat it all here, suffice to say the QUEEN MARY became one of the symbols of depression in Clydebank. Ordered in 1930 she laid on the stocks with no work being done on her from December 1931 until April 1934. Her massive hull a constant reminder of the lack of work up and down the river.

An extraordinary view of the QUEEN MARY in the fitting out basin after her launch. Picture supplied by Paul Strathdee who tells us that her hull was painted white so that she would show up in press photos (after all, we are talking Scottish weather!). Of note is the KING GEORGE V steamer beside her for the occasion. And the ship steaming up river behind her is the original QUEEN MARY, the Clyde turbine steamer who graciously altered her name by adding 'II' to allow the mighty liner her intended name. Incidentally, the story regarding how the MARY got her name (that  the King when told she would be named after the greatest queen ever responded that Mary would be delighted, when the Cunard man meant Victoria) is pure apocrypha!

Brown produced no ships after the EMPRESS until 1933 and '34 when they produced a handful of destroyers and minesweepers but the mid-thirties saw an upturn in fortunes, both at the yard and generally, and commercial vessels came off the slipways again. With work beginning again on QUEEN MARY the yard was swinging into action and more good news was on the way. A sister vessel was envisaged for the MARY and she would be the biggest passenger ship ever, being slightly larger than her sister at 83, 673 grt.

The QUEEN MARY was launched on 26th September 1934 and completed in 1936. When she left the yard millions gathered to watch her progress down the river and the pride had returned to the Clyde once more. The same would have been the same for the next great (and until recently) greatest Cunarder ever, the QUEEN ELIZABETH, but talk of war was on the horizons and by the time she was launched, 27th September 1938 it was clear that Europe was heading for a catastrophe.

Just less than a year later and war was declared on Germany. This was to be a different war from the battlefields and high seas fighting of WW1. Now war came to the doorsteps of the ordinary Briton and for Clydebank, it's proud shipyards were to be it's undoing. Like other shipbuilding areas, with their efforts going full pelt into building warships, they were prime targets for the Germans, looking to cripple Britain's potential at sea. The worst bombings occurred in Clydebank on two nights in March 1941 when what became known as the Clydebank Blitz brought terror and destruction on a scale never seen before or since in Scotland. The town was battered on these two nights and the many scars of that terrible assualt lived in the hearts, minds and indeed the very streets of the town ever since.

But the Germans did not succeed in their efforts to obliterate the shipyards themselves. John Brown and others produced a stream of destroyers, battleships, landing craft and other vessels to provide the Navy with the means to defeat Hitler at sea. Of the naval vessels Brown produced the mightiest was the DUKE OF YORK, a 745 feet long battleship of the KING GEORGE V class.

In this view supplied by Stuart Cameron the biggest ship in the British Merchant Navy thunders down the slipways at John Brown's. By contrast she was launched with a black hull, but unlike her sister who left the river nonetheless in fully livery, the ELIZABETH left the Clyde a wan looking grey ghost.

Because of the war the QUEEN ELIZABETH did not enjoy the attention of an adoring public, indeed, compared to the MARY she never really did, despite being a tad larger! Instead in March 1940 she slid secretly from the Clyde, still incomplete and without the benefit of trials and made her great, wartime grey painted journey from the Clyde across the Atlantic to the safety of New York. There meeting her sister the QUEEN MARY, the two giants of the seas later embarked on their careers as troopships, ferrying millions around the world and later the Atlantic itself.

A far cry from the roles Cunard had envisaged.

After the war Britain was hungry for new tonnage. Millions of tons of vessels had been either sent to the bottom or were worked out and on their last sea legs. A post war boom set in as the materials became available and rations lessened, by the fifties a second, and as far as commercial shipbuilding is concerned, last, Golden Age was on the Clyde and at John Brown's.

A ship deserving of special attention before we embark on the ' fifties was another Cunard vessel. In 1948 Cunard made an exciting foray into the cruise market with one of their most extraordinary departures from tradition. The 34,100 grt CARONIA, launched at Brown's by the young Princess Elizabeth in 1947, was a startling ship, The biggest passenger vessel since the war, she was designed primarily for the luxury cruise market - but what a shocker - although she had a handsome typical Cunard funnel (in fact one of the biggest, it was even bigger than those of the QUEEN ELIZABETH - so large it is said it often acted as a sail to the frustration of her navigators!) her hull was painted a rather sickly green! In an era still choked by wartime austerity however she was a breath of fresh air and she soon attracted a loyal and faithful following and earned the nickname "The Green Goddess"

In this coming period of seemingly endless possibilities and increasing wealth, some of the finest, and most handsome ships, were produced - ranging from channel ferries, to cargo ships, passenger liners, oil tankers and the odd destroyer or two! Although we left war behind, one of the greatest battleships was completed in 1946 at the yard, HMS VANGUARD. She cost £9 million pounds to build and was the last of her kind Britain would build.

Continue to Part Five: Post War Boom and Bust and A New Queen