1960-03-04
N/A
29 min
Documentary about shipbuilding on the Clyde. In 1960, Glasgow and other towns and ports on the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland, were still one of the world's great centres of shipbuilding. The film gives an idea of the business of building a ship - the largest moving thing made by man - from the naval architects who design her to the workmen, the shipbuilders in the yard, through to a ship's launching.
A crane swings over a dockyard on Clydeside and a rousingly scored sequence illustrates some of the great ships that have been built and launched around the city of Glasgow over recent years. It was here that the famous "Cutty Sark" was built in the Victorian era. Cargo ships, warships, liners, tugs - you name it and their types have been made here since. The designers draw and calculate how the ship will function. It's almost as if it were a 3D jigsaw puzzle, based on the architect's paper-based template. Those designs are then tested in tanks that can simulate benign - and less - sea conditions. Next, the steel plates are prepared and mangled before the welding, bolting and construction begins. These industrial processes are demonstrated with riveting machines and rollers forcing the metal into it's curved and moulded shapes. The prefabrication sheds do most of the preparatory work building the sections - sometimes 30 tons - before they emerge to be assembled, piece by gigantic piece. Some gentle banter from the workers gives an indication of the tough work and community spirit that thrived amongst the skilled characters who worked the metal amidst a constant racket that would have driven most folk to distraction long since. The day of launch arrives and what was inanimate is given a final dab of paint and then the champagne and the screaming chains. "British Trust" is born but she has still to be fitted, plumbed, wired and given an engine. Finally, under her own power another recently constructed ship "Regent Eagle" is tugged into the open water. I wonder what ever happened to that?
