Cartsburn Drydock

This morning my car was in for a service, so after dropping it off at the VW dealers at Cappielow I walked back into town. It was a beautiful morning, and it was like taking a trip down memory lane.

In the 70s I was a Naval Architect at Scott's Shipyard at Cartsburn, which was the oldest shipbuilding company in the world. It was founded by John Scott who commenced shipbuilding at Greenock in 1711. The adjacent yard of R Steele was taken over in 1883 and became the Cartsburn Dockyard, which specialised in naval ships.

When I moved back to Scotland in 2001 I was saddened at the demolition of this great yard in the 1980s. What a missed opportunity by Inverclyde Council to create a maritime museum based around the heritage of this fascinating shipyard.

This morning when I passed the Cartsburn Drydock it brought back memories when we undertook submarine trials in this dock. It is ironic that this is all that remains of this great shipyard.

Definitely worth looking large.