Day 75
Shipbuilding at Leith
660 years of shipbuilding history squeezed into one post
Many from outside of Edinburgh/Leith areas are sometimes surprised to learn that shipbuilding had been a mainstay of industry and employment in the Port of Leith from the 14th century. This was some 400 years before they even thought about building ships on the Clyde, a pedigree of shipbuilding second to none in Scotland.
Trade Union Banner: Leith Shipwrights
Throughout that long time-span Leith was at the fore-front of many first’s including the first dry-dock and we have already seen that the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic was built at Leith (Day 47).
They even invented the game of golf as we know it today when the Leith Golfers got together to draw up the first real rules of the game (Day 18), Leith was a town always fought over throughout this time as well. On occasion Leith was controlled by the English then by the French (Day 62) always with the larger town of Edinburgh casting envious looks down at the port which by the 17th century had overtaken Bo’ness to become the main port in Scotland.
Over time the port became the main entrance for goods and people coming to Scotland from the south and from the near continent (Day 28). Edinburgh the larger city just a few miles to the south always looked on with envy.
As the port and its importance grew so would the shipbuilding in the port. In 1720 the first dry dock in Scotland was built at the western entrance to Leith harbour, then 10 years later a stone pier was built which extended the existing wooden pier by some 300ft. A small dock was also built on the west side of the river mouth.
Excavation of 19th century Old West (Queen’s) Dock
Excavated by AOC Archaeology as part of a development by Cala Homes, this important survivor of Leith’s maritime past was constructed towards the end of the Napoleonic War and incorporated large defensive artillery bastions. The remains of one of these bastions was uncovered along with two dry docks, constructed as part of its original design. The easternmost of the docks was extended over the bastion wall in the late 19th century, a period when the area to the north was reclaimed to form shipyards. Working with the developer the new foundations were successfully designed to preserve in-situ these important remains and to minimise any potential impacts.
As well as some larger shipyards that set up around this time, a great many smaller “Leith Smacks” would be built by numerous small boat builders, setting up on the Leith Sands with a small incline so they could launch their boats into the Forth. This was the times of the huge herring fleets which based themselves in all the small ports around the Forth and beyond. Once the builder had completed his boat, then launched her he would just move on to the next job.
1813 The first steamship to enter Leith ran excursions between Leith and Bo’ness.
1821 A regular steamship service starts from Leith to London.
1821 Inhabitants in Leith numbered 26.000.
1823 The last execution for piracy took place on Leith Sands.
Some of the main shipyards and builders were as follows:
Sime & Rankin’s who built sailing ships such as the frigate Fox , active in the Crimean War, and other warships and, in 1826, a large West Indiaman, the Arcturus. Their drydock built in 1720 was the oldest in Leith.
Morton and Co who were inventors of the patent slip for hauling up vessels for repair instead of placing them in drydock.
Lachlan Rose and Son, later to go on and also give us Roses Lime Juice.
Robert Mackenzie & Co
Anderson’s who in 1827 launched one of the largest wooden ships to be built in Leith up to that time, the Gladstones.
Menzies & Co who built the Sirius in 1837, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, arriving a few hours before the Great Western. In 1841 they also launched the Royal Mail ship Forth, the largest ship then built in Leith.
1885 Seamen’s hostel, now Hotel Malmaison (Day 33), opened.
1881 The inhabitants in Leith numbered 55.330.
1900 The whale ships from Leith harbour in South Georgia brought the first penguins to Edinburgh Zoo.
1920 Leith merges with Edinburgh. At the referendum Leithers voted 5:1 against the merger. Leading the opposition to the merger was Captain William Benn, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Leith and father of the Labour Minister, Tony Benn.
During the nineteenth century there had been many shipyards in the port, including:
Cran & Somerville and Hawthorns, both of whom converted and re-equipped many surrendered German merchant ships after the First World War. Hawthorns also built railway locomotives.
Ramage & Ferguson who were the major yard prior to Robb’s.
For most of the twentieth century Henry Robb Ltd, known locally as Robb’s, was the major, or latterly the only, shipbuilder in Leith. In the early nineteenth century Leith promised to be one of the great shipbuilding centres in the country but gradually lost way to the Clyde.
Mr Henry Robb senior started business in April 1918 in premises rented from James Currie & Co Ltd (later to become Currie Line). In about 1934, Robb’s took over Ramage's Victoria Shipyard, allowing their business to expand and it remained their main yard until the demise of the company.
Henry Robb Ltd, Shipbuilders & Engineers were ordered to close by the Government in 1984, thus ending some 660 years of recorded shipbuilding in the Port of Leith.
The Ferry ‘St Helen’ - the last ship to be built by Henry Robb’s Shipyard in 1983
For lots more on the shipbuilding history of Leith look out for the series produced by the author of this article R.O. Neish “Leith-Built Ships” series, with two in the series now published or about to be published look out for a further three to be published.