Models used in Clyde shipbuilding

Comments

Glasgow Museums has a large and unique collection of models used in shipbuilding on the banks of the Clyde. The majority of the 676 models and model groups in the collection have a direct link to shipbuilding and they have been collected largely through a fruitful relationship between shipbuilders, shipowners and museum staff over the last one hundred and fifty years. There are models of ships built on every part of the Clyde, from the shallow waters of Rutherglen in the east to Troon, more than 50 miles downriver and south on the Firth of Clyde. All the main shipbuilding towns and burghs are represented, from the city of Glasgow itself to Govan, Partick, Whiteinch, Renfrew, Paisley, Clydebank, Dumbarton, Port Glasgow, Greenock, Ardrossan and Ayr. The comprehensiveness of this geographical representation is rivalled only by the historic scope of the collection, with models dating from the eighteenth century, through every decade of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the beginning of the twenty-first century. There are dozens of models from great shipbuilders such as the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. Ltd, William Denny & Brothers Ltd and John Brown & Co. Ltd, as well as models from the smallest, shortest lived and specialist shipyards. The ship model collection has been popular with the museum visitors since the 1870s and they have often been used to interpret the type or working life of the vessel they represent. In the twenty-first century, however, they are also to be interpreted as part of the shipbuilding industry which designed, built and displayed them. Our ship models can represent a single ship, a series of sister ships built to the same design, or a ship type rather than a particular vessel. Sometimes a vessel will be represented by both design and display models. Occasionally, models from the shipbuilding industry represent a ship that was planned but not built. Half-hull ship models were used by ship designers to represent in three dimensions the shape of the inner surface of the hull. When completed, they were used to present and refine designs during discussions with clients and were used to scale and measure parts of the ship as it was built. Specific models could be made to plan the plating of an iron or steel-hulled ship. Once the vessel was completed, the design model formed part of the company archive for replication, re-design or vessel repairs. Full-hull models, based on the shape of the design model and from drawn plans, were also produced. They were designed to show completed vessels in shipyard offices, boardrooms and models rooms and were also displayed at trade and industrial exhibitions. Additionally they were frequently requested, as part of the build contract, by the shipping companies, navies and individuals who purchased vessels from the shipyard. Display models were considered to be exact replicas of the ship in miniature, despite having many features, such bright silver or brass metalwork, which was never present on the real ship. Full-hull models were expensive items to create, display and maintain and represent a considerable investment by the shipyard. Having a high quality and engaging collection of ship models was considered important, however, and a suite of fine models was used to represent the work of the yard on the Clyde and around the world.

Broader term

Ship Models

Staff Contact

Emily Malcolm