Leith Built Ships

LIGAR BAY-New Photo's

2012-05-20T06:44:00.001-07:00

LIGAR BAY berthed at Queens Wharf Wellington New Zealand early 1970's

Thanks to Emmanual Mikarios who has sent in some fine photographs of the Cement Ship LIGAR BAY Ship No 488 a ship that he sailed on in New Zealand.
We have many more photographs to go onto the website at Leith Shipyards soon, and please keep sending in your photographs and stories about the ships built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb it is much appreciated and the visitors to the website and the Blog just keep growing so a big thank you to all.

WAVERLEY Ship No 196-Update

2012-05-19T15:13:00.002-07:00

The Cabin Cruiser WAVERLEY Ship No 196

Seen here at her berth on the River Trent

We are pleased to be able to say that we have managed to track down some details of yet another old ship built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.

She is the Cabin Cruiser WAVERLEY Ship No 196 her owners have been in touch with the Leith Shipyards website and have been kind enough to furnish us with some information on her and although launched in 1933 and now more than 85 years old she is still being well looked after and indeed still retains some of her original mahogany interiors, built to some of the highest craftsmanship around at the time she has stood the test of time. For more on the WAVERLEY

HMS HERALD-Updates

2012-04-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

The photo above is from a booklet kindly sent to me some time ago by the then Commanding Officer of HMS HERALD I. M. Bartholomew, Commander Royal Navy, on the occasion of HMS HERALD celebrating 21 years of service in the Royal Navy in 1995.

(If the Commander should see this would he be so good to contact the website at www.leithshipyards.com)

We now arrive at the ships built at the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon (Henry Robb) from around the late 1960's and into the 1970's with some fine and well known ships built in the yard at this time including Ship No 508 BRANSFIELD which was an Antarctic Survey Ship Ice strenghtend for work in the Antarctic in support of the British Antarctic Survey teams down there.

Also the launch of the biggest tug built in the U.K. at the time the mighty tug LLOYDSMAN Ship No 509

built for the famous United Towing Company of Hull.

Then onto a couple of Ro-Ro Container ships one of which tradically went down with the loss of one of her crew in the North Sea she was called the M.V.HERO Ship No 511

Then the next launch at the yard was the Oceanographic survey ship for the Royal Navy

HMS HERALD and some of her story is started below.

HMS HERALD was an order from the M.o.D. Navy for a Hydrographic Survey ship to be built at the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon.

She seemed to take forever to build and she was on the stocks for a couple of years, this was mainly due to changes that were forced on the yard by the navy team that was in attendance at the yard, no sooner would a deck level be complete and along would come the navy and insist that this deck or bulkhead would have to come out or be moved due to all the constantly changing gear that she was being fitted with.

as always just click on the highlighted words (Ship Names) to be taken to the website where you can read all about the ships built at the Leith Shipyards.

Leith Ships 1965 to 1970

2012-04-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Leithshipyards website is now getting into some of the later ships that launched from the yard of Henry Robb from the late 1960’s and onward through the turbulent times that were the 1970’s.

We feature such ships as the “S”Class ships for the Ellerman Wilson Group, the largest single order for ships received at the yard outside of World War II

The “S” Class ships were the SALERNO, SALMO, SORRENTO, SILVIO and SANGRO.

SORRENTO seen here in a photograph by Stuart Smith and shown here with permission.

There is also a large feature on the largest ship ever built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb she was called RFA ENGADINE a Helicopter Support ship built as a first for the Royal Navy.

The ice strengthened ship RRS BRANSFIELD is also featured this famous Red ship was the primary source of transport for expeditions to Antarctica for the Antarctic Survey Teams that braved the extreme conditions down there for up to 9 months at a time.

In what was another first for a Leith built ship she reached the furthest South that a ship had ever been able to achieve at the time and this was done on her maiden voyage down there we have some great photographs from her time down there from two men who spent time on her and at the station in Antarctica.

This photograph is from Ivan Stevenson who was in Antarctica with the BRANSFIELD and his photograph is reproduced here with his permission.

ENGADINE on a visit to Glasgow from a photograph taken by Paul (Fairfield)

And shown here with his permission.

April 2012-Titanic 100 years on.

2012-04-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

A model of the RMS TITANIC

Perhaps you may be aware of the fact that it is 100 years ago this month that the Titanic set out on her fateful maiden voyage and terrible as this event was it made me think about a similar disaster at sea which happened only 8 years prior to the Titanic going down and it involved as a proportion just as large a loss of life with even more women and children involved.

The ship was called the NORGE and she was on her way around the North of Scotland with a full cargo of poor immigrants looking for a new life in the new world of North America. (The Edinburgh Evening News recently done a story on her as well)

Image is from the http://www.norwayheritage.com/ website. The NORGE

Click through the link where you can find out more about this sinking.

The ship was a converted livestock carrier carrying mostly Scandinavian’s but no famous or wealthy people on this vessel. She was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Glasgow in 1891.

She foundered on the Isle of Rockall and it was entirely the Captains fault as he did not believe there were any rocks in the area. The sinking was not even reported for a few days and made the newspapers for a small time, there was as I have said a very large loss of life and in particular many women and children. Almost 600 passengers and 45 crew perished.

But the bit that really got to me about this story was the fact that after the disaster and lose of life the chairman (J.B.Ismay) of the White Star Line (Titanic owners) was to send to the owners of the Norge a telegraph to commiserate them on the loss of the ship one ship owner to another with no mention at all made of the huge loss of life. This was from the same chairman who 8 years later would be on the fateful Titanic and who would end up pushing women and children out of the way to get onto one of the few lifeboats on the Titanic.

So perhaps it is time we took off the rose tinted classes when we look back on this terrible event and be glad that some good did come out of it, such as making watertight bulkheads run right up to the underside of the main decks, and providing many more lifeboats for passengers along with the wireless act which required every ship to carry two wireless operators so that one would always be listening for distress calls..

It is an interesting topic with the sudden spate of “Cruise Line passenger ships” involved in sinking or collisions and makes one wonder what it is going to take before the owners and designers realise that some of those huge floating hotels are an accident waiting to happen which may make the Titanic disaster pail.

Picture above of the recent Costa Concordia sinking in which there was also loss of life

(Picture from the guardian newspaper)

I happen to think that the owners should be looking at double skinning the ships hulls at least to a height of around 2m above the water line.

I am sure the owners and designers would whinge about cost and loss of internal area etc, (make the area usable for water ballast, pipes and systems with the area also filled with a foam plastic to aid buoyancy etc) and stability questions etc, but this could be done and help to make the floating glass and steel boxes a little bit safer to take to the sea in. Sure it would make the build a bit more expensive but would create more work for shipyard workers and I also happen to think that while great strides have been taken in the design of Lifeboats more needs to be done into how the Lifeboats get into the water from a heavily listing ship.

As always you will find a whole lot more about ships at the website and in particular about the ships built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.

http://www.leithshipyards.com/

ULUNDI Scanned Data

2012-03-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

ULUNDI Ship No 78

Leica Scanned Data,

We are amazed to be able to show you the actual scanned data from the old Leith built ship the tug ULUNDI built in 1927 at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.

The ship was scanned by Brad Wakefield in Durban South Africa using Leica scanning equipment.

This gives a 3D all round picture of the ship as she is and surely is the way forward for the preservation of all old vessels as steel and wood will not last forever no matter how well the ship was built, but perhaps cyberspace as they call it will be around for as long as we can imagine.

For all you model makers out there this can give you so much information which would be unavailable to you without actually going out to measure the ship.

We will have the link to this info available to you very soon so you can see one of the oldest ships still left that was built at Leith for yourself.

Our thanks to Brad at Leica Geo-systems in South Africa for giving us access to this info and for taking the time to scan the ship for future posterity.

HMS NESS -in pictures

2012-03-10T01:53:00.000-08:00

HMS NESS

A truly amazing record of this fine ship and her crew from 1943 until wars end in August 1945 a remarkable journey through the camera lens of Philip Forrest if a picture is worth a thousand words then this collection is worth many thousands of words.

We are very pleased to be able to bring you this collection of photographs taken by Leading Signalman (Telegraphist) Phil Forrest during his wartime service on the “River Class” Frigate HMS NESS Ship No 326 built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb and launched 30th July 1942.

This collection of photographs has never been published before and are excusive to www.leithshipyards.com you will find the collection on HMS NESS here.

HMS WARDEN

2012-03-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

HMS WARDEN seen here at Malta

The Leith Shipyards website is happy to say that we have some exclusive stories from some of the men who served on Leith built Ships during World War II and after.
The first is from Tony and tells of his time when in charge of a Z-Craft they were towed across the Med from Cyprus to Egypt during the planned invasion of the Suez Canal.
You can read his story on the website.

HMS WINDRUSH-UPDATE

2012-02-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

French Fire Fighters training on the ex HMS WINDRUSH

We also have a lot of new information on the River Class Frigate HMS WINDRUSH from one of the fire instructors who trained firemen in the process of fire fighting on board a ship.

For more see the website

More on ANNABELLA

2012-02-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

One of the owners of the motor vessel ANNABELLA has been in touch with the Leithshipyards.com website and has provided a great insight into some of her history which included some very secret wartime work running "Ball Bearings" across the North Sea, they were of course crucial to the wartime effort and very scarce.
This and more can be found on the website

The New Zealand Cement Ships

2012-02-12T14:53:00.000-08:00

The JOHN WILSON at Dawn out of the water in Nelson Aug 1983

New Zealand Cement Ships

We now have a lot of information on the three self discharghing cement ships built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb for New Zealand.

Thanks to Tony Skilton who sailed on them all for many years in the engine room.

GOLDEN BAY CEMENT - Incidental bits & pieces

3/55 MV Golden Bay (first 1) arrived in Wellington built by Henry Robb in Leith, Scotland for Portland Cement Ltd

This ship was also a good performer when empty - i.e., launched officers out of their bunks quite often.

Cement machinery broke down a lot. British Polar 2 stroke engines were beautifully quiet.

Unique 9 tonne electro-magnetic propulsion coupling/alternators (1 on each shaft) didn’t work to well when aft peak bulkhead collapsed off North Cape in 1975 and half-flooded the engine room & couplings.

1956 Wanganui depot commissioned

Head Office = Conference Chambers Building, Farish St, Wellington

1960 DEV John Wilson built by Henry Robb’s Leith, Scotland for Wilson’s Cement, Auckland. Vessel was propelled by three Bellis & Morcombe 5 cylinder diesel engines (designed in 1920’s as stationary power house steam engines, but unfortunately, someone had the idea of modifying them to burn and leak oil). These engines each drove a 600vdc propul- sion gen’r & a 220vdc tandem gen’r for ships load demands. The three propulsion gen’rs powered a single propeller shaft fitted with a double- ended motor (ie, 2 motors in tandem on the one shaft). Many was the time we would line up for the bar at Raglan with three engines running and only one was still alive when we berthed - No. 2 would often destroy the governor, whilst they all dropped valves on a regular basis, or fired bits of piston ring out via the BBC turbochargers. After 45,000 hours the crank- pins were getting up to .007” ovality and keeping bearings & oil pressure within safe limits was getting harder, the entablatures were all cracked and held together with strongbacks across the top & side bolts down to the bedplates. But a very comfortable seaboat!!

1964 DEV Ligar Bay built by Henry Robb’s, Leith, for Golden Bay Cement. Propelled by 2 English Electric 8RK engines driving dc generators and two prop shafts - engines are early versions of Golden Bay’s 12RK3CM Rustons, but much lower rated. Regularly threw timing chains. Engines totally rebuilt in 1976 after crankshafts damaged by electric eddy currents welding bearing shells to the crankpins. Like MV Golden Bay, is not a very comfortable seaboat in ballast - one Friday night about 1975 we rolled so fast & violently in the Terawhiti Rip off Karori that the top 12 feet was catapulted off the fore mast and never seen (or replaced) again. The ship was originally designed to be about 35 feet longer than the finished article. This resulted in a very blunt bow and a ship that slammed it’s bow down harder and more often than the dunny door in a southerly gale.

2012

2012-01-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all
2012 promises to be a very good year if you are a shipbuilder, so keep checking back to see the latest news

KATHARINE MITCHELL-UPDATE

2011-12-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

KATHARINE II renamed KATHARINE MITCHELL

Yet more of the history of this fine old vessel continues to unfold with the latest story from one of her old Captains, telling of a life at sea in this old converted ex-Army ship doing the dangerous work of transporting explosives across the North Sea (Although you would never think it to read the Skipper and the Mate's stories)
Also updates on the last of the "River Class" Frigates built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb. HMS WYE and HMS LOCH ACHANALT renamed as HMNZS PUKAKI
Just click on the highlighted text to be taken right to the story.

H.M.S.TYPHOON-Update

2011-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

HMS TYPHOON Ship No 460
for the updated story on this fine old Ocean going tug, that also played her part in the Falklands war visit her page at the Leith Shipyards website.

ABEILLE NO 8-Update

2011-11-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

ABEILLE NO8 seen here on a tow (right) with the tug Abeille No22 towing a floating dock in 1939

ABEILLE NO8 Ship No 226

This order from the famous French towing company Comp.De Remarquage & De Salivatage, was built to help the two new "Cunard Queens" manoeuvre in the port of La Harve before they took of on there trans Atlantic voyages.

Built and launched in 1936 only three years before World War II was to start, once the port had been over run by the Blitzkrieg of the German advance into France in 1940 this modern powerful tug was taken over as a war prize by the Germans and used by them in the war against the British, but 2 years to the day that she was commissioned into the German navy she was sunk by Allied war planes who bombed the port and any shipping in the port.

It would seem from photographs that I have received that she may have been salved after the end of the war and she went back to work. For more on ABEILLE No8 visit the Leith Shipyards website.
Now seems that she was not so lucky and she was indeed destroyed by bombs.

Should you know different then please get in touch with the website and we will bring her history right up to date

TENNYSON-Update

2011-11-06T07:17:00.000-08:00

Builders Plate Ship No 449

The plate above is from the M.V.TENNYSON launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb 1956

More at the website about this ship and lots of other updates on the ships built at Leith and more.

Update-THE MILLER

2011-11-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

Ship No 194 THE MILLER is an old coaster which is thought to be a preserved ship so is she still around?

Seen here at Fowley, England in this photo from 2007 (Photo by Alan Faulkner)
Does anyone out there know if she is still around as the old ship looks pretty good in the photo above, she was launched from the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb in 1932 so is getting on for 80 years.
This little coaster is a little bit like the more well known Clyde "Puffers" that were/are around from the same time, for more on THE MILLER go to the website by clicking on the highlighted name.

M.V.SANDPIPER-Update

2011-10-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2011-10-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-04T03:30:00.000-07:00

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)

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 hereat 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

2011-07-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

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.

ALBATROSS-Home to Roost!

2011-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

ALBATROSS the Lightship that was yard No 30 which was built around 1924/5 has now been berthed at a marina on the River Medway, close to the Historic Chatham Royal Dockyards.
She now awaits conversion to be a floating Bed & Breakfast ship, thanks to Simon for the photograph of her under the watchful attached tugs, being towed into position on the Medway.

ALBATROSS being towed to her berth on the Medway.
She is believed to be the oldest floating ship built in the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb.