Looking upwards

My husband's grown-up niece is visiting from the States, so we went on a family jaunt with her little cousins to The Riverside Museum in Glasgow.

I'd never been on the Tall Ship Glenlee before. Since 2011, she has been berthed at The Riverside Museum.

This shows part of the main mast, which is as high as 10 double-dockers placed on top of one another (apparently!)

The Glenlee is now the only large Clyde-built sailing ship still afloat in the UK.

She's been called various names in her day; the Islamount, Clarastella, Galatea and back to The Glenlee.

The entry fee of £5 has now been waived so we all piled on - all eight of us; four kids and four adults.

It was absolutely fascinating to see inside this had-working old ship, which pre Panama Canal, braved the notorious Cape Horn 15 times.

We discovered its maiden voyage in 1896/7 took it from Port Glasgow round Cape Horn to Portland on the western seaboard of the States.

Ironically, that's where Maddy, our niece, is now living.

I was also struck - given the work I'm doing with Absent Voices, a group of artists telling the creative story of Greenock's sugar industry, by the ship's connections to sugar.

Not only was the Glenlee built in the Bay Yard in Port Glasgow, she brought cargo-loads of raw sugar from far and wide, back to Inverclyde many times.

In the guide book, there's also a picture of a stained glass window in Ardgowan Hospice in Greenock depicting Anderson Rodger, the man who built the good ship, Glenlee.