LITTLE in the way of ceremony attended the launch of the last bulk-carrier from Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in March 1972.
The 26,000-ton Port Alberni City eased down the slipway from the Govan division of UCS. As the Glasgow Herald observed, the ship, which had built for the Cardiff-based ship-owning company, Sir William Reardon Smith and Sons, was the last bulk carrier due out of the yard as a UCS ship. Still to come were a dredger, for Brazil, and four vessels for a customer in Dublin.
USC’s fortunes had been exhaustively chronicled for many months, including the liquidation that had been declared the previous summer, the work-in, and the restructuring that had been announced in February 1972, with a new company, Govan Shipbuilders, being introduced as the successor to UCS in the Govan, Scotstoun and Linthouse yards.
On March 17, reporting the launch of the carrier, The Herald said that Govan Shipbuilders was currently assessing the general world situation for new orders.
“Although they are not yet in a position to complete any potential orders, the new company see it as essential to be in the best position possible to take advantage of enquiries once Govan Shipbuilders get officially ‘off the ground’,” the paper added.
As for the Port Alberni City, it was broken up in 2000.
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