Fascinating true stories of Dundee shipbuilding come alive

DUNDEE’S shipbuilding legacy is known to a great many people, young and old, across the city.

But they may not know that some of the city’s ships were record-breakers, life-savers and even gold transporters during the British Empire’s peak.

Dr Andrew Jeffrey, a local maritime historian with decades of expertise, is hosting a talk, “Breakers Ahead!...Hard a’ Starboard!” that will explore the stories behind some of the city’s most celebrated ships — as well as lesser-known vessels.

Many of these ships are immortalised in intricate model form at The McManus, collected over the years by the museum’s curators — and it is these that Dr Jeffrey will bring to life in his talk at The McManus Collections Unit.

He hopes that his tales will give visitors to the museum a new perspective on the ships, the people who built them and those who sailed in them.

He said: “The models are wonderful — but what makes them amazing is the real ships they are based on, the real people who built them, the passengers who sailed on them and the events they were caught up in.”

Among the ships featured in the talk will be the elegant P&O Liners built by the Gourlay Brothers that carried passengers across Britain from Dundee.

Under their decks, they also carried vast amounts of gold bullion — the “lifeblood” of the British Empire, Dr Jeffrey explained.

And the liners are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dundee’s hidden maritime past.

Dr Jeffrey said: “There’s the Tay excursion steamer that dumped hundreds of drunken Dundonians at Newburgh, and the six-month survival epic on an Antarctic island.

“And the HMS Perth — the DP&L ship — that has a direct link to Lawrence of Arabia and fought in both world wars. She saved the lives of 435 Allied sailors and airmen.

“It had all guns firing, was dodging U-boats — a wolfpack of U-boats, 10 of them — and that was at a time when the ship was sailing into North Atlantic gales.

“All of the ships on display have extraordinary histories. Every one of them. These ships have sailed to the four corners of the globe.

“It’s a wonderful educational resource we have here in Dundee and we need to make the best of it.”

One of the other ships forming part of his talk is a Dundee clipper that carried hundreds of emigrants to a new life in New Zealand.

Even now, it holds the record for

Left, two of the model boats which are part of the collection, and Dr Jeffrey at The McManus.