By Kirsty Gilchrist

Have you ever wondered how shipbuilding companies could take photographs of large ships as they were being built?

Before drones made aerial photography easy and accessible, shipyard workers would have to climb to the top of cranes and be swung over ships to take progress photographs for ship owners. This was used as proof of the contract being met.

This role was very dangerous and mostly occurred prior to the introduction of Health & Safety regulations in workplaces.

Ship Progress Photography

Below are some progress photos from the Scottish Maritime Museum collection:

Crane Climbing

One of our volunteers, Craig Osborne, spoke about his experience of taking ship progress photographs in an oral history interview. Craig described his time doing this job when he worked at Charles Connell and Company in Scotstoun:

…you had to climb the cranes every month…the modern cranes weren’t too bad, eh, cause, wasn’t a number of pigeons on them, and the ladder ways were easier – the old cranes eh were something else and so, eh, you climb up vertical rung ladders, right up to the top and then ye climbed intae, eh, above the cabin where the guy operated it from – they were 5 tonne, 5 or 10 tonne cranes – and so you were swung out over the berth and ye walked along a couple of wooden planks and there was a single handrail, and as ye walked along these wooden planks the jib of the crane bounced as you walked along you see. So I did that for a couple of years…

This short extract is taken from the transcript of a longer interview with Craig where he discussed his career as a ship draughtsman. For more information about our Oral History archive, please get in touch with the collections team.

Sources

Photographs (all ©Scottish Maritime Museum):

1998-061(128) Fairfield – Elevated view of ship assembly, showing the internal structure (transverse sections). taken from adjacent crane.

1998-061(158) Fairfield – H.M.S. ‘Fife’ ready for launch

2014-009(015) Crane damage to MV ‘Risdon’ in Alexander Stephen & Son’s yard

2021-015(6) Connell Shipyard crane construction

2026-036(083) ‘Uskbridge’ (1959) (presumed) under construction in Ailsa shipyard, Troon

Oral History Quote:

2026-088 Craig Osborne Oral History 20260917, ©Scottish Maritime Museum