In this, our second episode dedicated to the remarkable maritime history of Scotland, we explore the fabulous shipbuilding heritage of Leith, the port just to the north of Edinburgh. To unpick this story Dr Sam Willis speaks with Ron Neish. Ron is a remarkable man with many man stories to tell. Born and bred in Leith he served his apprenticeship as a Ship Loftsman, in the Henry Robb Shipyard in Leith. When it closed in 1984 he worked all over the world but always retaining his love for ships and the sea and never forgetting where he came from. Ron has worked on more than 40 new build vessels, ranging from a 58 foot aluminium fishing boat to 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers. In the past few years Ron has dedicated himself to writing a history of the ships built in Leith, a testimony to the skill of the men who built the ships and to the many men and women who may have sailed or served on them. Leith had begun building ships some 400 years before the great shipyards of the Clyde and these Leith vessels reached all corners of the globe.  It’s a story of global economic change, industrial change, military endeavour, and disaster, wealth and poverty, innovation, and above all brutally hard work.

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