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The early shipbuilders were termed "Shipwrights" whose principal skill was woodworking. Subsequently, Scotland's main contribution to the Industrial Revolution was the building of steel hulled ships.
Shipbuilding in Scotland, and especially on the river Clyde, increased dramatically in the final decades of the 19th Century. The first four ships for the Cunard shipping line were all Clyde-built, for example, and by 1913, 18% of the world's ships were built there.
One reason for this trading success was the competitive rates offered by the shipbuilding firms due, in part, to the low wages paid to their employees. This was not the only problem the workers had to contend with. There were virtually no permanent jobs as employment was dependent on contracts to build specific ships.
During the First World War, the Admiralty took over the local shipyards due to the strategic requirement for both warships and merchant ships. The economic depression following the war hit Scotland's shipbuilders very badly because of the high level of over-capacity. At one stage in the 1930's two thirds of the shipbuilding work force was redundant.
Unfortunately, few archival records relating, for example, to employment, remain, either at national or regional level. There are however some excellent books, documents and photographs in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow relating to all aspects of the industry.
Place to
visit
Glasgow City Library and Archives
