The River Clyde

[Music] of dc rivers only the clyde has a great commercial destiny a little upland stream that flows first through moorland where human beings are few and the world belongs to black-faced sheep at the village called elven foot it begins to gather volume from tributaries and from there a growing gurgling stream it flows like a broadband of silver through pastoral country [Music] near lennock it tumbles into a valley that in spring is glorious with the blossom of fruit trees they're blown petals spangling the surface of the stream from that point on the river clyde is business-like flowing for miles through an industrial country of coal steel and iron mines rolling mills and foundries the sources of scotland's wealth so it comes at length to the nerve center of scottish commerce the city of glasgow a great city largely because it is a great port highly equipped with large and efficient harbors through this harbour their passes every year millions of tons of merchandise food raw materials necessities luxuries the open sea is some 22 miles below glasgow there the clyde that was a river becomes a first one of the world's grandest and safest natural harbors likewise the natural port for scotland and a good deal of northern england as well a lovely fern with sea mountains and islands making charming pictures at every turn these 22 miles between glasgow and the perth of clyde form a ship channel made and maintained by the hands and brains of men two hundred years ago the clyde at glasgow was a shallow stream eighteen inches at low tide the merchants of glasgow had to bring the sea to the doors of their warehouses so they deepened the river glasgow made the clyde they say and the clyde made glasgow it is now capable of taking the largest vessels afloat it was a battle against natural forces it is a battle still up and down the channel the treasures are always at work the iron lips of their buckets gouging out the silt and mud and sand the chain of buckets driven by a powerful engines tear at the bed of the channel lift the mud and sand by the ton and tip it down shoots into hopper barges tied alongside night and day they work those dredges keeping the channel clear for all the ships of the world there are special dredgers that fish for mud by means of grabs these are used in corners and narrow places where the bucket dredges can't operate [Music] all the suit taken up by dredgers of whatever kind is emptied into the hopper barges this material is carried in two compartments of the hopper barge she gets her load down to the deep water in the first it's a simple matter to open the sluices and let it out to sink simple but the safety of many lives depend on it and so back again for another load here is one of those many ships that come to glasgow each year a great ship from over the atlantic bound for glasgow she swings past the clock-like house and as she comes her siren calls for a pilot to guide her to harbor the pilot office is on gurukpeer there are 49 pilots on the clyde everyone the master mariner familiar with every eddy in the ship channel available at any hour of day or night to take charge of vessels out and in off guruk every vessel arriving is boarded by the man who will take her upstream off grinnock customs officers of the port doctor come on board to see that the crew and cargo meet the regulations and can be allowed to enter the navigable channel everything is in order and up the clyde she goes on she sails past grinnock with its steeples smokestacks and shipyards [Music] fort glasgow the comet the first practical steamship of europe was built there where the smoke lies heavy over industrial town the ship goes on with powerful tugboats attending on the north bank this time dumbarton rock robert napier the father of clyde shipbuilding was born there this is his first marine engine built for the luggage boat leaven it wore out three hulls before it was set up here as a monument next at dunglass are the first signs of overseas trade in the oil tankers moored here here are landed and stored millions of gallons of oil for every sort of commercial purpose on again and so the ship comes to bowling the entrance to the harbour of glasgow as the ship moves towards her dock she passes the shield hole and rent through lens rapidly being taken up by factories and other developments on the way up we pass the world's mightiest liner the queen elizabeth every line symbolizes speed dignity and grace a ship entering the harbour of glasgow is sent to a birth suitable for the handling of the sort of cargo she carries is it coal or iron then she enters the rothsi dock rothsay dock elaborately equipped for the handling of heavy cargos iron ore and scrap inwards coal thousands of tons of it upwards it was the first dog in the world to have a completely electrical equipment the railway trucks are there to take the stuff away to the steel works one and a half million tonnes of iron ore have been discharged here and four million tons of coal have been loaded in a single year the facilities of the lost sedan are continually being improved there are cranes of all sorts cranes with special grabs for seizing scrap and just as you would lift pebbles in your hand most of scotland's loaves pass through the meadowside grenade in the form of grain hundreds of thousands of tons of it every year it is a monumental building with its roof more than 150 feet above the ground it had to be built tall for its bins and floors can hold 55 000 tons of grain at a time a total that is turned over seven or eight times a year the most modern equipment handles the wheat and indian corn it is sucked out of the ship's hold as a vacuum cleaner sucks dirt out of a carpet it is carried underground along a series of conveyors moving fast regular avalanches of wheat and corn it is hoisted up to the top floor it moves along the conveyors again and finally it shoots off into its allotted bin after a journey of many hundreds of yards and how can they tell how much each bin contains they simply this is a granary thermometer and if the temperature rises above normal well they just run the grain out of the bottom of the bin take it for a run around the building on the conveyors and hoists and having cooled it off run it back and again at last is the grain being weighed and bagged as it goes out to the mills and bakeries thousands of pounds of steak reach the clyde in living form through the lyrics at merklands it comes from ireland and canada mainly the cattle can be stored in the ridge after that it is sold by weight in the auction ring a lively scene on busy days the work goes on night and day whether she carried iron ore scrap or foot that ship of us has unloaded now however before she goes out there is a small repair to see to every facility is provided for the use of shipping three highly equipped graving docks two of them nearly 600 feet in length the third number three nearly 900 feet in length and now our ship is high and dry and number three graving docks safely shored up glideside's black squad of ship repairers won't be long and getting her ready for the sea again here is how they fill the docks number three can be filled in an hour and a half but naturally it all depends on the size of the ship that repair job is finished now when the water inside is at the level of the water outside they open the gate and everybody gets ready to go taking away the shores and so on [Music] foreign after that the tugs do the rest and always there is passing up and down the river an endless stream of pleasure steamers with scots off for the day down the river with all its interest of shipping and ship building to the first and its beautiful surroundings here is the noon and there are scores of jolly places like it but we sail on with the music going and all the fun of the fair one of many happy days duned the water the work goes on glasgow must go back to business that ship of ours has to load for her outward voyage and now she lies in the shadow of the great crane of stop cross a monster driven by electricity capable of lifting a load of 175 tons at a time locomotives built in glasgow for india south africa egypt china anywhere a heavy load and a tricky cargo but they're like toys in the grip of the stompcross crane or is she carrying coal she certainly needs coal for her own boilers back to rothy dock see the trucks of coal run onto the cradle tip over and drop their loads into the hold is and now the blue pita flies the signal flag flown by a vessel about to put out to sea our ship has been brought in from the sea unloaded repaired loaded again cold and now she is ready to sail here's the patrol lunch with the deputy harbour master we've got to wait a little it's a launch one of the finest sites that can be seen on the clyde and maximum of responsibility in a minimum of time the launch of the ship canton the christening ceremony is performed by the honourable mysterious shaw fifteen thousand tons of steel to be slipped safely into the clyde within the space of a few seconds [Music] at last our ship is in mid-channel outward bound she passes through the forest of shipbuilding yards across the mouths of docks and basins along the frontage of miles of keys until the industrial nerve center that is glasgow gives place to open country and quiet fields she returns to the wide waters of the firm and so away to the ends of the world again [Music] you

Channel: Alex Glass

Views: 16,956

Keywords: Glasgow, River Clyde, Clyde, The Clyde

Id: CbRI-U_ie-Y

Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021