At one time every kind of ship was built on the Clyde, from Ocean going liners to pontoons for reassembly on tropical rivers. The larger yards turned their skills to a range of vessels, and in fact prided themselves in just that: that their engineers and shipbuilders could meet any customer’s specifications.

Aerial view of Scott's shipbuilding yard, Port Glasgow, Strathclyde 1940
© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland / Licensed via www.scran.ac.uk

The workforce of a shipyard was a hierarchy that ran from naval architects and engineers at the top, through a white collar team of draughtsmen and their apprentices, to the labourers at the bottom.

Newark Shipbuilding Yard, Port Glasgow 1903
© Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland / Licensed via www.scran.ac.uk

The work was long, hard (much of it out of doors in most weathers), heavy and dangerous. Wage rates compared well with other industries, but conceal much lower actual earnings because of broken time either for the industry, because of fluctuating trade or bad weather, or for the individual, because of bad health or injury.

Both the docks and the shipyards on the Clyde were very busy during the Second World War. It was thought to be a safer place than the ports in the south and east of Britain.

It turned out that the Clyde did not in fact suffer severe or prolonged bombing and was able to keep at work building and repairing ships. Most of these were naval ships, but one difference form the First World War was that merchant ships were under constant attack and had to be repaired and replaced.