Glasgow shipbuilding: Historian calls for national museum to honour Clyde glory

At one point in the early 1900s, one fifth of all ships in the world were made on the River Clyde, with the shipyards that lined it also playing a vital role in the First and Second World War efforts.

Speaking to The Herald, he said: “It’s shameful that our country hasn’t done something to commemorate the fantastic achievement of shipyards and shipbuilding on the River Clyde.

“It’s a world-class story that deserves to be told.

“There are bits and pieces here and there – the Riverside Museum has some lovely models and items – but the industrial days of Clydeside were an amazing period in Scottish history. We should be capitalising on this.

“There are so many parts to the story – the John Brown yards, the building of the Queen Mary, the liners, the Royal Yacht Britannia, the QE2, they are all from Clydebank.

A ship launch at John Brown's in Clydebank. Photo credit: Herald Archive. (Image: Herald)

“It’s just an outstanding, brilliant story of achievement and engineering excellence.

“We are missing a trick by not celebrating this and saying, ‘This is what we can do; this is what we did once. We could do all this again in another field or in another way’.”

The author of several books, including Ships for All Nations: John Brown & Company Clydebank, 1847-1971 and A Shipyard at War: Unseen Photographs from John Brown’s, Clydebank 1914-1918, Mr Johnston is also a member of The Ship Yard Trust.

A charitable organisation, their mission is to advocate for an “iconic structure” to showcase and permanently acknowledge “the world class contribution that the River Clyde has made in the fields of shipbuilding and marine engineering”.

Last year, The Ship Yard Trust launched a consultation and public engagement into its ambitious project to design and build a venue.

It is hoped the building would rival the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Titanic in Belfast and the V&A in Dundee “and will both put the Clyde even more on the tourist map and provide much- needed employment in the local communities”.

Mr Johnston’s plea for a permanent memorial comes in the week of the 50th anniversary of the last ship to leave John Brown & Company in Clydebank.

On October 5, 1972, the MV Alisa, an 18,000-ton bulk cargo carrier, slid down the same slipway into the River Clyde as the iconic “Queens” liners, in a launch watched by just a handful of people – a far cry from the thousands who had lined the Clydeside to watch the launch of the QE2 just a few years earlier.

Asked if the anniversary was as timely a moment to raise the issue of a memorial to the shipyards, Mr Johnston responded: “I absolutely do.

Photo credit: Gordon Terris (Image: Herald)

“I think we should take every opportunity to remind people of our country, and I do mean Scotland but also the UK, just how good it was.

“We were world-beaters in this field. There were so many shipyards and, at its peak, there were around 40 on the Clyde employing around 100,000 people in shipbuilding and marine engineering. What have we got now – a couple of thousand and that’s it.”

Mr Johnston also believes that sufficient time has now passed for the achievements of the firms and the shipbuilders who worked on the Clydeside to be fully recognised.

He added: “My feeling is that it did end badly. Industries don’t die easily and this one, because it was such an emotional subject on Clydeside, left a bad taste.

“People saw that there was rancour and disputes and I think the city of Glasgow made the decision to tiptoe away from it.

“Now we are far enough away from all of that to look back with great pride and recognise the fantastic achievement that took place on this river.”