BENDEARG at Yokohama (Japan) for Shimizu (Japan)

BENALLIGIN left Rejang (Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia) for Hong Kong

1969 Advertisment by Westcott & Laurance Line for their cargo sailings linking Lebanon and London

1969 Advert by Ellerman & Bucknall of Cape Town serving Zambia, South & East Africa

BENSTAC left Moji (Japan) for Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

CLAN MACILWRAITH closes at Glasgow for receiving cargo for Red Sea and East African ports

Harbour Buys Ardrossan Dockyard

From: Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald dated Friday 10th April 1970

HARBOUR BUYS ARDROSSAN DOCKYARD

Confirmation of the sale of Ardrossan Dockyard to the Clyde Port Authority is contained in a statement issued yesterday (Thursday) by the owner of Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd., Mr A.D. Kelly.

Involved in the sale are the dry-dock and fitting-out basin, together with all the surrounding land. The deal took place last December to allow urgent development for the new Arran ferry to take place but has only now been publicly revealed.

A considerable sum of money was involved, although the amount has not been revealed.

Since the deal was completed the yard has been gradually running down and nearly all the former employees have now found other jobs.

The remaining assets of the company are to be disposed of by auction and are expected to realise a substantial amount.

Key Site

A company spokesman said that despite the sums of money involved reference to the company?s balance sheets over recent years would verify that the principal reasons for selling were not financial. He stated that for some year snow Mr Kelly had recognised that the site of the yard was a key one in the development of the deep-water facilities of the Clyde and when he was approached by the Clyde Port Authority concerning their proposed development at Ardrossan he resolved, after serious consideration, that it would be in the best interests of the Clyde and of the port of Ardrossan in particular to make the site available.

The deal is conditional upon the dry and wet docks being filled in and certain rights regarding ship repairing have been reserved to the Ardrossan Dockyard Co. Ltd.

Mr Kelly took over the dockyard some eight years ago when it was in danger of closing down and in the intervening years has succeeded in building it into a very profitable ship-repairing business which some two years ago acquired as its subsidiary company the much larger Liffey Dockyard in Dublin, which has also returned some very encouraging results in that time.

The Ardrossan company recently made a bid for the Ailsa Shipbuilding Co. Ltd at Troon and although this was not successful it is understood that Mr Kelly is interested in acquiring further ship-repairing interests either on the Clyde or elsewhere in the British Isles or abroad.

Scribe Tango

Harrison Line's MAGICIAN closes at Birkenhead for receiving cargo for West, South and East Africa

Safmarine's S A TRANSPORTER closes at Liverpool for receiving cargo for South and East Africa

Three Men - 150 Years At Irvine Dockyard

From: Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald dated Friday 9th January 1970

THREE MEN - 150 YEARS AT IRVINE DOCKYARD

Three employees of Ayrshire Metal Products Ltd., Irvine, with a total of 150 years service in the firm - Alexander Cowan, Andrew Aird and James McInnes were presented with cheques on Tuesday of last week to mark their retiral.

The cheques were handed over on behalf of the management by Mr James Miller the company secretary. Before handing over the cheques Mr Miller said that the retiral of the three colleagues each of whom had joined the company?s staff half a century ago, was a unique occasion.

They had joined the firm in the heyday of the shipbuilding establishment, he said.

Mr Aird, 14 Burnside Place, Irvine, joined the firm in 1918 as a tradesman?s boy. He became an apprentice shipwright about two years later and started serving his time on the day the very first trawler was launched from the dockyard.

MAINTENANCE

The outbreak of World War II found Mr Aird at Ardrossan Dockyard where he had to stay until the end of the war. After returning to Irvine he left for a short time to work at the Ailsa Dockyard, Troon, but returned to Ayrshire Metal Products in 1961 to work in the maintenance department until his retiral.

Mr Cowan, 38 Annick Road, Irvine, joined the firm in July, 1918, on the staff of the time office. In 1920 he started his apprenticeship as a shipwright.

During World War II Mr Cowan also worked at Ardrossan Dockyard. He returned to Irvine in 1945. In 1959 he was transferred to the fabrication department where he worked until his retiral.

HEAD OF TEAM

Mr McInnes started at the yard in November, 1920, as a caulker. He progressed so quickly in that field that he soon became head of a caulker team. In the shipbuilding days some of the tradesmen worked together as squads and were paid together and not as individuals, explained Mr Miller.

Mr McInnes had the distinction of being the first Captain of the firm?s golf club.

The thanks of the three men who received the cheques was expressed by Mr McInnes.

At the presentation Mr David McGeachie, convener of shop stewards, represented the workers who, earlier in the day, had made their own gifts to their retiring workmates.

Scribe Tango

Ben Line calendar showing locations of Bens ( = mountains) in Scotland

Weather message received from Portpatrick - lower cone

"Sierra Madra" due 1530, received Master, via Portpatrick