SMS Derfflinger: The upside-down battlecruiser broken up at Faslane

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MANY FAMOUS vessels were broken up at Faslane during the 36 years of Shipbreaking Industries.

Many of its employees came from all over the world, as well as quite a few from Garelochhead.

Local historian and Helensburgh Heritage Trust director Alistair McIntyre has researched the story of the yard, and I am grateful to him for much of what follows.

Some 70 employees lived in Scottish Special Housing Association properties in the village and were classed as key workers.

Other employees came from Helensburgh, Cardross, the Vale of Leven and Dumbarton, with a few from as far afield as Glasgow. Up to two buses provided daily transport to and from Faslane.

Work that carried a risk to life

The work at the yard was not only demanding, but was also dirty, extremely hazardous, and often involved working in unpleasant and cramped conditions.

There could be - and were - injuries and deaths from falls, structural collapses, fires, and explosions.

In 1952, a worker was killed while using an oxy-acetylene burner’s torch. Dr Birnie attended. As well as being the GP at Garelochhead, he was also the factory doctor for the yard.

READ MORE: Eye on Millig: The ships and the people behind Faslane's 36 years as a breaker's yard

In 1962, Thomas Scott from Helensburgh died in a fall from a ladder. In 1964, two Polish workers, Les Swadzba from Dumbarton and Slavko Harchuck from Lennoxbank Hostel, were killed by an explosion in a fuel tank on board one ship, the ‘Australia Star’.

As well as ships, railway engines and carriages were also demolished at the yard. And in January 1964, Robert Curley from Alexandria, an acetylene burner, lost his life when a railway carriage chassis collapsed on him.

There were more insidious dangers too, some not fully appreciated at the time.

The process of demolition often produced noxious fumes. Red lead was commonly used to protect metal surfaces from corrosion, and as the basic steel demolition tool was the oxy-acetylene burner’s torch, the heat could produce fumes laced with lead.

In 1951, the Loch Lomond Angling Improvement Association pointed the finger at the yard for the adverse effect on salmon and sea trout fisheries caused by pollution and disturbance.

In 1957, there were complaints from the public about the burning of oil from hulks, and the resulting fumes.

The use of asbestos in ships was widespread, and with the closure of the yard and the onset of preparatory work for the Trident project, large areas of land were found to be heavily contaminated. This necessitated extremely expensive on-site treatment.

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'A fine, hard-working set of men'

As well as industrial workers, other people were employed on a whole range of duties. The scale and complexity of the operation meant there was a special requirement for a sound management and administrative infrastructure, and Belmore House was used for this purpose.

One of the staff was Mrs Margaret Edwards, born McLachlan, of the well-known family of bakers and businessmen.

She said: “During the war, I was in the Wrens, the Women’s Royal Navy Service. I served on merchant ships such as the New Amsterdam, but felt we never received the same recognition as our colleagues in the Royal Navy, although exposed to at least the same dangers.

“However, I did at least know something about ships. The war over, I joined Metal Industries — and in 1947 married my boss, Mr Edwards. I remember the foreign workers, Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, etc., as a fine, hard-working set of men.”

The initial emphasis at the yard was on recovery and demolition of any remaining warships at Scapa Flow in Orkney.

The first vessel earmarked for delivery to Faslane was the battleship HMS Iron Duke, once the flagship of Admiral Jellicoe, and a veteran of the Battle of Jutland.

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After the Great War, she did see some active service, but thereafter fell on hard times, and was laid up at Scapa Flow. During the Second World War, she was attacked by enemy aircraft, and had to be beached.

The task now was to tow her to Faslane. She arrived there in 1946, but for some reason was not broken up, and lay for two years before being re-sold to a Glasgow yard, where she did meet her end.

The upside-down ship

The next ship to be taken to Faslane, and the last one from Scapa Flow, was the Derfflinger. Ironically, like the Iron Duke, she was a veteran of the Battle of Jutland.

She was towed to Faslane, still upside-down. A metal hut, bolted to her underside, housed a team of men whose task was to monitor the stability of the ship, and pump compressed air into the hull as necessary. This tricky journey took six days.

Once in the Gareloch, Derfflinger was transferred to a large floating dock, weighing 32,000 tons, which had been at Rosneath for the previous few years and was sold to a Dutch firm in 1948.

On the ship were large amounts of coal, stocked up in anticipation of major action at sea.

In 1948, the battleships Malaya and Resolution, and the battlecruiser Renown, arrived at Faslane. Each had a story to tell.

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Renown had once collided with the mighty Hood, and she had carried Winston Churchill to various conferences. Malaya was in action at Jutland in 1916, and she survived a U-boat attack in 1941.

Resolution was a huge warship weighing in at 33,500 tons. A fire broke out while she was being demolished, but this was brought under control. The same year brought in the P&O liner Mooltan.

More than warships

The yearly profit for the Metal Industries Group in 1948 was £291,874, and for the year before, £294,898.

Vessels other than warships soon arrived as well. In February 1950, the grandest vessel ever to enter the Gareloch, the Clyde-built Aquitania, made her final journey.

The last of the mammoth four-funnelled ocean liners, she had beem used in both World Wars as a troop carrier.

Not only could huge ships like this transport large numbers of soldiers, their speed also meant they could outpace most hostile vessels.

Her arrival sparked a great deal of attention from media and public alike, with the shores of Rhu Narrows packed with spectators.

These large vessels could take up to 18 months to demolish, yielding around 20,000 tons of high-grade steel.

The yard was contracted to supply the steel to the British Iron and Steel Corporation. Most ended up at the Motherwell steel mills, but some was also sent to Sheffield.

There were also quantities of valuable non-ferrous metal.

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A less obvious market lay in the large amounts of the finest quality furniture and fittings carried by passenger ships. Sales were held aboard before demolition, but these were restricted to trade dealers.

However, items not sold off were taken ashore, and made available for purchase by the public in a large warehouse and saleroom.

It was something of an Aladdin’s Cave, with items ranging from small furniture and fittings to large marine pumps and dynamos, and attracted many local customers.

The final days of a Clyde favourite

The year before the arrival of the Aquitania, a very different vessel was sold to the shipbreakers, the much-loved Clyde paddle steamer Lucy Ashton.

One of the North British Railway’s Clyde fleet, she was held in great affection on two counts: not only was she a veteran, having served local piers from early in the 20th century, but she was also notable for her crew, who were often real ‘characters’.

Shortly before her arrival at Faslane, the Lucy Ashton celebrated her diamond jubilee, and was undoubtedly the oldest vessel to be broken up at Faslane.

Lucy was not scrapped immediately, and she had a form of rejuvenation — her superstructure removed, she was fitted with four huge Rolls-Royce jet engines, and she spent the best part of 1950-51 roaring up and down the Clyde. The noise was deafening.

For those on board, the vibrations were almost unbearable. But the tests, carried out on behalf of the British Ship Research Association and centred on hull resistance, were deemed of great value.

In a real sense, the Lucy continued to do good work right until the end.

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The new man in charge

Thomas McKenzie, the yard's managing director, died in 1954. His successor was Max Wilkinson, who had joined Metal Industries in 1929, and, as manager of the yards at Rosyth and Charlestown, had overseen the breakup of many vessels, including the Mauretania.

He subsequently had spells working for Carbide Industries and British Oxygen, before rejoining M.I. in 1953.

The year after arriving at Faslane, he commented that some 600,000 tons of ships were being broken up annually at British yards, underlining the healthy state of shipbreaking nationally at that time.

This was also an era of expansion at Metal Industries, and in 1952, they took over the Hughes-Bolckow shipbreaking yard at Blyth in Northumberland.

Later, Max served as a member, and then chairman, of Helensburgh District Council.

Many aircraft carriers ended their days at Faslane. Among the first was HMS Indomitable, which arrived in 1955.

The name was certainly appropriate: she had seen action in a number of theatres during the Second World War, and variously survived massive bombs being dropped on her, a torpedo attack, and even being hit by a kamikaze aircraft.

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Post-war, she became the flagship of the Home Fleet, before being placed in reserve in 1953.

Three years later the carrier Illustrious, which had taken a prominent part in battles in the Mediterranean in 1941-42 arrived.

Plenty of business for the breakers' yards

Another carrier which arrived in 1956 was Indefatigable, but her fate shows that by no means all redundant vessels that came there automatically ended up at Faslane.

In her case, she was broken up at Arnott and Young’s yard at Dalmuir, the site of the former great Beardmore ship and aircraft building firm.

The aircraft carrier Perseus was towed from the Gareloch to Smith and Houston’s shipbreaking yard at Port Glasgow.

Yet another carrier, Karen, was moved in 1948 for breaking up at Cairnryan. In a similar way, the battleship King George V, which had lain in the Gareloch from 1949, was taken in 1958 to Arnott and Young’s yard.

There was no shortage of breaker's yards, nor a lack of business. Competitive bidding led to the different destinations.

King George V was one of three battleships moored in a line in the Gareloch, the others being Anson and Duke of York.

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Anson had been there since 1952. Completed in 1942, she escorted Arctic convoys, and provided cover for aircraft which successfully crippled the enormous battleship Tirpitz, anchored in a Norwegian fjord.

She was berthed at Faslane for breaking-up in December 1957.

‘Duke of York’ had been in the Gareloch since 1951, and she was scrapped in 1958-59.

At some 33,000 tons, large vessels like these could, as with Aquitania, take up to 18 months to reduce to scrap.

Duke of York was the lead vessel in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst at the Battle of North Cape in 1943.

The role of Scharnhorst was to support Tirpitz in menacing Arctic convoys, so putting an end to her had been a vital achievement.

To be continued...

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