On the south side of the River Clyde, opposite Clydebank, a fascinating and unusual site, with the remains of multiple vessels, visible at low tide, has attracted intense archaeological interest and investigation but it is not until recently that the histories and the vessels lying there have been clarified and, at least some of the identities of the vessels them selves revealed.
Newshot Ship Graveyard in foreground
The site, now known as the Newshot Ship Graveyard, lies in a position centred around 55.9003 N, 04.42068 W extending over an area of around 3 hectares and contains the remains of numerous vessels of various designs and sizes. There are remains of 48 rectangular flat bottomed wooden punts, four wooden sailing vessels and one metal barge recorded and probably more that are buried deep in the mud an silt that have not been examined. The stories of why they are there and when they were deposited at the site are also numerous and varied but a report published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology in 2018 provides the best summary of the site, the vessels and their stories to date.
The main genre of vessels are the remains of the dredging fleet operating on the Clyde in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The history of the river as a navigable channel began in the 18th century and progressively the channel was widened and made deeper allowing larger and larger vessel to reach the docks in the City of Glasgow itself and to allow the development of the word famous Clyde shipbuilding industry on both banks of the upper river. The construction of multiple groynes (man made rock outcrops) on either side of the channel substantially increased the rate of flow of the river acting as a natural dredging force keeping the channel navigable at all states of the tide. Despite this inventive solution to the problem of silt accumulation in the channel, a large dredging fleet of small vessels was also required to maintain the channel into the early to mid 20th century. In 1867 the Clyde Navigation Trust established a dredging plant at Dalmuir (opposite side of the river from the Newshot site) and it appears that
progressively over time the flat bottomed wooden punts used to collect the dredgings and transport them to the banks of the river were abandoned at Newshot as their working lives concluded. This accounts for the 48 punts identified at the site.
Remains of wooden punts during excavations
The second, more interesting, vessel examined at the site is the remains of a diving bell barge that was towed to and from the excavation sites presumably allowing underwater examination of problematic sites where the dredgers were struggling the clear the channel. The remains of the vessel, which measure 15.25 metres x 6 metres, have been identified a vessel ordered from the yard of A and J Inglis and Co Ltd in 1852 which
was retired from service in 1931 and apparently dumped at Newshot in 1933.
Diving bell barge in operation
Remains of diving bell barge at Newshot The final group of vessels were more intriguing as they appeared to be sailing vessels, three had been recorded as schooners, and therefore unlikely to be associated with the dredging activity but they too have ended up sitting on the muddy seabed at Newshot.
Remains of diving bell barge at Newshot
The final group of vessels were more intriguing as they appeared to be sailing vessels, three had been recorded as schooners, and therefore unlikely to be associated with the dredging activity but they too have ended up sitting on the muddy seabed at Newshot.
Schooner wreck at Newshot
These vessels had been reported in the National Monuments Record to be abandoned following a ‘wartime bombing incident in one of Glasgow’s docks.’ However, more detailed research revealed that the vessel had been at the site since at least 1937 and therefore could not have been abandoned due to wartime activity in Second World War and there are no recorded attacks on Glasgow Docks in World War One. A new explanation was required. Researchers later revealed the story of a major fire at the Kingston Dock in 1914 which had seriously damaged the dock itself and caused the loss of four schooners – Warsash of Dumfries, Navigator of Portsmouth , Edith and JTS of Barrow. None of the vessels at Newshot have been positively identified but it is almost certain that the four schooner wrecks are these four vessels.
Kingston Dock 1914 after fire – schooner wreck in foreground
