NEW FOR 2025
Ships built on the River Tay
Dundee has a long history of shipbuilding. The industry began with small wooden fishing boats, then elegant three-masted sailing ships, and continued until the arrival of steam engines and sturdy iron-built vessels. Among the shipyards active along Dundee’s riverside in the 19th and 20th centuries was the Dundee Shipbuilding Company (formerly Alexander Stephen & Sons) which built and launched RRS Discovery in 1901. At their height, the largest shipbuilders would employ many thousands of men and women, in multiple roles. This panel celebrates the craft of shipbuilding, and looks at the expansion of Dundee’s docks, the wartime experience of ships built in the city, life below deck, women’s role in the shipyards, and how the success of the shipbuilding industry relied on other local trades.
1. Forging a trade
Shipbuilding gave local people many opportunities to learn a trade – from estimators and engineers to benders, riveters and welders. The city’s largest shipbuilders were Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd which moved production to Dundee in 1842, Gourlay Brothers & Co Ltd which built iron ships between 1854 and 1908, and Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd (originally called W B Thompson and Co Ltd) which merged with Henry Robb of Leith in 1968 to become Robb Caledon Shipbuilders Ltd. During 107 years of operation in Dundee, the Caledon yards built a total of 509 ships, 20 barges and 32 launches, before closing their gates in 1981. Caledon was also commissioned to produce the steel box girders for the Tay Road Bridge and the ‘steel-plate’ houses still seen in the Craigiebank area of the city today.
2. ‘The Caledon Shipyard’ by Francis Rooney
Two verses of this poem, by shipyard worker Francis Rooney, describe the tough conditions of a life spent shipbuilding. The final verse of the poem laments the demise of the industry.
3. Ships at war
Several Dundee-built vessels were involved in military action. Launched in 1938, Glenearn was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1939 and was initially purposed as a fast store carrier. In 1940, Glenearn and her sister ship, Glengyle, were converted into infantry assault ships and fitted with landing craft. Within a few months, both ships were involved in the first ever Commando assault and joined Operation Demon, the evacuation of British and Imperial forces from Greece in 1941.
The following year, Glengyle, with naval escort, made a successful trip from Alexandria to Malta with much needed supplies of food, fuel and ammunition and was later involved in the ill-fated 1942 Dieppe landings and the Operation Torch Landings in Vichy. Meanwhile, Glenearn took the first assault force ashore on Sword Beach in the D-Day landings, and ran a ferry service for several weeks after, bringing in reinforcements and repatriating the wounded.
Forty years later, CS Iris – a cable ship built in Dundee in 1976 – served with the British fleet as a special service vessel during the Falklands War in 1982. During seven months of active service, CS Iris travelled over 45,000 miles and was involved in over 800 helicopter operations.
4. Kestrel Marine
Located at Prince Charles Wharf and, later, at the old Caledon shipyard site, Kestrel Marine was involved in building and maintaining offshore oil structures and associated engineering services for many years. The bird symbol on the workers’ jackets, stitched here in black and white, was very recognisable.
5. Women in the shipyards
During both World Wars, women were employed in the shipyards. Most had the hazardous job of being ‘Red Leaders’ which involved applying highly toxic red lead paint to the hulls of ships to protect them from rust, while working from tall scaffolding. Women took on other roles, too. Bella Keyzer worked as a wartime welder at Caledon and is believed to have loved her job at the yard. The UK’s first female marine engineer, Victoria Drummond (1894-1978) served her apprenticeship in Dundee and worked on many different ships across the world until she retired in 1962. Her military record was equally impressive: in August 1940, she singlehandedly manned the engine room of the Bonita during a sustained bombing raid and was awarded an MBE and Lloyds Medal for Bravery at Sea.
6. Ladies who launched
The launching of ships were big events and the task was usually carried out by local ladies of importance, or by women with links to the shipyard owners. In 1980, unusually, a ship called Koscierzyna was sent on her way by Mrs Regina Walentowska, a factory floor worker from Poland. Delighted to have been selected for such a prestigious duty, she jumped down from the podium and clamped her arms around the Caledon managing director of the time.
7. Below deck
To ensure a smooth build, meticulous plans were drawn up for every vessel, right down to the position of the pipework. Boilers, engines and utility pipes were arranged in the most practical and efficient way, with decks, storage and living accommodation located above.
8. Dockside development
Dundee’s seafront has changed dramatically over the years. The original harbour is thought to have been established in the 11th century, but the port was substantially expanded in the 19th century when civil engineer Thomas Telford designed improvement works in 1815. King William IV Dock opened in 1825, Earl Grey Dock in 1834, Camperdown Dock in 1865 and Victoria Dock and East Graving Dock in 1875. Just 20 years later, modern ships were becoming too large to fit in these shallow walled docks and so the Eastern Wharf was built. In the 20th century, land was reclaimed to enable the construction of the Tay Road Bridge in the 1960s. Earl Grey and King William IV Docks were filled in, but the other docks still exist: HMS Unicorn is berthed in Victoria Dock, and Camperdown Dock sits alongside – close to where the Caledon shipyard and, latterly, Kestrel Marine were once located.
9. Foundry work
Once an important part of Dundee’s industrial armoury, the city’s foundries produced a range of textile machinery, steam engines, boilers and locomotives. Foundries included Blackness, Wallace and Lawside, Victoria, Ward and Monifieth and prior to these, Dundee, Douglas and Lilybank. The latter was particularly important to the local shipbuilding industry but its distance from the port was a major disadvantage. When a 40-ton steam boiler had to be transported from Lilybank Foundry to Victoria Dock, the load was drawn by 20 powerful draught horses and, to counter the steep gradient, ropes were fastened to the rear of the boiler carriage and held by 200 men. A wagon followed behind with new manhole covers to replace those destroyed on route. The damage to the city’s roads came to a head when in 1901, transportation was arranged for the 51-ton engines and 85-ton boiler for SS Californian – the Dundee-built ship famous for being the vessel closest to Titanic when she hit the iceberg. Around £500 worth of damage was caused to roads and tramlines, and the weight of the starboard boiler punctured a water main on Arbroath Road and flooded local streets.
10. The Bummer
The Bummer – a very loud whistle or siren – signalled the start and end of workers’ shifts in the jute factories and shipyards in the city. At 5.18pm each working day, the bummer of the Caledon shipyard could be heard, and thousands of workers would spill out onto the nearby streets.
11. Ships built to explore
Nimrod was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing ship with an auxiliary steam engine, built by Alexander Stephen & Sons in 1866 and launched a year later. Originally designed as a whaler, she took Ernest Shackleton to Antarctica in 1908-1909 and, after the Nimrod Expedition, she returned to commercial service. Sadly, she was lost in the North Sea in 1919, along with 10 of her crew. The Terra Nova was also built in Dundee and was used in the British Antarctic Expedition from 1910-1913. This expedition allowed Captain Robert Falcon Scott to continue the work he began on an earlier expedition with RSS Discovery.
Information gratefully received from Mr John B. Reilly, last manager of Caledon shipyard, Mr Rob Struzyna, former employee of PO Marine, and Mr John Dein.