Scotland's Great Ships

The Scots have a great tradition of shipbuilding going back thousands of years, from the Celtic birlinn to the Cutty Sark to Her Majesty's Royal Yacht Britannia. During the 19th and the mid 20th centuries the Clyde became the greatest shipbuilding centre in the world, producing over 30,000 ships in 150 years and pioneering huge advances in marine engineering, among which are counted the construction of the world's first commercial steamship and the first thousand-foot liner.

This book tells the tale of some of our most iconic ships, and in doing so captures the bustling world of the shipyards, the adventurous voyages of the exploration vessels and the race of sailing ships across the seas in the cut-throat business of the international tea trade.