Words by William Black
‘The Boatbuilder’ by Adam & Small (1878), Glasgow Museums
Situated some distance from the Clyde Maryhill may appear an unlikely situation for a shipbuilding yard but, during the 19th century it produced a significant number of vessels, both coastal and deep sea.
By May 1779 the Forth & Clyde canal had reached Stockingfield but further progress westwards had been suspended due to lack of funds. However, despite this, Robert McKell, the canal engineer, was instructed to obtain estimates for the construction of a graving dock at the western terminus. This did not proceed but, ten years later, with the canal again being driven towards the Clyde, it was revived. After crossing the Garscube Toll Rd, Maryhill Rd., the canal took a sharp turn west, then descend to cross the Kelvin. This left a short piece of land on the north side, on which the current engineer, Robert Whitworth, suggested the postponed dock could be built.
This was agreed and, by October 1789 it had been completed, access being via sluice gates on the north side of the circular basin between locks 22 and 23. The lock was 145 ft. (45 m.) long, 40 ft. (12 m.) wide at the top and 30 ft. (9 m.) at the bottom. Flooding the dock was through vertical sluices in the dock gates, while draining was by gravity, a sluice on the west side giving access to a tunnel which ran through to discharge into the basin below lock 22. As the normal lock chambers in the canal were 70 ft. (22 m.), this meant that two vessels could be handled simultaneously within the dock.
Initially the intention was that the dock would be used for repair and maintenance of craft operating on the canal and the first tenant was John Drysdale, from Carronshore. He was provided with a house but no salary, being expected to obtain his income from the charges made for working on boats, less the docking fee to be paid to the canal company. Although referred to as Gairbraid Dock initially, within six months it was renamed Kelvin Dock, the name it has retained since. Concentrating on completion of the canal the management failed to decide the docking fees properly and, after complaints about high prices, revised them in consultation with Drysdale and Nichol Baird, the canal surveyor.
The first vessel built at Kelvin Dock was a wooden icebreaker, which was completed by November 1790 and used to keep the waterway free during the winter. Drysdale struggled for most of his tenancy, being required to seek financial support from the canal management in 1795. Much of his work continued to be repairs and maintenance, although he did build one brigantine of 38 tons, named James and, in February 1800, Baird had his tenancy revoked. This action may not have been objective as the new tenants were his sons Hugh and Robert, already operating a small woodyard and foundry at Hamiltonhill. During Drysdale’s tenancy he did not have a monopoly on canal repair work but this was given to the Baird brothers. For which they paid an annual rent of £50. They did not operate the dock directly, employing a shipwright named Thomas Morrison to do so, who lived in the house vacated by Drysdale. This had an interesting clause in its lease, the occupants being required to provide ale ‘at any hour’ for persons transiting the canal. This building stood below the White House, close to the site occupied today by a bungalow.
Morrison built at least four vessels, while working for Baird, including Morning Star of 1813, one of the track boats that ferried passengers on a daily service from Glasgow to Port Downie, for transfer to coaches to journey on to Edinburgh. When Thomas died in 1816, his son John took over the management, before obtaining the tenancy a few years later. There no records of ships being built before Morrison indicated in 1836 that failing health would require him to retire. His place was taken by David Swan Jr, whose family had been operating a shipyard at Blackhill on the Monkland Canal since 1827 and the dock entered a new phase in its history.
Portrait of David Swan Jr
Swan was an ambitious man, who was to become the driving force in the creation of the burgh of Maryhill in 1856. His first new build was the cutter Cyclops, a cutter built for James McNair of Greenock, followed by a range of coastal schooners and by 1841 he was employing eleven carpenters, plus eight apprentices. West of the dock he established a timber yard, importing ready cut wood from Norway against opposition from other local merchants.
However, after a slow start, Swan’s timber business prospered and he diversified into the importation of ice, also from Scandinavia. When the dissenters of Maryhill were forced to leave the parish church in 1847, Swan offered the use of the covered sawpit as a temporary place of worship, leading to its being dubbed ‘Maryhill Cathedral.’
The Swan family had retained the use of the Blackhill yard but, increasingly, there was an interchange with Maryhill. The youngest brother, William had joined the timber business, although his inclination was towards engineering, while the other pair, John and Robert, concentrated on shipbuilding and David increased his involvement in the timber business. His son, also David, had moved to Australia and, when gold was discovered there, the elder David seized another opportunity. He built several schooners to his own account. Manned them locally, including several shipwrights, who wished to emigrate and, loaded with cargo, also purchased by Swan, set off for Melbourne. All of these vessels were no more than 66 ft. (20 m) long, yet travelled safely halfway round the world, before being sold, along with their cargo, on arrival. All of them continued to serve along the Australian coast for several years, a testament to the quality of Maryhill shipbuilding.
Following the introduction of the two younger brothers to the yard, construction of iron hulled vessels became the norm, including a lighter for the canal owners, named Thomas. Since Charlotte Dundas had sailed past Stockingfield in 1803 steam navigation on the canal had stuttered but, in 1857, it took a serious step forward. A simple steam engine, powering through a stern screw, was fitted to Thomas at Hamiltonhill and proved successful, so it was agreed to pursue the matter further. The Glasgow shipowner, William Sloan & Co received inducements to order three vessels from Kelvin Dock, designed to transport materials through the canal. The first of these was the Glasgow, launched in November 1857 and considered the first production version of the steam lighter, better known to everybody in the West of Scotland as the puffer.
Although the dock could handle vessels up to 150 ft. (46 m.,) the lock lengths limited hull lengths to 66 ft. (20 m.,) preventing the Swans to build the larger sea going and coastal vessels now becoming common. This was overcome by the simple expedient of constructing them in sections, then floating them down to Bowling, where they were joined together. This led to a witticism that suggested Kelvin Dock was building ships 9 miles long, their bows being in Maryhill and sterns in Bowling. In addition, it resulted in the publication of a little poem in the Dumbarton Herald of 18th August 1878, more McGonnigle than Burns:
Ships are built here of breadth of beam
To meet the merchant’s view
Seagoing ships for sails or steam
Down to Rob Roy canoes
Big ones are built Yankee style
A mile or so, as fits
And then (methinks I see you smile)
Cut off and launched in bits
To enable the building of more than two sections, an additional slipway was built on the opposite side of the basin, adjacent to the dock. Then the opportunity arose to obtain a better site than Bowling for the connection of the sections, the defunct shipyard of Morton, Wylde & Co at Dumbarton being obtained in 1871. Robert had died suddenly in 1860 but John and William continued under the original name, transferring construction of the larger vessels to Dumbarton after it was obtained. By now competition from larger yards on the Clyde was becoming more serious and, in 1874, Dumbarton was given up. At the same time others were entering the trade of puffer building, notably J & J Hay at Kirkintilloch and William Burrell and Son at Hamiltonhill, both former customers at Kelvin Dock.
August 1878 saw another first, with the simultaneous launch of two small steamers, Cartsburn & Cartsdyke. However, by this time the Swan connection was coming to an end, John retiring in the same year. A spelter works had been built on the west bank of the canal, opposite the yard, initially to provide fittings for the new vessels. It does not appear to have prospered for very long, although it was run by David Swan Jr., son of the founder of the business. Neither he nor William’s son, also David, appear to have taken any part in the shipyard and, when William retired in 1889, the direct family connection ceased. Andrew Marshall, William’s brother-in-law achieved control, retaining it until 1910, when it passed to Richard Munro Jr. & Co.
Kelvin Dock in 1943 by Francis Partick Martin, Glasgow Museums
During World War 1 the yard was taken into the control of the Inland Water Transport Department, being used mainly to convert scows to carry oil to Grangemouth. Post war, like most of the shipbuilding industry, Kelvin Dock suffered from lack of work, the last puffers being built there being the Kype and Logan of 1921. William McNichol had been the yard manager for many years, having succeeded his father, Charles in the post. Along with his brother, another Charles, who was a shipwright, they took over control of the yard in 1921, concentrating mainly on repair work. They built two steel hulled yachts and, produced a design for a two ton vessel in 1937, but nothing more came out of the yard at this period. With the return of war in 1939 the yard became involved in naval work and at some point, much of the dock was covered in, allowing work to continue through the night. By 1943 there were 200 men working at the yard, producing small landing craft, in preparation for the invasion of Europe. Post war the yard did not recover, being closed in 1939 and becoming a repository for various wrecks and derelicts until the canal closed in 1962. With the reopening of the canal the area round the dock has been refurbished and landscaped, the latter removing the last traces of the old slipways. New gates were erected at the mouth of the dock but, without sluices and the original drain sluice not having been reinstated, the dock cannot be brought into operation once more.
As well as Kelvin Dock, a second small shipyard operated for a brief period at Firhill, just east of the later site of Shaw & McInnes’ foundry and just inside the burgh boundary. This was opened by two shipwrights, Robert Ferguson and James McIntyre, in 1957, using a kidney shaped inlet on the north side of the timber basin, with an adjacent sawpit. They built four vessels before going out of business in 1867, the last being a composite hulled yawl Christina Ferguson, the only vessel of this hull construction completed on the canal. Today there is no visible trace of this short-lived venture.
The author of this essay is a retired training manager who carries out research into less well known areas of local history in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. As a Maryhill native he has a particular interest in the history of the area and, especially, that of the old police burgh up until 1891. These essays are taken from the research notes that have been drawn up over a period of years and are intended as an introduction which can be used by those seeking more information.
Maryhill Burgh Halls Trust want to thank William Black for his incredible support throughout the years, having shared all his in-depth research and snippets since the start of the Trust’s journey into the history of the Burgh. We are also very grateful for allowing us to post his wonderful essays to our blog. This is just one of many, there will be more to come.