Collection: Scottish Maritime Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Scottish Maritime Museum was established in 1983. Our collections, however, have a much longer history, and include artefacts and archives which represent a major part of museum collecting in shipbuilding and marine engineering in Scotland.

  Our museums have contributed notable collections, either through transfer of title or long-term loan, while other important items have been gifted or purchased from the collections of specialist societies and private collectors.

  Our own collecting, begun by the strong base of knowledgeable enthusiasts who made up the West of Scotland Boat Museum Association, has successfully gathered a wide range of material in the disciplines of technology and economic and social history. Our collections fall into seven main areas.

  • Vessels
  • Marine engines & ship fittings, dock & harbour equipment
  • Shipbuilding machinery and tools
  • Archives and Photographs
  • Personal and Miscellaneous items
  • Library
  • Buildings

  The Scottish Maritime Museum is now recognised as the principal repository for material relating to Scottish maritime history and in particular shipbuilding and marine engineering. While comparable collections – with different objectives – are held by National Museums of Scotland, the Scottish Fisheries Museum and by North Lanarkshire Council at Summerlee Museum of Industrial Life, Coatbridge, our collections represent a very important aspect of Scottish history that is not handled as a specialism by any other body.

  Vessels

  We have 41 vessels in our collection, covering most types of maritime activity – work boats, leisure craft, river and ocean-going vessels and naval, fishing and lifesaving craft. All are either Scottish built and represent vessels relevant to the study of Scotland’s ship and boat building industry; or if not Scottish built are representative of Scottish maritime activity or have historically significant provenance within Scotland.

  Five of our vessels are included in the National Historic Ships list and are regarded as highly significant.

  Designated list:

  • MV Kyles Steam Cargo Coaster, 1872. Iron hulled coaster, later converted to diesel. Oldest of type afloat.
  • SY Carola Steam Yacht, 1898. Unconverted, oldest of type afloat.
  • MV Spartan Puffer, 1942. Converted to Diesel, one of two of type surviving.

  One vessel is listed but not currently designated:

  • MV Garnock Harbour Tug, 1956. A good example of small shipyard work, and is both riveted and welded.

  Five other small vessels, not eligible for the Historic Ships Register because of their size, are of similar importance.

  • Lady Guilford 12 oar galley leisure boat, 1819. A rare survivor representing 18thC methods.
  • Vagrant Racing yacht, 1884. Designed by William Fife III, oldest classified racing yacht.
  • Venus Shetland Fourareen, 1898. Built in traditional style from driftwood, converted to yacht and sailed across the Atlantic in 1960s. Last Foula built Shetland model boat in existence.
  • Katie Miniature “Zulu” fishing skiff c1935. Once common traditional design, now less than 10 surviving.
  • Dodo Sailing Dinghy, 1897. Very early example of dinghy type, innovative design and noted family association.

  Recently acquired and not yet listed or designated:

  • Powerful William Fife III designed and built yacht from 1900, one of only around 50 surviving seaworthy Fife yachts.

  Marine Engines, Ship Fittings and Equipment

  We have a good collection of marine engines ranging from the earliest developments on the Clyde to the last commercial examples (SS Chipchase, 1953). Related items include boilers of the “Scotch” and vertical boiler types, as well as associated valves, piping etc. Internal combustion engines are also well represented and though we do not have any examples of very large marine engines, the scale of these is represented by a set of casting patterns for the engines of the QE2.

  Several of our vessels also contain good examples of engine types – SY Carola (1898 Ross and Duncan twin expansion steam engine) and MV Kyles (c1945 Gardner Diesel 6L3) and Spartan (c1959 DSII Scania diesel). The engines in Spartan and Kyles are maintained in full working condition. Carola requires a new boiler to operate under steam power.

  Ship fittings are represented in a very wide collection, which ranges from pumps and steering machinery to ornate deckhouses and cabin fittings, from sails and rigging to silver plate and crested table settings. We also have a small, but important, collection of optical equipment, such as military range finders, manufactured by the Glasgow firm of Barr and Stroud.

  The collection also includes several very large items of dock and harbour machinery.

  Shipbuilding Machinery and Tools

  The closure of five Scottish shipbuilding & ship maintenance yards within three years of the establishment of the Scottish Maritime Museum resulted in a fine collection of well documented and well maintained manufacturing machinery.

  From the premises of AF Craig & Co, Henry Robb of Leith and Clydeport’s Renfrew Works we have obtained large machine tools covering most of the metal working processes in the 19th/20th C yard – planing, drilling, boring, shaping, cutting and joining, while from the Fife’s of Fairlie yard we obtained a very fine collection of specialist boatbuilding and woodworking tools.  These core collections have been augmented over the years with blacksmithing, forging, sailmaking and rigging tools, as well as by a unique collection of specialist equipment associated with hydrodynamics testing at the Denny ship model experiment tank at Dumbarton.

  We have a small collection of drawing and measuring instruments and a collection of around 100 ship plating and framing models.

  Archive and Photographs

  The archive collections fall into three main categories. Business archive material is dominated by the business and technical records of the Denny ship model test tank at Dumbarton, which covers the period from its establishment in 1883 to its closure in 1984. Associated with this are a collection of record photographs & photographic and archive material from the Thornycroft Tank at Bembridge. We also have a number of smaller business archives including those of William Fife & Sons of Fairlie and Irvine Dockyard.

  The remainder of the archive group consists of personal material – work papers and indentures, memoirs, passenger diaries, trades union material and letters, and shipping line material – promotional booklets, posters, timetables, tickets, and bills.

  Our photographic collection is small but wide ranging, consisting mainly of the donated collections of private individuals, supplemented with photographic references which have accompanied archive and object donations and documentary photographs recording the position and function of large acquisitions and general recording and fieldwork photographs. A significant collection is that of Robert Paterson, showing Clyde shipping from the mid-1800s to the end of the Second World War.

  Art

  From 2013 to 2019 the Scottish Maritime Museum was recipient of a Heritage Lottery Fund “Collecting Cultures” grant to acquire Scottish maritime art. Previously the Art collection was extremely small and of limited importance, but since the conclusion of the project has added an excellent core collection of some 80 works of paintings, sculpture, and photography.

  Library

  We have in excess of 4500 volumes and 500+ annual volumes and bound periodicals. This operates as a broad ranging specialist library with the dominant subjects being Scottish maritime history, naval and company histories, campaign histories and technical works on shipbuilding and seamanship. The stock is mostly recent or published in the last 75 years. The Denny Tank archive holds a quantity of published material which may have value for other research purposes, but which will remain at Dumbarton as part of the collection there.

  It should be noted that the library does not fall into the same category of collection as the other collection categories. Library items are catalogued in a Dewey decimal system, and do not require accessioning or deaccessioning in the same way as the museum collections.

  Buildings

  The Scottish Maritime Museum’s collections are housed in two historic buildings and are themselves included in the list of collection items. The grade ‘A’ listed Linthouse building in Irvine originally stood in the Linthouse shipbuilding yard of Alexander Stephen and Sons Ltd, Glasgow. The Linthouse Engine Shop was originally built in 1872 and is an early example of a cast-iron-framed engineering works of a type that became standard for almost 30 years. The building passed into the hands of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders group in the 1960s before going into liquidation in 1976. The building was dismantled in the Linthouse yard in 1988, but the Engine Shop was saved after the new owner donated it to the Museum. It was re-built in Irvine in 1991 with its original stanchions and timbers, although replacement bricks were used.

  The Denny Ship Model Experiment Tank was built in 1882. It is one of the last reminders of the shipyard of the innovative and famous company William Denny and Brothers. The tank was built to evaluate ship hull designs and retains many original features including a water tank, which was used for testing models of hulls and propellers to see how their full-sized equivalents would behave.

  At both sites, the Category ‘A’ listed buildings are themselves significant and the Museum continues to preserve and maintain these buildings.

  Personal and Miscellaneous

  We have a small collection of personal items, costume (mercantile and naval uniforms, yachting and leisure wear, protective clothing), trophies and awards, medals and commemorative items and sailors’ charity items.  The Museum has only recently had the facilities to store and display an art collection, so our collection of prints and paintings is very small, however in future we would like to increase this area of our collection.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC