This story appeared in the Greenock Telegraph Monday, 17th September, 2007

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=sport&id=14214

The river will never see her like again

GRACE AFLOAT: The great ship makes her way
up river past Greenock Esplanade in 1994.

BABES in prams will be reminded in later years their parents took them to Greenock waterfront to see one of the most magnificent ships ever built.

Family photographs will prove the youngster was there on Thursday, 20 September, 2007 when the Cunard liner QE2 made her second-last visit to the river of her birth. We will bid a final farewell when she calls here again in 2008 before heading to Dubai for a new life as a floating hotel.

There were tears when the liner was launched from John Brown’s Clydebank shipyard on 20 September, 1967.

The tears were not just an emotional reaction to witnessing such an impressive creation enter the waters of the Clyde. There was a realisation the river might never produce such a notable vessel again, although Lithgow’s of Port Glasgow was to build the VLCCs (very large crude carriers), which were made in two sections and then joined together. John Brown’s went on to make a number of considerably smaller ships before its final days solely as an oil rig constructor.

While storm clouds started gathering over the Clyde at the start of the 1960s, the shipbuilding industry remained a significant employer.

Sons still followed fathers into the yards, where they would likely work alongside cousins, uncles and former schoolmates. Daughters found employment in yard offices.

Shipbuilding was a family business, owned by generations of families and employing generations of families. For many Clydeside youngsters, it was inconceivable they would work anywhere else.

It was a hard industry. Despite the humour and camaradarie, accidents — fatal and otherwise — occurred when men were working in exposed conditions. Others paid the ultimate price for years of contact with asbestos used in ship construction.

Aside from her scale, grace and luxury, the QE2 reminds us of a different industrial Scotland. When she was launched 40 years ago, Scotland was prominent in manufacturing. We had steelworks supplying the yards and whose furnaces were fired by the Scottish coalfields. We made cars and trucks, and a multitude of other engineering enterprises thrived.

On the Lower Clyde, the big yards of Scotts’ and Lithgow’s plus the smaller Ferguson, Lamont and George Brown operations together employed many thousands. In addition, Kincaid’s made ships’ engines and Hastie’s produced marine steering gear. We also had our sugar refineries. All gone bar Ferguson’s.

Ships are still made on the river and we trust the Clyde-built tradition of excellence will never die.

It is appropriate Inverclyde plays host to the QE2 this week, as the first ship built for Samuel Cunard — the transatlantic paddle steamer RMS Britannia — was constructed by Robert Duncan of Greenock in 1840.

On Thursday, turn out to pay tribute to the QE2. After the Cunarder’s final visit next year, while other big liners will hopefully continue to call at Greenock, the river will never see her like again.