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The newshot Isle project

The economic events of the late 1950s and early 1960s precipitated a crisis of major proportions for British shipbuilding, hitherto one of this country's most important and prestigious industries. Severe competition from new and reconstructed economies in the Far East and Western Europe would terminally challenge outmoded management and labour relations in an industry which had led the world for a century. Although there would be no respite for British shipbuilders, the industry endeavoured to meet the challenge from abroad by embarking upon yard modernisation schemes, as if these alone were the panacea for righting the industry's deep‐seated problems. However, this agonising period was accompanied by the dramatic increase in the size of crude oil carriers, soon to be given the acronym VLCC (Very Large Crude Carriers), which added a twist of their own and give rise to the Newshot Isle Project.

These vessels, at that time approaching 250,000‐dwt, had prompted a number of foreign yards to construct large dry docks in which to build them. As dry docks appeared to be a highly efficient way to build such large vessels, several of the larger British shipyards pondered how they might reorganise their productive resources by constructing large dry docks within the physically restricted areas their yards occupied. For world renowned shipbuilders, John Brown & Co. Ltd of Clydebank, the extraordinary proposal was made, biblical in scale, to divert the River Clyde into a new channel and build three giant dry docks in the redundant riverbed. However, such a massive scheme would require public money, as the estimated £25 million it would consume was well beyond the means of beleaguered John Brown & Co. At the same time, the Labour Government of the day, alarmed at the crisis facing British shipbuilders, established a Committee of Inquiry to report in 1966 on restructuring and financing the industry in a hoped for return to profitability. This article looks at the imaginative but unfulfilled John Brown proposal, and charts its progress in the face of the Government's own proposals for shipbuilding on the River Clyde.